Chapter 5&6

“When I queried Mrs. Brown, she told me that films were difficult to get to and from the island; in fact, they were more trouble than they were worth.”

I think that this quote shows that Mrs. Brown does not want to put forth as much effort as she can to help the students of Yamacraw. She views something as difficult and writes the idea off the board immediately. I think that this further proves that Conroy does put his whole heart and soul into teaching his students and will go to any measure possible, even if it is something hard to do, to help his students.

Chapter five is very enlightening. The chapter goes more in depth about Conroy’s students. It also gives more of a background on the feelings and attitudes people on the island have toward Conroy and his presence on the island. In the earlier chapters of the book, Mrs. Brown shows a strong dislike for Mr. Conroy’s ways of teaching and what he is doing in the classroom. Mrs. Brown does not seem to think that any of Conroy’s teaching strategies are appropriate for the classroom and to better his students. She agrees that the students love to sing and would allow them to sing all day if he let them. She thinks that he should focus on only the core subjects and not on useless things such as singing and field trips. When Conroy plans a trip to Beauford for Halloween, everyone seems opposed to the idea, especially Mrs. Brown. The parents of Conroy’s students opposed to the idea as well. Conroy eventually reaches out to the parents and gains their trust. Once Conroy has trust from his students and their parents, he is eventually allowed to take the trip to Beauford. As a teacher, I think that it is very important to have the trust from not only the students but the parents and those parents should be involved in their children’s education as much as possible. I think that Conroy’s reason for taking the students to Beauford is to show them life off the island. Some of these children have never seen life outside of their community in Yamacraw. This trip is very important because it gives the students hope and dreams that they did not even know existed. Conroy shows his students that they can do anything that they dream of and they do not have to stay on the island for the rest of their lives. The trip was not all that special to someone that lives off the island on main land, but to the children of Yamacraw, the trip was very special. The white people were very welcoming to the children of Yamacraw which came to my surprise. Celebrations such as trick or treating are a yearly custom to children in America. The children of Yamacraw never got to experience such thing, and took the event as one of the specialist times of their lives. This really makes me appreciate my childhood and all the things I was blessed with growing up.