Chapter 7/8

"When I told her she was principal, that a misunderstanding on her part had projected me as the titular head of the school, the change which came over Mrs. Brown was as noticeable as the first freeze. She now did not make recommendations to me; she issues ultimatums. She did not give opinions; she threw out commands, orders, and laws with the signature of 'the man' on them." 

I chose this particular quote from the book because to me it highlighted exactly what kind of person Mrs. Brown truly is. Everything that Mr. Conroy had been thinking about her, along with the children's thoughts came through in these sentences. Mrs. Brown really upset the children and made them incredibly angry with how she handled the bed-wetting situation. It really angered me as well when she went on that tirade in chapter 6. I cannot even imagine saying that to a child that I was teaching. Her entire demeanor changed once she took back over as principal of the school. It makes me cringe whenever she pops into Conroy's classroom and wants to have a talk with the students. 

What really got to me in chapter 7 was when Mrs. Brown got Conroy to go to drop off that envelop at the school center. He left the class with the responsibility of creating a collage on a bulletin board and had given them old magazines for guidance with pictures. Mrs. Brown walked in and found that the children had put up pictures of "naked wimmin" or what she thought was naked women. She got up into Conroy's face and pretty much condemned him to hell for letting his students do this. Then, she showed him the pictures. They were pictures of Pablo Picasso's works of art. Yes, they were naked women, but it was in an artistic form. To me this just further proved how ignorant the people on the island truly were. They had no idea about the fine works of art that existed outside of Yamacraw. Even a principal of a school who prided herself on thinking she knew everything, had no idea that what she was looking at was in fact a priceless work of art. The people of Yamacraw are ignorant, but for most of them this is not their own fault. They have lived in a closed book their entire lives and have not had access to the things that most others would have. 

I continue to be surprised by what happens in each chapter of this book. I so enjoyed seeing that those children had a good time in Beaufort during their trick-or-treating outing. I'm really interested to see what is going to happen if Conroy ever really stands up to her and says exactly what is on his mind! 

Chapter 5/6

"Singing is a waster of time, Mr. Conroy. Just a waste of good school time. Those children love to sing. Lord, they'd sing all day if you'd let them. They need readin', writin', and arithmetic."

Chapter 5 was really enlightening to me as a reader. In chapter 4, I read all about the different people on the island and how they were reacting to Mr. Conroy coming to teach on the island. In chapter 5, Conroy the writer begins to shed light on many of the students in his classroom. I also felt that I was shown a side of Mrs. Brown that was even more ridiculous than I had originally thought. Mrs. Brown is against anything and everything that Conroy is doing in his classroom. It seems that no matter what he does, it cannot please Mrs. Brown at all. The films were too risky and took up valuable classroom time...the singing wasn't appropriate...and then in the later part of chapter 5 and into chapter 6, Conroy wants to take his students into Beaufort for Halloween. Mrs. brown is very opposed to this, as are many of the parents of his students. But Conroy is able to reach out to those parents/grandparents that were unsure at first, and gain their trust so that their children could go on the trip. To me, it showed that not only does Conroy have a connection with those children in his classroom, but he wants to show them life outside of the island. I think that he wants the children to see that life exists outside of Yamacraw and that they can live that life if they really wanted to. I'm really excited to see how the rest of chapter 6 goes and the book as well. I can't even imagine what type of connection Conroy will have with his students by the end of the book!

Chapter 4

"The post office was located in the back of their house. It was a small clean room, which she kept securely padlocked because of the 'nigras'.

I chose these two sentences as the ones that stood out to me the most in chapter four because it basically sums up everything that Lou and Ted felt about Yamacraw and the people on the island. While Conroy said that Lou seemed sincerely interested in the work that he was doing with the students he was teaching, in the same breath she was bragging about how the island bent over backwards to educate her son. Her son did not attend school with the "nigras". They hired a teacher to come teach him in a one room school house that they built just for him. He was the only white child on the island. I found this a bit ridiculous, mainly because what town would have really done that? I think that most people would have just moved off of the island so that their child could have gone to a different school. But instead, this family let the island accommodate their every need, whether it was appropriate or not. In their eyes I suppose that it was appropriate. It was during a time that education was segregated. To Ted and Lou, it may have seemed normal to them.

All of what they have said in the chapter four was about their opinons of the blacks on the island. It made me realize how strong the racism really was back then. I'm interested to see how Conroy will deal with these friends he's making later on in the book.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 really focused on the children that Conroy would be teaching on the island of Yamacraw. The chapter started with Conroy meeting Bennington and going over to the island. After getting to the island Conroy met Mrs. Brown, a prized possession of Yamacraw according to Bennington. As the reader of this book, it seems as though Bennington and Mrs. Brown are among the few in the surrounding community that actually care about the kids in Yamacraw. Conroy described the school and Mrs. Brown, but he still had no inclinations of what to expect from the children he would be teaching. 

There was one sentence that stood out to me in this chapter. Although it may not be the best written, to me it captured the honest first thoughts of the fifth-eighth grader students that Conroy was supposed to teach. "Sweet little Jesus, I thought, as I weaved between the desks, these kids don't know crap." 

Conroy seemed taken back and somewhat shocked by the lack of knowledge that these children had. Although he had been warned about how bad this teaching job would be, he really was unsure of what to expect. That first day on the job he spent trying to get to know the students. But, the students seemed to not even know themselves. 

Conroy's book keeps my attention and, I constantly find myself wanting to read more so that I can find out what happens to these children. I love the way he has written this book and how easy it is to put myself in his shoes and to think about what I would have done if I had been in his position as the teacher to these students.