A Raw Kind of Relevance Awakens Classroom

Divorce, gangs, his own brother shot to death before his eyes. Eddie Paz has seen a lot for a 17-year-old. But until he walked into Jason Ross’ English course at Valley Vista High School in Fountain Valley, he had never read a book.

Six months later, he’s a member in good standing of a book group, a turn of events so unlikely that when he talks about it, he blinks and shrugs his shoulders in surprise.

This all started with a teacher’s frustration.

Ross, 29, knew he wasn’t reaching his students, many of whom hardly bothered to come to class. So, with his principal’s blessing, he did something many teachers only dream of doing.

He set aside the standard English curriculum and replaced it with dozens of copies of the 1999 book “The Freedom Writers Diary,” filled with entries that detail, in their own words, the lives of 150 students at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach.

Here, he told his students, see if you can relate to this.

To their surprise, they found they could.

In class, they read aloud--sometimes haltingly--the bare, ungrammatical accounts of pregnancy, gang violence and teenage love. For homework, students were told to start keeping their own diaries.

Unusual events followed. Attendance improved. People stopped sleeping through his class. Visits to the guidance counselor more than tripled, as teenagers began to confront demons that many had been keeping at bay with drugs.

“I keep a lot of things inside,” Paz said. “When you write, it’s right there on paper.”

That process of writing brought about changes in students’ own lives. And it also “brought the class together,” said Paz, who added that he was surprised to find himself having so much in common with fellow students he had initially perceived as rich, white and different.

Last month, students at Valley Vista became self-published authors, compiling some of their entries into a book titled “The Diary of Hard Knocks: Reflections From Teens.”

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“Dear Diary, When Mr. Ross read about a kid visiting his brother in jail, it reminded me of when I was locked up in juvenile hall. My parents came to visit every week, and brought me food. Their actions showed how much they care for me. They took time off work and drove about an hour to get there just to see me.”

“Before, I judged people by the color of their skin, the way they dress or the way they look. Now I learned that you should judge a person by what is inside. I even learned that even if I’m not a great student, I could change and go to college. No one in my family has ever made it to college.”

“Dear Diary, My friend, who has always understood me, is slowly fading away from me. . . . How can people smoke speed? It’s so dirty. It’s disgusting. . . . I told her what might happen if she doesn’t quit, but she just shakes her head like she is listening to me. Inside, I know she isn’t.”

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Principal Kathy Miller, who introduced Ross to “The Freedom Writers Diary,” bursts with pride as she details the successes. But she also laments that the program may be more limited in scope next year, when all ninth-graders must prepare to take the high school exit exam. Ripping up the curriculum won’t be an option anymore.

To Ross, who has been teaching for four years, that’s a disappointment. But what matters more is that he thinks he has found a method that reaches students, one he can use to at least some extent in the future. And it also has changed the way he and other teachers view the teenagers, he said, allowing them to better understand the many challenges their students face.

“Before, it was just like, ‘Oh, they’re not coming to school. . . . they just need a swift kick,’ ” he said. “I knew there were some kids with problems, but I had no idea how many kids.”

Valley Vista is a continuation school, where students who have had attendance or behavior issues at regular schools, or suffer from illnesses, are sent to make up credits so they can graduate on time.

In part, Ross copied something that worked magic in Long Beach in the early 1990s. Erin Gruwell, a 23-year-old first-year teacher, captivated her students--and eventually admirers across the country--by assigning her students to read the “Diary of Anne Frank” and write about their own feelings about discrimination and tolerance. All of her students went on to college.

Gruwell kept her students for four years; Ross has his for, at most, a year. So he has modified his program to fit his continuation school, where many students stay for only a few months before returning to their schools. As it turns out, that was long enough to make an impact on many students.

James Dutch, 17, used to seek out drugs and avoid school. Now, he has devoted himself to raising money to buy books for nearby elementary schools, and he has decided to work hard and graduate from college. His mother told him she’s proud of him.

“Writing this made me think about my future,” he said. “I am concentrated on school now. I don’t ditch anymore.”

Ross knows he hasn’t worked miracles. Some students were unmoved by the project. Many still struggle with reading. Others still abuse drugs. And even Paz said he still does not like most books--though he likes the ones in Ross’ voluntary lunchtime book club, which draws about 15 students.

But nevertheless, Ross said, the project has changed both him and his students.

“I’ve never had such relationships with my students,” he said. “This has been the greatest single thing I’ve ever done as a teacher.”