0:00:06.475,0:00:09.140
When I was a little girl,[br]I would sit at the dinner table

0:00:09.140,0:00:13.074
and revel in my father telling stories[br]about the civil rights [movement].

0:00:13.074,0:00:16.182
And I have an active imagination,[br]so I just envisioned my father

0:00:16.182,0:00:18.318
at all of those strategic places:

0:00:18.318,0:00:20.718
walking across that bridge in Selma,

0:00:20.718,0:00:22.808
sitting at those lunch counters,

0:00:23.132,0:00:25.359
standing on the steps[br]of the Lincoln Memorial.

0:00:26.076,0:00:29.315
I even envisioned my father burning bras[br]during the women's movement.

0:00:29.315,0:00:31.195
I don't know whose bras he was burning,

0:00:31.195,0:00:34.917
but it was very exciting to see[br]my father out fighting the good fight.

0:00:35.401,0:00:38.982
But as I got a little older, and my father[br]got a little more successful,

0:00:39.235,0:00:42.114
then suddenly the only handicap [br]he seemed to revel

0:00:42.114,0:00:43.885
was his golf score.

0:00:43.964,0:00:46.767
The next thing I knew[br]we were living in a gated community,

0:00:46.767,0:00:49.193
my father was driving[br]a convertible Mercedes,

0:00:49.497,0:00:52.164
and so I decided that if I wanted[br]to fight the good fight

0:00:52.164,0:00:56.304
and go off to college, that maybe I[br]would do so standing in front of a judge.

0:00:56.597,0:01:01.007
I went off to college, and as I was[br]pursuing law, there was this moment,

0:01:01.007,0:01:04.829
this moment in time when I turned[br]to my television, like so many folks,

0:01:04.901,0:01:08.301
and I saw this young man[br]standing in front of a tank

0:01:08.301,0:01:09.946
in Tiananmen Square.

0:01:10.071,0:01:11.691
And I'll never forget that moment.

0:01:11.691,0:01:15.554
He stood there, so resolute[br]and so passionate.

0:01:15.554,0:01:17.218
And it was so much bigger than him,

0:01:17.218,0:01:21.291
whether it was about democracy[br]or freedom or education.

0:01:21.321,0:01:26.016
As I fixated on that moment, I realized[br]I wanted to stand up for something.

0:01:26.253,0:01:29.263
When I thought about[br]my cleats or my pompons,

0:01:29.263,0:01:31.640
or that tiara, even those Greek letters,

0:01:31.640,0:01:34.466
I realized I'd never[br]stood up for anything.

0:01:34.499,0:01:37.550
So at that moment, I decided[br]that I wanted to be a teacher.

0:01:37.584,0:01:41.240
And I remember calling my father,[br]and he didn't take the news so well.

0:01:41.284,0:01:44.020
He quickly reminded me[br]that teachers don't make any money,

0:01:44.020,0:01:45.278
which is true.

0:01:45.348,0:01:48.448
He also told me that I would never[br]afford a home in Newport Beach,

0:01:48.448,0:01:50.559
which is still true to this day.

0:01:50.588,0:01:54.828
But no matter how cynical my father[br]was about my "new-chosen profession,"

0:01:54.828,0:01:58.502
I thought, "It's bigger[br]than a dollar or a paycheck."

0:01:58.502,0:02:00.787
It's like that "Aha!" moment.

0:02:01.000,0:02:03.728
Well, shortly after I made[br]that decision to stand up,

0:02:03.868,0:02:07.822
I turned on my television again[br]and watched the Los Angeles riots unfold,

0:02:08.548,0:02:12.162
and I remember seeing the faces[br]of young kids who were so angry,

0:02:12.470,0:02:14.170
and justifiably -

0:02:14.183,0:02:16.563
kids who had their back against the wall,

0:02:16.563,0:02:18.430
kids who didn't have a voice,

0:02:18.430,0:02:22.874
kids who'd reach for their fists[br]or a spray can or, worse yet,

0:02:22.874,0:02:25.781
reach for a Molotov cocktail[br]and destroy something.

