Introduction
“Freedom Writers” is based on the true accounts of teenagers following the riots in Los Angeles. It is the story of a teacher attempting to make a difference in the lives of these students. The school, Woodrow Wilson High, is located at the beach of California. It is a hotbed for all sorts of violence — a result of the ongoing integration program that is focused on bringing back Latino, Asian, and white students together.
Instead of having to attain the initial objective of this integration program of bringing together the three groups of students, the program breeds war between all the parties. This brings daily racial slurs, gun shots as well as breeding gangs. The students have been brought up in constant violence, poverty and legal systems that bring about death.
In spite of the teacher being against violence, devoted Erin Gruwell never gives up on the students and slowly bonds with her class of violent students, breaking down their inborn differences through requiring them to keep daily journals. A strain is put on the teachers’ marriage as the students gradually take her priority. This film aims at inspiring the teachers in the advantages of taking risks and against feeling redundant and preachy.
Relevance of video to humanity course
There are several instances in this video that are relevant to the humanities course. Humanity is described as interdisciplinary study of the society and its culture trough out history. This video is more relevant to humanities as it is majorly based on arts as a subject.
From this movie, Freedom Writer, it describes a society of three different groups of people, the Latinos, Asians and the white students who live in Long beach of California. The schools have a problem in that the students are not getting along together, and most of them have at some point suffered as victims of violence. Erin took her students to visit the museum of tolerance in Los Angeles.
As it is portrayed in the video, the museum has its main focus on helping visitors to understand the impacts of the holocaust which is necessary for humanities course. The museum visited features exhibitions on civil rights violation that exists in the current world. The movie helps the students in humanities course to understand the importance of civil rights as it is one of the essential for the course.
Taking students to the museum proved to provide bonding for the students. The visit to the museum was a form of life imitating art. The video is very relevant to the humanities course as it encourages the importance of humanities course such as art subject in school. It also brings out the role of having humanities courses in schools as it helps in boosting the student’s critical thinking capacity.
Does the video reflect the impact of art education in school?
The video reflects the impact of art education to the students. Decades of research has shown a consistent and strong link between high quality education and the impressive outcome. Erin in the movie engaged her students in different art activities which contributed directly to the reforming of the students.
The setting of the video learning in the school was exceedingly complex as there were immense differences between the students. There was inherent hatred and the students regarded each other with lots of hatred. It is true that arts integration models have yielded promising results in school reforms and it helps in closing the achievement gaps (Bornstein, 2004). The impacts of arts I adolescents in the twentieth century is integrating, and it gives a bigger meaning to the performance in other subjects. The bonding of students with their teacher was during one of their visits to the museum.
This bonding is also witnessed as the teacher tried to keep the students busy by ensuring that they are creative. Today’s context of the world surrounding the students plays a particularly significant role. In the modern society the modern child matures early and there is a tremendously significant difference when it comes to the social characteristics that the adolescents are exposed to.
There is a high influence of peer group and there is also high influence of mass media. The arts revitalize neighborhoods and promote economic prosperity. In addition from the video, it can be concluded that Participation in the arts improves physical and psychological well-being. Art as a subject builds inter-personal ties and promotes volunteering, which improves health as it builds social capital amongst different groups of adolescents.
Who pays for art education?
The National Art Education Association (NAEA), throughout its years in history, has encouraged through championing the study and importance of visual arts and other different art education models (Fiero, 2004). This body is a professional reform association for all the art educators and teachers. It is known to have worked intensely and actively to make sure that quality visual arts education and learning is provided in all the schools. It also ensures that it is provided to every student.
As a matter of fact, the mission of this organization is to press forward visual arts teaching to fulfill human potential and endorse global perceptive. This mission is supported by a vision for art learning in which there equity and entrance for students of all ages to art is learning programming in order to gain from comprehensive, impartial, and chronological learning in the visual arts, led and trained by competent teachers and educators who are certified and licensed in art education. In order to make this a reality, the NAEA organization has contributed, through a number of ways, to a number of previous national initiatives and schemes that are promising to enhance visual arts teaching in all schools.
The leaders in development of the new curriculum are supposed to ensure that art is incorporated into the curriculum. In addition, parents should aid in buying for the students all that they need for their art classes. The government should put measures in place to ensure that in all schools, there is teaching of basic arts subjects. Different organizations should join hands in boosting the subjects and formation of community programs that promotes arts learning. The government should encourage the building of art museums for students to visit and boost their creativity.
It is crucial to organizing for art exhibitions, which will bring together students from different schools. NGO should participate through setting up of awareness as well as art exhibitions, which are geared at boosting art awareness. In addition, parents should aid in buying for the students all that they need for their art classes.
Importance of art education
Education art programs are significantly beneficial for not only children, but also everyone. Art programs such as dance, music, and chorus keeps the mind going. Students and pupils who participate in arts have demonstrated to be smarter compared to the other students. Arts are also ways to express ones feelings and it is renowned to keep the mind busy. It works through the creation of distraction throughout the day, ensuring that the kids have a less likelihood to be participating in things that are prohibited and are dangerous. Art as a subject is necessary and should be accessible at every school.
Everyone gets to be themselves through the arts. Students learn to be distinctive and creative. Math, History, English, and basically other classes do not give a chance to anyone to be themselves. The education arts classes help students to discover out who they want to be, and uncover out who they are.
Getting rid of the arts programs from schools would disillusion many students and obstruct their abilities to express their feelings freely. Art is one of the entire languages all human beings value and use to communicate. We use art to comprehend who we are, and other places in the world, and the sense of our lives. Human beings have a vital drive to generate and comprehend visual imagery (Fiero, 2011).
This force is one of the basic behaviours that build us as human. The power of the visual arts to supplement human practice and civilization is recognized and renowned all through the world. As the economic challenges engrave countries it is most of the institutions of learning have worked to try to get rid of art education in school. This is despite the fact that art is vital for the students and pupils as it facilitates them to become informed citizens as well as making them to become critical thinkers. They boost their skills of problem solving and finally become productive members of the society at a later stage.
Conclusion
Freedom Writers video is a particularly relevant video, in the current society. It directly encourages teachers and imparts superior knowledge on the adolescents and youngsters. It gives insight on the lessons that are learnt through lack of unity amongst people of different races. The video reflects the impact of art education to the students.
Art is extremely influential in schools. Getting rid of the arts programs from schools would disillusion many students and obstruct their abilities to express their feelings freely. It develops creativity, as well as keeping the students busy therefore avoiding idleness. Art comprehends who an individual is and the character that is inherent within an individual.
A complete balanced learning must comprise of knowledge in the arts and it has to be integrated well that the tomorrow of the nation is reliant, to a significant level, upon the comprehension, skills and familiarity education in the arts offers. Art instructors are intensely aware of the function they play in providing a complete knowledge for all learners and they develop commitment to working to ensure that the creative and art students needs sustained all the time as part of the basis of learning in all schools within all the states as well as all the communities at large.
References
Bornstein, M. H. (2004). Psychology and Its Allied Disciplines. New York: Cengage Learning.
Fiero, G. K. (2011). The Humanistic Tradition (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Fiero, G. K. (2005). The Humanistic Tradition, Volume 1: Prehistory to the Early Modern World. (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.