The water is wide

By Pat Conroy

Subjects: Education (Elementary), Education, elementary, Teachers, biography, African Americans, African americans, south carolina, Authors, biography, African americans, education, Yamacraw Elementary School, Yamacraw elementary school

Description: "A young white teacher goes to an island off the coast of South Carolina to teach a group of functionally illiterate black children. Yamacraw Island is backward and primitive, a world for the most part left untouched by the 20th century....By ignoring the textbooks and concentrating on meaningful situations and dialogue...he begins to make headway. He also, unfortunately arouses the ire of the powers that be and, after fierce struggle, is fired." Libr J.