0:02:25.969,0:02:28.178
So I had another epiphany.

0:02:28.196,0:02:30.779
At that moment I realized[br]I not only wanted to teach,

0:02:30.779,0:02:33.428
but I wanted to teach those kids.

0:02:33.433,0:02:36.923
Once again, I picked up the phone,[br]I called my father on the golf course,

0:02:36.923,0:02:39.874
and he made all kinds of cynical jokes,[br]the most important was,

0:02:39.874,0:02:42.618
"No matter what you do,[br]please don't eat the apples,"

0:02:42.618,0:02:46.225
because he convinced himself they're laced[br]with strychnine or razor blades.

0:02:47.345,0:02:50.244
So I'm going to tell you[br]about my first day on the job.

0:02:50.328,0:02:54.060
I wore the exact same dress that Julia[br]Roberts wore in the film "Pretty Woman."

0:02:54.060,0:02:56.177
I had polka dots; I had pearls.

0:02:56.177,0:02:58.127
And as I was about to leave my house

0:02:58.127,0:03:01.718
and make that 45-minute drive[br]down Pacific Coast Highway

0:03:02.112,0:03:04.104
in my convertible white Rabbit,

0:03:04.104,0:03:07.024
I started thinking about[br]all of those great stories I'd read

0:03:07.024,0:03:08.844
in the literary canon -

0:03:08.844,0:03:12.102
stories by Homer, stories by Shakespeare.

0:03:12.277,0:03:13.647
And as I made that drive,

0:03:13.647,0:03:16.899
I wondered what kind of stories[br]I was going to read with my students.

0:03:17.138,0:03:19.248
But they had a story of their own.

0:03:19.333,0:03:20.690
Because I quickly found out,

0:03:20.690,0:03:23.631
in their city, shortly after[br]the Los Angeles riots,

0:03:23.631,0:03:26.904
there were 126 murders -

0:03:26.904,0:03:28.181
126.

0:03:29.044,0:03:30.534
So I walked into my classroom -

0:03:30.534,0:03:33.618
there were no textbooks,[br]there was no technology,

0:03:33.790,0:03:36.300
and I looked at students[br]who were miserable.

0:03:36.697,0:03:40.935
Students at the age of 14[br]who were told they were going to fail

0:03:41.057,0:03:44.182
and drop out of school by the end[br]of their 9th-grade year.

0:03:44.260,0:03:47.081
Students who desperately[br]believed that they'd be behind bars

0:03:47.081,0:03:49.201
by the time they were 16.

0:03:49.318,0:03:51.784
And worse yet, students who believed

0:03:51.784,0:03:55.308
they would be six feet under[br]by the time they turned 18.

0:03:55.624,0:03:58.434
My students had never read[br]a book from cover to cover,

0:03:58.434,0:04:00.318
nor did they intend to.

0:04:00.476,0:04:01.886
They hated reading,

0:04:01.886,0:04:03.240
they hated writing,

0:04:03.240,0:04:06.790
and the only thing that seemed to bring[br]them together in perfect harmony

0:04:06.790,0:04:08.319
was they really hated me -

0:04:08.319,0:04:13.010
this perky, annoying person[br]with my polka dots and my pearls.

0:04:13.117,0:04:16.416
And if you don't believe me,[br]I'd like to show you a brief clip

0:04:16.416,0:04:18.407
to show you what that first day was like

0:04:18.407,0:04:20.571
and what my students[br]thought of their teacher,

0:04:20.571,0:04:22.414
this cheerleader from hell.

0:04:22.417,0:04:23.417
(Laughter)

0:04:23.419,0:04:26.391
(Video) (Background music) Student #1:[br]Looking around at them,

0:04:26.451,0:04:28.441
it was like looking at nothing

0:04:28.956,0:04:30.441
because I didn't care.

0:04:30.441,0:04:33.374
Student #2: A lot of students[br]were just bad, you know?

0:04:33.374,0:04:37.094
And I didn't expect Erin [br]to try to teach us anything.

