Compare And Contrast The Water Is Wide By Pat Conroy And Mrs. Brown

In The Water is Wide, Pat Conroy and Mrs. Brown have very different points of view in their teaching. They both use different approaches in their way of teaching and disciplinary actions to their students. Pat Conroy is very surprised to find out how little these poor young black children actually know. The Water is Wide excerpt showed many cultural models that displayed the differences in Pat Conroy and Mrs. Brown. Pat Conroy was new to Yamacraw. He had no idea what he was about to experience and all that he was about to find out. Mrs. Brown was another teacher at Yamacraw that also taught there and helped Pat Conroy to get settled in. She gave as many pointers as she could to Conroy, but what she said did not help once he figured …show more content…
Brown does not have a lot of faith in her students. Right off the bat, in her first-day assembly, she addressed the fact that most of the students were slow. She proceeded to say that everyone knows that they are all slow, and that there are only two students that were actually “smart.” She does, however, say that by working hard they could do better and grow in knowledge. She is all about disciplining. She believes the “retarded ones” need to be punished and whipped harder than anyone else. Mrs. Brown is also a strong believer in the Lord. She made it known that if “the Lord ain’t with us, then who’s gunna be for us,” signify her southern religious status. She wants her students to be accepting of the Lord and share his word with them. Although the Supreme Court said they would not pray on Yamacraw, she had them recite the Lord’s …show more content…
They both share the desire to teacher their students. Whether the students are slow or one of the few smart ones, they are willing to teach them all. They realized how little they have and use what they have to get the material across to the students. Both Mrs. Brown and Pat Conroy are in shock at the level of education these students are at and how little they know. While they do share the same feeling of wanting to teach their students, they are total opposites in how they teach and handle their classrooms. Let’s discus Mrs. Brown first. She is a “old-timer” teacher. She is a strong believer in being in a teacher oriented classroom and the students having respect towards her. She clearly stated to Pat Conroy on how he needed to keep order in class, which she said “you have to keep your foot on them all the time, step on them, step on them everyday and keep steppin’ on them when they gets out of line.” Just from this it is clear how serious Mrs. Brown is and that she is in control of her class. Mrs. Brown does not allow free time either. She is convinced that if the students have “free time” they will run the class and take her over. While she realizes most all of the children can not read the books, she is required to hand out insists that they will eventually read them. Knowing that that is not true, she does not do much more to help them learn to read the