Although the circumstances of [the teaching assignment portrayed in The Water Is Wide] were atypical, the lessons [Conroy] taught and the lessons he learned should be known by every novice teacher, for they have universal applicability. Of primary importance is Conroy's evaluation of his entire experience. Unlike those who have chronicled their confrontations with the establishment of urban schools, Conroy expresses the realization that he should have tried to fight the system by working through it, for although this method is less flamboyant and demands more than a modicum of perseverance, it allows the children, in whom a reformer professes to believe, to continue to receive his assistance and thus make demonstrable progress. And, after all, isn't the task of meeting the individual needs of each child under less than ideal circumstances the reason why such reformers should be in the teaching field?

With remarkable perceptiveness, the author...