Thank you, Pat Conroy. Your description of the kind of moral corruption you encountered in 1972 accurately describes the moral corruption that continues to plague much of our public school system, wastes tax dollars, and leaves many children behind. This book should be required reading for all future and current teachers, school administrators, and education agency staff. The question is, if they read it, would they care? ( )

This book (and as I have been told) all of Pat Conroy’s books were based on real people and events in his life. I have also always heard that the best writers tell stories that they know something about.. that seems true to me. Pat was basically from my generation and this story from his younger years was wonderful and an eye opener for my reading group. There was so much going on during this period that we never questioned.

I loved the book, it has made me want to read all his books, even to reread some I had read years ago or have seen the movies based on his books. I always recommend reading the book first, but sometimes we don’t realize that we missed the book.

Highly recommended. Good book to start with if you’ve never read this author - it was his first.

Narration was very good.

BARNES & NOBLE: The Water Is Wide is Pat Conroy’s extraordinary memoir based on his experience as one of two teachers in a two-room schoolhouse, working with children the world had pretty much forgotten. It was a year that changed his life, and one that introduced a group of poor Black children to a world they did not know existed.

Spoiler alert, this story doesn't end well. It starts off with the heady enthusiasm of Pat Conroy as a young man who wants to do his part to save the world. A Citadel graduate who rejects the military life of his father the jet pilot Marine Colonel. He volunteers to teach on an island with an impoverished Black community dating back at least to Civil War days. When he arrived he's astounded it's even worse than he ever imagined. The kids can't read, write, count and anything a school kid should be expected to be able to do. The system has clearly failed them. His immediate reaction is to throw out the strict strap wielding approach used by the other teacher who tries to see her Cherokee heritage as making her different than her darker students. His other decision is to throw all the existing books, the kids can't even read. His approach, focus on activities, even recess. The kids know the island and their surroundings. When he learns they've never trick or treated he has to introduce them to Halloween by taking them across the river. Eventually he even undertakes trips to DC etc, expanding their world slowly.

All of that is easy to read about. It gets harder when we realize this is still the south and emerging slowly from its bigoted past. There are more uses of the N-word in various forms. Still very difficult to take. And of course Conroy is meet with lots of racialized stereotype and attitudes not ready to change. He makes enough of a problem for the administrators he reports too that he's told his contract will not be renewed. After fighting with the Board his is given another chance but it is clear they are looking for any excuse to get rid of him, even if he's got the kids and their parents on his side. He of course gives them their chance and he's pulled from the classroom and told not to return. Even the court is ready to side with the administration. It all ends with his musing was he really the problem. Was he just too proud to go along. Would that have been better for the kids.

It's easy reading but not the most positive message. Reality sometimes is like that. ( )

First edition exlib, good

This book (and as I have been told) all of Pat Conroy’s books were based on real people and events in his life. I have also always heard that the best writers tell stories that they know something about.. that seems true to me. Pat was basically from my generation and this story from his younger years was wonderful and an eye opener for my reading group. There was so much going on that we never questioned.

I loved the book, it has made me want to read all his books, even to reread some I had read years ago or have seen the movies based on his books. I always recommend reading the book first, but sometimes we don’t realize that we missed the book.

Highly recommended. Good book to start with if you’ve never read this author - it was his first.

FROM BARNES & NOBLE: The Water Is Wide is Pat Conroy’s extraordinary memoir based on his experience as one of two teachers in a two-room schoolhouse, working with children the world had pretty much forgotten. It was a year that changed his life, and one that introduced a group of poor Black children to a world they did not know existed.

FROM AMAZON: Yamacraw Island was haunting, nearly deserted, and beautiful. Separated from the mainland of South Carolina by a wide tidal river, it was accessible only by boat. But for the handful of families that lived on Yamacraw, America was a world away. For years these families lived proudly from the sea until waste from industry destroyed the oyster beds essential to their very existence. Already poor, they knew they would have to face an uncertain future unless, somehow, they learned a new life. But they needed someone to teach them, and their rundown schoolhouse had no teacher.

The Water Is Wide is Pat Conroy’s extraordinary memoir based on his experience as one of two teachers in a two-room schoolhouse, working with children the world had pretty much forgotten. It was a year that changed his life, and one that introduced a group of poor Black children to a world they did not know existed.