Essay Questions

What is the “Peanut Game” and what is the point of the assignment?

The “Peanut Game” is a writing assignment in which students are charged with using one side of a piece of paper to describe the outside of a peanut and the other side of the paper to describe its interior. The end result may vary considerable from one student to the next—often informed by person experience—but ultimately the purpose is to demonstrate a universally shared experience. When writing about the outside, one is forced by circumstances to be limited in their approach to writing about physical appearance. When the paper is flipped, however, the imagination can expand, and the qualities and characteristics of the interior can be reach beyond the limited physical possibilities of a shell.

What academic lessons are to be gained by reading the highs and lows contained in Diary 29’s entry about studying King Arthur?

Although generally the Freedom Writers come around to getting interested in not exactly pumped up about certain lessons, a collective yawn seemed to exhale once study turned to King Arthur. Recognizing that the material itself wasn’t connecting with students, Ms. G’s solution to perking up interest falls back upon the tried—but not always true—approach of offering a carrot on a stick to get the donkey moving. The reward in question is a free dinner at the Medieval Times participatory restaurant to everyone who passes the final exam on the subject. The writer of this particular entry likely speaks for more than just their own experience by admitting that while diligent study begin simply for the purpose of going in the field trip, before long the subject actually began to be interesting in itself. Lesson one: the reward system can actually be a way of successfully drawing student interest in a subject. Lesson two: get everyone on board with lesson one because the third-person party faculty member who obstructed this particular student from getting to enjoy the payoff could potentially have undermined all the good which Ms. G’s solution did in the first place.

What is considered by many of those involved to be the major turning point in the Freedom Writers program that transformed it from a shaky experiment into a life-altering opportunity?

Diary 142 is written by a student from the perspective of four years after Ms. G came to their school. Few imagined back then that she would still be around in two months, much the most famous teacher in town. The writer also goes on to make a rather startling confession, asserting that many of her students “used to do anything and everything to try to break her” before admitting that she was too strong for them. That entire first year is thus remembered as being precarious for everybody with absolute no guarantee that even if she was still around the next year her grand ambitions would still be. The turning point comes, the, not in that first year, but in what would be sophomore year for the writer of this entry and many other students. Gruwell makes a ceremony of it, giving it the title “Toast for Change” and announcing that every negative aspect occurring over the past year was to be considered swept away; everybody would begin with a fresh slate and a brand new opportunity to forget the mistakes of the past and make brand new better decisions going forward.