I teach AP English Lang and Writing Lab for partially proficient writers at Cherokee Trail High School. I am curious about how technology and literacy are interconnected.
"Freedom Writers" is about the power of writing in the lives of ordinary people. That's a lesson everyone needs. ~A good lesson for all to remember. I guess I need to go home and start writing for my children.
The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. E-mails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u. And the physical isolation they and other arms-length cyber-advances create makes talking to yourself more important than ever. That's also what writing is: not just a legacy, but therapy.
I chose this section because it talks about how today's young person corresponds (texting and cell phones), but talks about how important it is for ourselves to be able to write (for therapy).
"Writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals."
This quote struck me as extremely powerful. Writing is not a tool to become famous or important, but it allows us know ourselves better as individuals.
"Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals."
I think this is so true, but can't writing be used in a negative way as well, such as was the case in Columbine?
"Words on paper confer a kind of immortality. Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost? Shouldn't all of us leave a bit of that behind?"
I chose this passage because I just recently lost a young, healthy colleague to a tragic accident. I wonder what he would have written to his wife and son?
"the kids who called themselves Freedom Writers wrote in those composition books: to make sense of themselves." Her summary was profound. Why don't we as a society give our kids those opportunities? Why are our schools so poorly funded to open up the opportunities?
"Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost?"
Do you have anything from a relative who's gone? Maybe one you never even knew. That written link may be all you know of them, so shouldn't you be leaving one behind as your legacy?
"Think of all those people inside the World Trade Center saying goodbye by phone. If only, in the blizzard of paper that followed the collapse of the buildings, a letter had fallen from the sky for every family member and friend, something to hold on to, something to read and reread. "
Because everyone is mortal, it is nice to leave something behind. One of my most prized possessions is an audio interview my sister did with my grandmother for a school project on the great depression.
"The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. E-mails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u." This quote reminded me that I even use text messages as a way to stay emotionally connected with my family.
"Sorry, diary, I was going to try not to do it tonight, but the little baggy of white powder is calling my name."
ReplyDeleteWas the fastest to copy and paste
"Freedom Writers" is about the power of writing in the lives of ordinary people. That's a lesson everyone needs.
ReplyDelete~A good lesson for all to remember. I guess I need to go home and start writing for my children.
And then one day, she gives them all marbled composition books and the assignment to write their lives, ungraded, unjudged, and the world breaks open.
ReplyDeleteParallelism-Life ungraded and unjudged
The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. E-mails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u. And the physical isolation they and other arms-length cyber-advances create makes talking to yourself more important than ever. That's also what writing is: not just a legacy, but therapy.
ReplyDeleteI chose this section because it talks about how today's young person corresponds (texting and cell phones), but talks about how important it is for ourselves to be able to write (for therapy).
"Writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals."
ReplyDeleteThis quote struck me as extremely powerful. Writing is not a tool to become famous or important, but it allows us know ourselves better as individuals.
embraced a concept that has been lost in modern life: writing can make pain tolerable, confusion clearer and the self stronger.
ReplyDeleteWriting makes us think,because without thinking writing does not happen.
Writing then could help a human process events in life.
"Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals."
ReplyDeleteI think this is so true, but can't writing be used in a negative way as well, such as was the case in Columbine?
That's also what writing is: not just a legacy, but therapy. As the novelist Don DeLillo once said, "Writing is a form of personal freedom.
ReplyDeleteI selected this passage because students need to recognize the value of writing in their lives.
"Words on paper confer a kind of immortality. Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost? Shouldn't all of us leave a bit of that behind?"
ReplyDeleteI chose this passage because I just recently lost a young, healthy colleague to a tragic accident. I wonder what he would have written to his wife and son?
"the kids who called themselves Freedom Writers wrote in those composition books: to make sense of themselves." Her summary was profound. Why don't we as a society give our kids those opportunities? Why are our schools so poorly funded to open up the opportunities?
ReplyDelete"Wouldn't all of us love to have a journal, a memoir, a letter, from those we have loved and lost?"
ReplyDeleteDo you have anything from a relative who's gone? Maybe one you never even knew. That written link may be all you know of them, so shouldn't you be leaving one behind as your legacy?
"Think of all those people inside the World Trade Center saying goodbye by phone. If only, in the blizzard of paper that followed the collapse of the buildings, a letter had fallen from the sky for every family member and friend, something to hold on to, something to read and reread. "
ReplyDeleteBecause everyone is mortal, it is nice to leave something behind. One of my most prized possessions is an audio interview my sister did with my grandmother for a school project on the great depression.
"The age of technology has both revived the use of writing and provided ever more reasons for its spiritual solace. E-mails are letters, after all, more lasting than phone calls, even if many of them r 2 cursory 4 u."
ReplyDeleteThis quote reminded me that I even use text messages as a way to stay emotionally connected with my family.