Erin Gruwell

Writer

1969-08-15

Quotes by Erin Gruwell

• I believe that all students, when asked to be accountable for their actions and to be socially aware citizens, will become agents for change!

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• The stories my pupils told me were astonishing. One told how he had witnessed his cousin being shot in the back five times; another how his parents had died of AIDS. Another said that he'd probably been to more funerals than parties in his young life. For me - someone who had had an idyllic, happy childhood - this was staggering.

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• I believe that everyone has a story, and it is important that we encourage all students to tell theirs.

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• I think a lot of teachers feel like they're teaching to a test. Our response is you teach to a student, you really teach to the kid.

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

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• Hoping they'd been inspired by the examples of Anne Frank and other teens who had turned negative experiences into something positive by writing about them, I handed out notebooks for my students to journal about their lives. There was some initial resistance. But then the stories poured out of them, full of anger and sadness.

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• Paying to teach in the trenches was like putting my face through a cutout hole at a carnival while a quarterback threw pies at me. At least with a carnival, I'd see it coming.

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