0:04:37.834,0:04:41.344
I knew that she was nothing more[br]than a babysitter.

0:04:42.935,0:04:46.121
Erin Gruwell: It was very evident[br]that they didn't want to be there.

0:04:46.121,0:04:49.434
I could walk into my classroom[br]and I could tell who was pissed off,

0:04:49.535,0:04:52.857
who's jaded, who's hungry, who's bored,

0:04:53.039,0:04:55.959
who can't wait to get out of here,[br]who hates my guts.

0:04:57.242,0:05:00.042
It's easy to be perceptive[br]and to be in the moment,

0:05:00.162,0:05:02.504
but to be in the moment[br]you have to be vulnerable.

0:05:02.504,0:05:05.704
I had to walk in there[br]and not have a guard up.

0:05:06.562,0:05:09.178
Student #1: I think[br]that anybody in that situation,

0:05:09.178,0:05:11.329
you've got be scared out of your mind,

0:05:11.400,0:05:13.598
you have to be scared out of your mind.

0:05:13.598,0:05:14.725
Have to be.

0:05:14.735,0:05:16.245
Have to be.

0:05:16.245,0:05:19.281
Because not only[br]are you dealing with people

0:05:19.330,0:05:22.204
that don't care that you're a teacher,

0:05:22.495,0:05:24.225
they don't care about you.

0:05:24.686,0:05:25.690
It's personal.

0:05:25.690,0:05:26.800
(Background music ends)

0:05:26.800,0:05:28.568
(On stage) EG: It's personal.

0:05:28.678,0:05:30.549
So, looking at these students,

0:05:30.549,0:05:33.505
I realized, "How can I get them [br]to put down their fist,

0:05:33.607,0:05:38.417
to put down that spray can,[br]or worse yet, put down that gun?"

0:05:38.650,0:05:42.680
Because in my classroom I had students[br]who just came from juvenile hall,

0:05:42.682,0:05:44.764
had ankle monitors around their legs,

0:05:44.943,0:05:46.566
and a probation officer.

0:05:46.733,0:05:51.311
Students who just came from rehab[br]for crystal meth or crack cocaine.

0:05:51.796,0:05:56.261
Students who bounced around[br]from foster home to group home to shelter.

0:05:57.064,0:05:59.444
Students who would never[br]turn in their homework

0:05:59.444,0:06:01.313
or have their parents bake me brownies,

0:06:01.313,0:06:03.705
and if they did,[br]I probably shouldn't eat them.

0:06:04.363,0:06:10.205
And most of my students could care less[br]about these dead white guys in tights.

0:06:10.524,0:06:14.544
Dead white guys in tights[br]like togas or Shakespeare.

0:06:14.694,0:06:18.184
And so what I tried to do was to figure[br]out, "How can I teach my students

0:06:18.488,0:06:22.018
that they have a story,[br]because we all have a story?"

0:06:22.790,0:06:25.110
So I decided that we were[br]going to play a game

0:06:25.273,0:06:27.374
that was anything but a game.

0:06:27.445,0:06:31.016
And I was going to simply put this piece[br]of tape down the center of my floor

0:06:31.016,0:06:32.535
and ask my students questions.

0:06:32.535,0:06:35.315
And hopefully that line[br]could be a gravitational pull.

0:06:35.705,0:06:38.263
And as my students[br]would stand on that line,

0:06:38.296,0:06:42.054
I would know where they stood,[br]I would know their story.

0:06:42.457,0:06:44.147
As the questions began,

0:06:44.432,0:06:50.266
I believe that 150 kids who walked[br]into my classroom at the age of 14,

0:06:50.615,0:06:52.525
all of them were poor.

0:06:52.860,0:06:55.348
In fact, all of them knew[br]in the pit of their stomach

0:06:55.348,0:06:58.489
what it felt like to not know[br]where that next meal was coming from,

0:06:58.489,0:07:03.196
to be so proud that they didn't want[br]to turn in that meal ticket at school.

