Quotes from Erin Gruwell

Schools are not equal. There are still the haves and the have-nots.

Some teachers feel that if they ask for emotional help, they're a failure. But teaching is a team sport.

Silence ensures that history repeats itself.

I am a teacher born and bred, and I believe in the advocacy of teachers. It's a calling. We want our students to feel impassioned and empowered.

I was going to show my kids that no matter what happened with their parents, parole officers and other teachers, I wouldn't give up on them. I let them know it matters to me that you come to class, it matters to me that you try, it matters to me when you succeed.

Don't let the actions of a few determine the way you feel about an entire group. Remember, not all German's were Nazis.

Evil prevails when good people do nothing.

It would be easy to become a victim of our circumstances and continue feeling sad, scared or angry; or instead, we could choose to deal with injustice humanely and break the chains of negative thoughts and energies, and not let ourselves sink into it.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you tell kids they're stupid--directly or indirectly--sooner or later they start to believe it.

No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way.

Society just doesn't care about young people anymore, even if we are the future.

I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a label than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught.

Silence ensures that history repeats itself.

Fights don't solve matters, they just make things worse. (Diary 19)

Because if they grow up holding on to such terrible feelings, it could lead to another war come time in the future when the fate of the country is in their hands.

Ruining is a gift .. it's the way of changing.

Be the kind of people that have enough passion to change the world. If we let ourselves be fire, thunder, or lightning, we could alter everything.

I always say that the young people are the future of the world, and if we start with them first, if we educate and develop a sense of tolerance among them, our future, the future of this world, will be in good hands for generations to come.

Remember not all Germans were Nazis.

i loved the freedom writers diary and even though i only read it because my teacher made us i loved the book. it shows me some feelings that i also feel sometimes, and even though i never finished reading it because i got lazy its the only book ive ever liked

I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a label than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught. Since the day we enter this world we were a label, a number, a statistic, that's just the way it is. Now if you ask me what race I am, like Zlata, I'll simply say, I'm a human being.

That's exactly what we all are. We spend so much time trying to figure out what race a person is when we could just get to know them as individuals. I felt like answering their question with a question. Does it matter? Will it make a difference if she is Croatian, Muslim, Serbian?

We were like a fire triangle, he was the oxygen, I was the flame, and together we made the fuel. All mixed together we were a fire.

No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way. Diary