Freedom Writers is a movie released in 2007 and directed by Richard LaGravenese. It explores issues and conflicts present in a school with students of different class and racial backgrounds and how that affects their experience with and outlook on education. It displays intersectionality in an interesting way by using both race and gender to show different lives of students. For me, I could relate this movie a lot to the Pakistani context. In lower income areas, the public schooling provided is not very nurturing towards students who have a difficult time due to their circumstances. In this movie, the Black community in the school live incredibly risky lives at the hands of gang violence, racial discrimination and family issues. This leads to them being so engrossed in that aspect of their lives that they aren't able to give their education the priority that it needs. Their intention is never to stay in school because they're never given the push to do that. In Pakistan, the case is pretty similar with young children who often fall into drug abuse and gangs because they feel so uninspired at school. To beat this problem, its necessary to address such concerns rather than pushing them aside and using education only to teach children how to do math equations and memorize English grammar rules. Teachers need to be trained to actively inspire such children so they continue with schooling and not become prey to society evils.