0:07:03.674,0:07:05.894
All of them knew[br]what it felt like to go home,

0:07:05.894,0:07:07.844
and the lights had been turned off again.

0:07:07.844,0:07:10.185
There's no food in that fridge again.

0:07:10.318,0:07:14.718
And those hardworking single moms[br]with those cockroaches and those roaches

0:07:15.180,0:07:17.382
were never going to get ahead.

0:07:17.872,0:07:21.035
Most of my students knew[br]what it felt like to be homeless,

0:07:21.536,0:07:23.005
to be picked on.

0:07:23.295,0:07:26.064
Most of them knew what it felt like[br]to want to end it all,

0:07:26.064,0:07:29.569
to stand on the ledge,[br]to put a razor blade to your wrist,

0:07:30.022,0:07:32.767
to look at those pills.

0:07:33.386,0:07:36.836
Most of my students had been[br]bullied or were the "bullier."

0:07:37.161,0:07:41.055
Most of my students had visited somebody[br]in juvenile hall or jail or prison,

0:07:41.334,0:07:43.284
or themselves had been there.

0:07:43.857,0:07:46.696
But the most disturbing question[br]that I asked my students

0:07:46.885,0:07:49.465
was if they'd ever lost somebody.

0:07:49.575,0:07:52.715
And as student after student[br]stood on the line,

0:07:52.789,0:07:55.259
I realized, "That is our story."

0:07:55.633,0:07:58.943
Because to be 14 and to go[br]through your entire life

0:07:59.032,0:08:01.712
feeling like you have[br]a bull's-eye on your chest,

0:08:02.124,0:08:04.764
to be 14 and to look over your shoulder

0:08:05.182,0:08:07.766
and wonder and wish,[br]"Am I going to make it home today"

0:08:07.766,0:08:10.155
to see that hardworking[br]single mom again?

0:08:10.199,0:08:15.052
To be 14 and to be numb[br]and anesthetized to your future?

0:08:15.576,0:08:18.866
So I wanted to teach[br]my students to have a voice.

0:08:19.171,0:08:22.571
And maybe they couldn't change[br]the cast of characters they were dealt,

0:08:23.027,0:08:25.458
but maybe if "the pen[br]was mightier than the sword,"

0:08:25.760,0:08:29.050
maybe, just maybe,[br]they could rewrite their own ending.

0:08:29.447,0:08:31.927
So I decided that we were going[br]to have a toast,

0:08:32.084,0:08:33.844
"a toast for change."

0:08:33.863,0:08:35.103
And maybe it didn't matter

0:08:35.103,0:08:38.863
that most of my students had been kicked[br]out of every school they ever attended.

0:08:38.863,0:08:41.945
Maybe it didn't matter[br]that my students had a 0.5 GPA.

0:08:42.117,0:08:45.097
Starting right then, starting right now,

0:08:45.097,0:08:49.119
we were going pick up a plastic champagne[br]glass filled with sparkling apple cider,

0:08:49.119,0:08:51.591
and we were going to wipe[br]that slate clean.

0:08:51.760,0:08:54.776
The first young woman who picked up[br]that plastic champagne glass

0:08:54.776,0:08:56.443
got very serious.

0:08:56.443,0:08:59.229
And her change wasn't[br]about a number 2 pencil.

0:08:59.458,0:09:02.181
Her change wasn't about a test

0:09:02.698,0:09:06.148
or student scores or data or statistics.

0:09:06.684,0:09:11.441
She picked up that plastic champagne glass[br]at the age of 14, and she simply said,

0:09:11.780,0:09:16.164
"I don't want to be pregnant[br]by the time I turn 15, like my mama,

0:09:16.546,0:09:20.996
and I don't want to spend the rest[br]of my life behind bars, like my daddy,

0:09:21.289,0:09:26.706
and I don't want to be six feet under[br]by the time I turn 18, like my cousin.

0:09:27.173,0:09:28.873
I want to change."

0:09:29.385,0:09:31.495
And in that moment of vulnerability,

0:09:31.884,0:09:33.652
and in that moment of being exposed

0:09:33.652,0:09:35.974
in front of a room[br]full of her so-called enemies,

0:09:35.974,0:09:40.513
it gave every other kid the opportunity[br]to pick up a plastic champagne glass

0:09:41.005,0:09:44.025
and dare to dream and to dream big.

0:09:44.372,0:09:47.212
Young boys were tired[br]of being told to act like a man

0:09:47.226,0:09:50.796
when there was no man in their house[br]to show them or to guide them.

0:09:51.129,0:09:53.999
Young boys were tired of sitting[br]on the edge of their bed

0:09:53.999,0:09:57.452
"on this Christmas" or "this birthday,"[br]waiting for their deadbeat dad

0:09:57.452,0:10:00.637
to show up and bring them a present[br]or tell them they love them.

0:10:00.654,0:10:02.464
And they never showed up.

0:10:02.835,0:10:06.085
Beautiful young girls were tired[br]of being touched in places they knew

0:10:06.085,0:10:08.086
they weren't supposed to be touched.

0:10:08.086,0:10:11.391
And people touching them[br]had names like "Uncle Joe."

0:10:11.804,0:10:15.774
And as each and every student[br]picked up that plastic champagne glass

0:10:15.774,0:10:17.538
and talked about change,

0:10:17.743,0:10:19.509
I handed them a journal.

0:10:19.530,0:10:23.790
And the idea was, "Go back,[br]go back to wherever you feel safe,

0:10:24.114,0:10:26.634
and write, and own it.

0:10:26.866,0:10:29.636
And maybe these words[br]will make you immortal.

0:10:29.899,0:10:32.630
And together we're going to read[br]stories about other kids

0:10:32.633,0:10:34.395
who've written their words down.

0:10:34.402,0:10:36.912
Kids who come from undeclared wars -

0:10:37.143,0:10:38.544
or declared.

0:10:38.707,0:10:40.809
Little girls in tiny little attics

0:10:40.809,0:10:43.137
who will look out her window[br]and watch her friends

0:10:43.137,0:10:45.305
being led off like sheep to slaughter.

0:10:45.414,0:10:47.004
And she owned it.

0:10:47.004,0:10:50.256
Every day, that little girl[br]Anne Frank wrote her story.

0:10:50.720,0:10:52.311
Or young boys like Elie Wiesel,

0:10:52.311,0:10:55.881
who was crammed into a cattle car,[br]rode into Auschwitz-Birkenau,

0:10:55.881,0:10:59.073
watched his entire family[br]perish in a chimney.

0:10:59.492,0:11:01.172
But he wrote about it.

0:11:01.645,0:11:04.535
Or courageous little girls[br]in places like Bosnia-Herzegovina,

0:11:04.535,0:11:07.365
who watched her friends[br]being picked off by snipers,

0:11:07.422,0:11:10.382
and yet every day she too wrote about it."

0:11:10.914,0:11:13.564
So my students[br]started writing their story.

0:11:13.860,0:11:16.496
And in doing so, we started[br]sending these letters off

0:11:16.496,0:11:19.340
like these messages in a bottle.

0:11:19.630,0:11:21.744
Maybe someone will listen to us.

0:11:21.744,0:11:24.724
Maybe our cries won't fall on deaf ears.

0:11:24.871,0:11:27.951
Maybe these icons will come and see us,

0:11:28.194,0:11:30.357
150 gangsters.

0:11:30.731,0:11:32.211
And they came.

0:11:32.551,0:11:35.941
The woman who helped Anne Frank[br]in that tiny, little attic,

0:11:35.995,0:11:37.973
this simple secretary,

0:11:38.075,0:11:40.076
got 150 letters,

0:11:40.552,0:11:44.378
and she hopped on a plane, even though[br]there were typos and grammar mistakes,

0:11:44.832,0:11:47.912
to give homage to my students[br]and their story.

0:11:48.637,0:11:51.837
Schindler's survivors who walked[br]across those railroad tracks

0:11:51.837,0:11:53.866
leading into Auschwitz-Birkenau -

0:11:53.866,0:11:56.232
they too got letters from my students.

