AMANDA PATEL (aka Mrs. Wilson)

     The late Pat Conroy wrote many books, but one of his most well-known works is The Water Is Wide. In this memoir, he writes about his experiences teaching on Yamacraw Island off the coast of South Carolina. Not only does he write about his experiences teaching the children on this Island, but he also deals with the administrators hired to educate and elevate the lives of the children. This memoir, written in 1972, details Pat’s rebellious nature when it comes to his teaching methods and how he manages the struggles and obstacles he faces in his venture.

     In our beautiful seaside town, it is easy to get lost in the beauty and forget that the same struggles that the children on Yamacraw faced and the struggles that Pat Conroy faced as a teacher could still be prevalent today. It is easy to believe that we have all moved on. Indeed, there has been growth, and we have come leaps and bounds. But if you ask Amanda Patel, we still have “miles to go before we sleep.”

     Amanda joked that she has a very different story than some teachers because she dropped out of high school. Amanda grew up in a single-parent home in a small town outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. “I had a hard childhood, and I caused a lot of trouble for my teachers. I mean ALOT of trouble. I never struggled with the educational aspect of school; I just got lost along the way.”

     After Amanda met her husband, Mike Patel, who she has been married to for over 20 years, she got her GED. She then attended Belmont Abbey College and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education. From there, she attended East Carolina University to get her Master of Science in School Counseling. When she was pregnant with her youngest child, she attended the University of South Carolina to get another Master of Science in School Leadership.

     Amanda and Mike moved to Beaufort in 2009, following her graduation from graduate school at East Carolina University. They now have two children, Tobias in the 6th grade and Tula in the 5th grade.

 Amanda got a job at Robert Smalls International Academy under Mrs. Smith, who was the principal at the time. Mrs. Smith was brilliant and encouraged Amanda so much in her early days as a teacher. “She was never afr

aid to go up against the grain, and so I found I was able to advocate for the students easily under her,” Amanda says. While Amanda has worked in different capacities in her 15-year career as an educator and her 12 years serving in Beaufort County, she has always been hyper focused on the social and emotional academic needs of the student. And that is what she provides at Whale Branch Middle School.

     Amanda took a couple of years off from teaching before beginning her position at Whale Branch Middle. During that time, she missed teaching and being in the school system, but “being an educator is exhausting, especially when you are constantly advocating for the students.” She has been at Whale Branch Middle for three years now.

     “When you are focused on advocating in education, you are made to feel like you’re doing something wrong at times,” