Reviewing the Reviewers 1. Tom McClellan

“The movie actually gets dangerously close to suggesting that the answer to the education crisis is workaholic superteachers who can personally compensate for their students’ poverty and social problems – leaving no room for family….

“The real-life Gruwell is a sought-after educational consultant, but the movie itself offers few real answers to the problems teachers face.”

Ingman, Marrit. “Freedom Writers.” The Austin Chronicle 5 Jan. 2007.  27 Apr. 2010

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid%3A433135.

Merrit Ingman seems to think the purpose of “Freedom Writers” is to educate educators, to explain how to improve education.  But the movie aims at a larger audience, all of us, and its purpose is to entertain and inspire, to show us through the life of one person, a teacher driven to succeed, how a single individual can make a difference, how one person can “turn on a small light in a dark room.”  Given that purpose, I believe the film succeeds.