0:11:56.322,0:11:57.888
They too came.

0:11:58.278,0:12:02.731
Bosnian refugees came to our classroom.[br]and looked at my students -

0:12:02.731,0:12:05.144
who could care less about[br]the color of their skin,

0:12:05.158,0:12:07.068
the side of the street they came from,

0:12:07.113,0:12:10.167
or, more importantly,[br]what their parents did or didn't do.

0:12:10.344,0:12:11.814
They came.

0:12:12.013,0:12:14.510
And then one day[br]my students got really cocky,

0:12:14.644,0:12:19.044
and they said, "You know, Miss G, we keep[br]sending these letters out into the world,

0:12:19.301,0:12:22.769
and all of these icons come into room 203,

0:12:22.769,0:12:25.250
and they share their world with us.

0:12:25.274,0:12:28.957
It's time that we take[br]our world out there."

0:12:29.001,0:12:31.072
My students wanted to go on a field trip.

0:12:31.161,0:12:33.141
They wanted to go to Washington, D.C.

0:12:33.141,0:12:36.534
They wanted to follow in the footsteps [br]of these civil rights activists,

0:12:36.534,0:12:40.283
the Freedom Riders, who got on buses[br]and stopped at every depot

0:12:40.343,0:12:43.403
and drank out of those drinking fountains,[br]sat at those counters,

0:12:43.403,0:12:46.266
and sat on that bus,[br]no matter where they wanted to sit.

0:12:46.462,0:12:48.992
For those of you who have[br]never dealt with teenagers,

0:12:48.992,0:12:51.995
the idea of taking 150 students[br]to Washington, D.C.,

0:12:52.070,0:12:55.526
all I could think about[br]was "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll."

0:12:55.928,0:12:59.468
And in the pit of my stomach,[br]I knew that I had 150 students

0:12:59.521,0:13:01.632
who lived below the poverty line.

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So they didn't have[br]the luxury of going home

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and talking to that[br]hardworking single mom

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and asking her to pull out her Visa,

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or convincing her to write that check,

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or even to go to the ATM[br]and get that crisp $20 bill,

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because if they had that $20 bill,

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that should go for lights,

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that should go for food in that fridge.

0:13:20.364,0:13:23.395
So I told my students,[br]"You have to figure out a way.

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If we're going to get[br]from point A to point B,

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if we're going to take this journey,

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you have to figure it out."

0:13:30.601,0:13:32.551
And as we began to fundraise,

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one of my students put me on the spot,[br]like all kids will do,

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and he said, "Miss G, what happens[br]if we raise all of this money,

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and we don't make it there?"

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And at that moment I thought,[br]"We're not going to make it there."

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So like a deer in the headlights, I said,

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"If we raise all this money and don't make[br]our way to Washington, D.C.,

0:13:49.998,0:13:51.911
we can buy some more books.

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Maybe we can take a field trip[br]to the Museum of Tolerance.

0:13:55.716,0:13:57.507
Maybe we can have a pizza party,

0:13:57.507,0:14:00.540
so in that case it's a win-win[br]because we did it together."

0:14:00.750,0:14:05.103
But then I stopped myself and to this day[br]I don't know how and I don't know why,

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but I said, "But if we do make[br]that chic trip,

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and we do raise that money,

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your lives will never be the same."

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And they did.

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So, for a brief moment,[br]I'd like to show you our field trip,

0:14:19.117,0:14:23.851
when 150 kids put down a fist,[br]put down a gun,

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picked up a pen, and wrote their story,

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and took their words,[br]their story to our nation's capital.

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(Video) (Background music) Student #3:[br]Somebody came up with this idea

0:14:35.101,0:14:39.357
that we should honor all of our friends[br]who had been lost to senseless deaths.

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Student #4: So we wrote names[br]of people we lost in our lives on pins,

0:14:45.441,0:14:49.195
and we were wearing them as a symbol[br]of that their spirit is still alive.

