The rebel teacher

The rebel teacher | Daily Tribune

This touching story is inspired by the Netflix movie, Freedom Writers.

Carlos was nervous over the interview for a high school substitute teacher. Desperate for a job, he lied about having teaching experience. He was accepted right away, because the school had no one else. Carlos knew the school was a dumping ground for drug addicts, dropouts, angry children from broken homes and broken families. He was scared to face the class.

On the first day of class, as he was writing his name on the board a crumpled piece of paper hit him in the head but he ignored it. Everyone laughed. Everyone was speaking out of turn. Without a word, he smiled, and left the classroom, standing outside. The class became even more rowdy. After five minutes, he went back in and said, “If you do not quiet down, I will have the whole class suspended. Try me, I can do it.” The silence was deafening. He was nervous because he was bluffing.

Carlos spent a sleepless night listing down creative ways to control the class. It was not just about control. He had to reach out and touch them. That was the challenge.

On the second day of class, he brought blank notebooks with the title, “My Diary,” gave them out, and told the students to put their names on the front cover.

CARLOS: Now you have a voice. You can write anything in your diary. Your pains, your joys, your loves, your hates — no censorship. Only I will read your diaries. I will lock them up in this cabinet. You can ask for your diary anytime.

It took two days to break the ice. Raffy, a noisy notorious leader, asked for his diary.

RAFFY: May I suggest, sir, that we have the option to read our diaries to the class. (Everyone agreed. Raffy was the first to read from his diary.) I hate school. I don’t need an education. If I don’t go to school, my dad will throw me out of the house. He did that to my older brother, who now stays with homeless bums in an abandoned warehouse. I have no choice and I hate it.

CARLOS: But why do you hate it?

RAFFY: Why am I being forced? It’s just a job for teachers. Most of them hate teaching. I don’t learn anything.

CARLOS: I promise to change all that. Now that you have a voice, pour your heart out to your classmates. Don’t keep it inside, else you explode. That’s our first goal. I don’t care if we delay lessons in history or math for a while. Get the grudges out of your system first. Speak out through your diaries.

JESSICA: (Reading from her diary.) I like Mr. Carlos, our new teacher. The chance to talk relieves us of a lot of our hatred inside us. I think Mr. Carlos is different. He cares about us.

CARLOS: Raffy, what did it feel like being able to speak freely?

RAFFY: Great. I have less sleepless nights.

And so the diaries changed the attitudes of the students. They stopped talking out of turn. They started looking up to Carlos. The tone of the diaries also changed. There was less hatred and more of learning to change for the better. They began listening to each other through the diaries. They shared their pains and suggestions on how to deal with their problems. The diaries changed their lives and healed their emotions.

At the end of the course, Carlos suggested they have the diaries published as a book — secretly without the school knowing as they might control and censor it. There were screams of delight. For the first time, the students adored their rebel teacher who cared for them more than the school did. The book, titled “Our Diaries,” became a bestseller. Other schools started doing the same thing.

The class asked the school to let them have Carlos as their teacher in the next school year. When the school objected, as it might cause jealousy among the teachers, Carlos’ two classes with a total of 110 students threatened to drop out. The school gave in because they would lose a lot in tuition.