The Water Is Wide: A Memoir

Four of the older children graduate in June. Afterward, Pat and Barbara take seven of the children away to camp, where they intend to teach them to swim, reasoning that “the people of Yamacraw [spend] an inordinate amount of time on docks fishing, socializing, and waiting for boats” and that “[f]alling off a dock is not the most uncommon accident” (251). The four girls who attend the camp are not able to overcome their fear of the water, but the three boys “[enter] the water quickly, if not eagerly” (252) and master the rudiments of swimming.

At the end of the trip, Pat receives a call from Sedgwick informing him that “Doctor Piedmont [...] doesn’t want you back on the island next year” (254). Pat storms into Piedmont’s office the next day to demand an explanation (254). Piedmont stares at Pat “with a contempt born over a long and trying year” (254-255). Pat stares back and realizes that “Piedmont [cannot] scare me. Nor [can] Bennington. Nor [can] the assembled board of education in all its measly glory. For in crossing the river twice daily I [have] come closer to the more basic things” (255).

Piedmont says that Pat has been late to class. When Pat admits to very occasional lateness due to the weather, Piedmont insists that Pat must follow the rules, accusing him of “tryin’ to make an exception of yourself all year. You are no different than any other teacher in this school system” (256). Pat argues, “If you if think teachin’ on your little island is exactly the same as teachin’ anywhere else in this county, you’re crazy” (256). Piedmont adds that Pat continued to commute to the island and charge the gas to the administration even after being told not to. Pat explains that Sedgwick and Bennington permitted him to do so, something that they had not told Piedmont. Eventually Pat and Dr. Piedmont agree that Pat can appear before the school board to make the case for his continued employment.

Although Pat suspects that Piedmont wants to “exterminate” him, Pat is resolved to appear before the school board to both fight for his position and make them understand the extent of Yamacraw’s problems. To bolster his position, Pat goes around the island to explain the situation to the community. The people on the island produce a petition, a “very strange document filed with references to esoteric events that had occurred over the year” (259). Every person of color on the island signs the petition, “although many of them [have] to enlist the help of friends to write their names” (258).

At the board meeting, Pat puts up pictures of Yamacraw so the board can “stare at a few rags, a few shacks, and a few skinny kids while they [ponder] the weighty decisions of the evening” (259). He commits to presenting Yamacraw Island as “a disgraceful depository of ignorance and a hundred years of neglect” (261). He tells the board: “You have been presiding over an educational desert. Children who grow up on that island don’t have a prayer of receiving an adequate education. They grow up without hope. They drift into the big cities of the East Coast and rot in some tenement slum—without hope” (261).

He points out that if the children’s parents “were white and important, their school would be as fine as any school in the county. If their parents were white, the question of a gas bill and maintenance bill would never come up” (262). He explains the scale of the difficulties the school faces, the “litany of ignorance I found in the first week” (262), and the numerous extra tasks he has to engage in to keep the school functioning. The mothers from Yamacraw add their support, and the crowd of Pat’s friends join in, asking the administrators “How much is the gas bill?” (264), something they cannot answer. Ultimately, the board sides with Pat and allows him to return to Yamacraw.

However, the victory is “ephemeral and elusive” (264), as he has committed the sin of “embarrassing” Dr. Piedmont. Before he faces any retribution, however, Pat encounters another problem: the residents of the island become fixed on the idea that Mrs. Brown is “a bad teacher simply because she [is] a ‘colored teacher’” (265). As the parents insist that “all dese colored teachers no good for the chillun,” Pat realizes that he has “unwittingly created a new stereotype among the island people” and is in danger of being “tempted to establish myself as an educational Ted Stone” (266). Instead, he decides that he will resign the following June. He offers to help find a replacement, ideally “a sharp, young black couple” (266).

Pat wants his last year at the school to be “a great carnival to the children” (266). He sets up projects, including a zoo in the classroom, and plans a cooperative farm. He also plans three fieldtrips. To help finance the first of these, he takes a week of leave to work for the Desegregation Center of South Carolina, intending to spend his pay on taking the children to Boston. After his week’s work, Piedmont calls Pat to tell him not to go back to the school. Again, Pat challenges this. However, he has made powerful enemies through his behavior, especially when he allows three of the recent graduates to move in with him and Barbara in their white neighborhood.

He soon finds that “the presence of three black kids irritate[s] some people with far more power and influence than I [wield]” and reflects that “it look[s] as though the Old South [is] alive and well, a little more subtle, without the sheets and night riders, but a force that still tolerate[s] little deviation from the norm” (273). The people of Yamacraw decide on a school strike but are swiftly threatened with arrest and fines. They do not back down, but Pat calls off the boycott himself because “[t]oo many of the women [are] frightened by the economic and legal threats against them” (278).

Pat appeals to the school board even though he knows that he will lose. He does indeed lose the vote, but the board offers him the chance to resign without a “blot” on his record. Pat instead takes the case to court. During the case, the boat due to bring Pat’s witnesses from Yamacraw Island is seemingly sabotaged, giving him “another lesson in the exercise of power” (282). Nevertheless, the case begins to look surprisingly promising, and Pat and his friends begin to celebrate the expected victory. The judge, however, declares, “The board of education [is] invested with the power to fire any teacher it consider[s] undesirable. That [is] the law” (283).