0:14:49.203,0:14:51.919
You know, they're still with us,[br]they're still part of us.

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Student #5: We all held hands,

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and we left the hotel holding hands.

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Student #6: We took a walk[br]to the Washington Memorial,

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and it was quite a ways

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and - there were 150 of us.

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And we didn't let go.

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Everybody started honking at us[br]and we just kept on walking.

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Student #7: The world just goes by

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and no one stops to look[br]at somebody in their face

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to actually look at them for who they are.

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And so we stopped traffic,

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and you could feel the presence[br]of this is something bigger than us.

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EG: I'll never forget this man rolled[br]down his window, very disgruntled,

0:15:50.212,0:15:52.167
and he said, "What are you doing?"

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and one of the "Freedom Writers" said,[br]"We're changing the world."

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(Background music ends)

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(On stage) EG:[br]For a group of 150 students,

0:16:06.950,0:16:10.355
change meant that they didn't have[br]to be like that mother

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who was strung out,

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or that deadbeat dad,

0:16:14.448,0:16:16.818
that they could rewrite their own ending,

0:16:16.838,0:16:20.608
that they could be the first[br]in their families to graduate,

0:16:20.951,0:16:23.981
the first in their families[br]to go to college,

0:16:24.132,0:16:27.202
the first in their families[br]to take these stories,

0:16:27.585,0:16:29.393
to put them in a book,

0:16:29.425,0:16:30.463
to send them off -

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once again, like a message in a bottle -

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and hope that those cries[br]didn't fall on deaf ears.

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So I sent 150 copies[br]of my students' stories

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to every single publishing[br]house in our country.

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And every single one of them[br]rejected my students.

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Every single one, except one -

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the same publishing house[br]that took a chance

0:16:50.795,0:16:53.847
on a little girl in a tiny, little attic.

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So it's as it should be

0:16:55.364,0:16:58.508
that the publishing house[br]that published "The Diary of Anne Frank"

0:16:58.508,0:17:03.178
decided to take a chance on 150 kids[br]and published their book.

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Would anybody read a book[br]written by and for and about kids?

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Apparently someone would

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because this little book became[br]the number one book in America.

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And I tell you that because[br]my students nicknamed this book

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"The Little Book that Could,"

0:17:19.754,0:17:22.501
in honor of that train[br]going down those tracks,

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"I think I can, I think I can,[br]I think I can."

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I stand in front of you[br]as an ordinary teacher

0:17:31.421,0:17:34.041
who had an extraordinary experience.

0:17:34.332,0:17:37.672
And even though I haven't[br]quite mustered up the courage

0:17:37.805,0:17:41.225
to stand in front of a tank in any square,

0:17:41.488,0:17:45.678
or like my students, stand[br]and stop traffic by myself,

0:17:46.073,0:17:49.823
I did muster up the courage[br]to stand in front of you today,

0:17:50.321,0:17:53.341
and so I hope that,[br]standing in front of you,

0:17:53.381,0:17:55.181
when you see me,

0:17:55.280,0:17:57.060
you see my kids.

0:17:57.453,0:17:58.933
When you hear me,

0:17:58.933,0:18:00.697
you hear their cries.

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And when a beautiful Holocaust survivor[br]challenged my students,

0:18:04.118,0:18:08.143
and she said, "Evil prevails[br]when good people do nothing,"

0:18:08.170,0:18:09.780
I stand before you,

0:18:09.780,0:18:12.548
challenging each and everyone of you,

0:18:12.548,0:18:15.201
each and everyone of you[br]who is a good person,

0:18:15.201,0:18:16.660
to do something.

0:18:16.738,0:18:19.860
Don't let those cries fall on deaf ears.

0:18:19.860,0:18:21.720
Don't turn the other cheek.

0:18:21.720,0:18:23.017
Do something.

0:18:23.017,0:18:25.367
Do something for a kid in need.

0:18:25.532,0:18:27.012
Thank you.

0:18:27.065,0:18:30.045
(Applause)