Chapter 11

“They constantly derided Mrs. Brown and said that she was a bad teacher simply because she was a “colored teacher”.  I chose this sentence because I was shocked to see how the black people thought of their own race. It showed me that they’ve heard so much negativity towards themselves for being black that eventually they believed it. It wasn’t that I cared that they were calling Mrs. Brown a bad teacher, because she is, it’s just upsetting to see that the reason they thought Mrs. Brown was a bad teacher was because she was a colored woman.

                The chapter starts off with the student’s graduation. The Monday after graduation Conroy decided to take seven children to a camp off Yamacraw Island to try and teach them to swim. Conroy had a hard time comprehending why so many students didn’t know how to swim when they lived on an island and when numerous family members passed away from drowning incidents. When everything seemed to be going well for Conroy he received a phone call telling him that he had been fired. The excuse? He had been late to work. Of course Conroy didn’t accept that he had been fired, so he went to the school board. The board went over Conroy’s case and decided that he would be able to keep his job. Conroy began his second year on Yamacraw Island but eventually decided that this was going to be his last year teaching on the island. During the second school year Conroy had many trips planed for his students. The first was a trip to Atlanta, Georgia. The first major problem Conroy had during the school year was the question of how he was going to pay for the students to go to Atlanta. The problem was solved once Conroy received a phone call from Bill Dufford offering Conroy a job at the Desegregation Center in Ridgeland, South Carolina. In order to take this job to make enough money for the students Atlanta trip Conroy needed to take five days of personal leave time. Once Dr. Piedmont found out the Conroy missed work for five days he was, once again, fired. This time Conroy appealed and he lost his case. Even after petitions and boycotts on Yamacraw Island, Conroy was not allowed to keep his job teaching the students. According to law the board of education was invested with power to fire any teacher it considered undesirable. Conroy was official dismissed from his teaching position on Yamacraw Island.