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.