Mastering the Art of Teaching
Teachers have the opportunity to impact the lives of children to the point of transforming a lowly desert into the highest mountain. In the novel, The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy takes this challenge upon him. He tells of his non-fictional journey to a fictional island named Yamacraw inhabited by poor, uneducated, African-Americans in the late nineteen sixties. Prior to his experiences at Yamacraw, Conroy taught for years at various different schools, but nothing could have prepared him for this desolate island, a place where students did not know what country they lived in, the president of the United States, or how to read or write. He took the minds of the students at Yamacraw on adventures rediscovered by the educationally impaired. Conroy wrote The Water is Wide to share with others what happened during his year at Yamacraw and how it affected him. Whether the reader of this book is a parent, teacher, or student, it will inspire them to make a difference in the lives of the next generation. One person can part the sea, and one person can change a life; this is the art that Pat Conroy mastered. He constantly discovered how to adapt and change his teaching methods so that they would benefit his students the most. Pat Conroy never let his philosophy of education settle, but shaped it continuously, using variety, field trips, humor, and love to make a difference.
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Pat Conroy used a variety of different teaching styles to reach and affect his students. Throughout the year he spent at Yamacraw, he welcomed forty guest speakers. In addition, he introduced various forms of technology, including watching movies, listening to the radio, and using a microphone. Conroy expressed this theory when he said, “The teacher must always be on the attack, looking for new ideas, changing worn-out tactics, and never, ever falling into patterns that lead to student ennui” (The Water is Wide, 56). Conroy made learning his student’s favorite sport, never letting the opposing team of boredom take home a victory.
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One of the most effective ways that Conroy expressed his teaching philosophy was through numerous outrageous field trips. He did everything he could to inform his students of life off of the island. The children traveled to Beaufort, the town where Conroy lived, for various occasions. In Beaufort, the children spent a weekend celebrating Halloween for the first time, as well as later attending a Valentines Day party. He took the children to
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Another way that Conroy teaches is through humor. In The Water is Wide, Bernie told Conroy, “‘Boy, keep them laughing. Make them laugh so…hard and so…loud that they don’t realize they are learning,’” (The Water Is Wide, 56). Conroy definitely took his advice. Laughter was one of the most effective ways that Conroy taught the deprived children of
Conroy developed a care for his students. He loved and wanted the best for them not only in the classroom, but in their home lives as well. He truly wanted them to succeed in life. He showed this through the many sacrifices he made for his class: commuting in the early hours of the morning across the freezing water, leading them on activities outside of school, and taking them in to live with his family in his home. Conroy displayed his love when he risked his life to take Ethel, her mother Lois, and her grandmother Edna to their house after her drunken father broke a chair across her mother’s back. Later on he stated, “I wanted Richard to leap and bound ahead of his peers in other schools and in other places… I wanted Mary to be aware and proud of her aloof, unspoken beauty, and Anna to somehow fathom the wonder of her smile” (The Water is Wide, 238). Conroy was not only these students teacher; he was their father and their friend.
Pat Conroy mastered the art of teaching these various techniques, as a musician masters the art of his instrument. He had a passion for shaping these children’s lives. Unfortunately, Conroy was often the only positive example these children had in their lives. During the short period he spent at Yamacraw he made an enormous impact and provided experiences that will remain in the student’s hearts for the rest of their lives. As teachers we have this responsibility wherever we instruct. Pat Conroy did his job and more, and teachers around the world can look to him as a hero and a role model.
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