“I considered Yamacraw a touchstone: if the Yamacraw
children knew about it, then the chances were excellent that the vast majority
of American children had been reached.” This sentence stood out to me when they were having a
discussion about the movie, The Wizard of
Oz. The children on Yamacraw Island do not appear to know about many things
that many other American children that live off the Island know.
Building
off of that quote, in my opinion, the children of Yamacraw Island probably
do not know numerous things because they have not had the experiences to go
along with the material they need in order to learn and relate to. The children are
stuck in the classroom and do not get out to have experiences and learn from and build on them. Conroy’s Halloween escapade seemed like a huge step in chapter six. The
children were allowed to leave the island for probably the first time in their lives and
participate in Halloween with the white children. The opposition against this
trip upset me. Mrs. Brown hassles Conroy all the time that he needs to teach
the children the material and not play around, but in reality she’s the one
denying her student of life experiences to learn from and make connections.
Conroy even writes, “I knew for a fact that Mrs. Brown and Miss Glover both
believed that education as best served in the cramped environs of the
classroom, that both of them made a vast distinction between learning and
recreation, that both of them felt that education and the leather strap went
together like whiskers and catfish, and that both of them thought the trip was
a welcome vacation, but not an experience that could be counted as having
furthered the name of education.” Mrs. Brown’s and Miss Glover’s teaching
philosophies greatly differ from Conroy’s in this manner. Even if Conroy doubts
whether or not the Halloween trip made a difference and whether he is making a
great difference, it is a start that the children have never had.
I felt very bad because the children did not know much of anything. However, I loved that Conroy was trying his best to bring the outside world to them. I loved how they were able to talk about the Wizard of Oz. I was very surprised that they knew about it. I was absolutely glad that Conroy went over Mrs. Brown and that the children were able to go out on Halloween. I was surprised to read that there were some white families that decided to let the children stay over. I was worried that the children would misbehave, but they behaved their selves. I am ready to read what Conroy is going to do next.
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