Pat Conroy
Paperback | Pages: 310 pages Rating: 4.12 | 19279 Users | 1451 Reviews
Present Books To The Water is Wide
| Original Title: | The Water is Wide |
| ISBN: | 0553381571 (ISBN13: 9780553381573) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Yamacraw Island |
| Literary Awards: | Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (1973) |
Chronicle Concering Books The Water is Wide
The island is nearly deserted, haunting, beautiful. Across a slip of ocean lies South Carolina. But for the handful of families on Yamacraw Island, America is a world away. For years the people here lived proudly from the sea, but now its waters are not safe. Waste from industry threatens their very existence–unless, somehow, they can learn a new life. But they will learn nothing without someone to teach them, and their school has no teacher. Here is PAT CONROY’S extraordinary drama based on his own experience–the true story of a man who gave a year of his life to an island and the new life its people gave him.Details About Books The Water is Wide
| Title | : | The Water is Wide |
| Author | : | Pat Conroy |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 310 pages |
| Published | : | March 26th 2002 by Dial Press Trade Paperback (first published 1972) |
| Categories | : | Autobiography. Memoir. Nonfiction. Biography. Education |
Rating About Books The Water is Wide
Ratings: 4.12 From 19279 Users | 1451 ReviewsJudgment About Books The Water is Wide
I love this memoir of a young, idealistic and very naive Pat Conroy who spent a year teaching children in two-room schoolhouse on the isolated Yamacraw Island off the coast of Georgia. Conroy had lots of enthusiasm but little patience for petty bureaucracy. This is one of his earliest books and gives readers a delightful look into the young mind of this exceptional author.I knew that this was a memoir but I didn't realize it was a memoir about one specific year in the author's life; 1969. He offers to take a teaching position on Yamacraw Island only to realize that these children have been overlooked and basically treated like crap because they're black and poor. Conroy's idealism and belief that right and wrong are the only thing that matters leads to him becoming a passionate advocate of the island children, and earns him the enmity of people who just want to
This is probably more of a reflection than a"review" I read this book when I first started teaching, and my naive and much younger self wanted to be exactly the kind of teacher Pat Conroy had wanted to be-one who worked with children who needed me and whose lives I could touch in some way-only I would do it better of course! My first teaching job plunked me down in a non-air-conditioned overcrowded school in Little Havana (in the heart of the city of Miami, FL for you non-natives) with 100% of
Published in the early 70s, this is the phenomenal memoir of Pat Conroy as a teacher in 1969, on Defuskie Island, SC. His students were all black and mostly illiterate due to an out of sight, out of mind and racist mindset perpetuated by the school board on the mainland. Without going into all Pat did for those students, he was fired trying to bring joyous teaching and exposure to the world beyond their island. However he did not have the political skills to better the system. Because this story
This was a hard book for me to get into because of the time frame it was written. The way the people spoke about the residents and children of the island was really hard to stomach. Plus there were some questionable and inappropriate things done in the classroom and I needed to remind myself that this was the early 70s and people didnt know any better yet. I ended up enjoying it overall and had quite a few giggles because of the sweet kids reactions to new information or experiences.
Conroy, a successful novelist, spent a year teaching on an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina. The year was the 1969-70 school year and the island populated by highly disadvantaged sea islanders, mostly African-American with a handful of custodial whites who run the island and its limited services. Conroy, in his young twenties, a relatively recent graduate from The Citadel, had taught high school on the mainland for a couple of years. He is shocked by the impact of the historical
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