"Collective unconscious urgin me on and whispering to me that a great injustice was being perpetrated and that it was up to me to expose this condition"

This sentence spoke out loud to me. Pat Conroy saw that the students of Yam craw Island were being mistreated in every sense of the word. The students on the only had been given an injustice because none of them could read or write well at all. They had no clue that there was a world outside of Yamacraw Island. He took it upon himself to take action and find someone who can and will actually do something about the problems facing the students of Yamacraw Island.  These students as in all students deserve to get the best education as possible. I was shocked when I read about the students not knowing that Georgia was very close by and none of the students knew where they were located on the map. pat Conroy ensures that something needs to be done and hopefully by the end of the book something extraordinary would have taken place for these students. I feel the urgency that Pat Conroy feels is necessary for these students. But I question as to why teachers before this had not tried to do something about the students. Did the other teachers not care or just not have the resources needed to do something about it? These students deserve to know what ocean surrounds them and I think Pat Conroy is going to see that these students are going to learn something from him. These students are important and in order for them to proceed and get off the island they need to further their education. They may even decide to stay on the Island and help other students as they learn.

The Water is Wide
The outlook of Pat Conroy

   Reading this chapter really allowed me to get a sense of who Pat Conroy was as a person. He was all set to go to the Peace Corps but made a decision to teach at Yamacraw Island to help the children with an education. With all the problems and environment around Pat, he still stayed strong with wanting to teach at Yamacraw Island. " I loved teaching in high school. I dwelt admist the fascists and the flag-wavers in relative obscurity and I liked the students....( p.7 )".  Students make the classroom interesting. The students did not like Pat Conroy because they seemed to think he was just another "white" person. By talking to the students he began to understand and see what problems the students were actually facing. He became involved in conversations with the black students to get to know them better.  Pat Conroy was very dedicated to making sure the students learned and had an education. He was not enthused with how the other teachers were concerned with everything else except the students and their education. Even though all the criticism from the students, being caught in the middle of a group of girls rampage, and deciding to just stand there and take it made Pat Conroy a very interesting man as well as a teacher. He felt guilty for what had happened in the past to the black people and  he admired Martin Luther King. He was rediculed by other "white" teachers because they felt he favored the blacks. I really enjoyed reading the first chapter of this book.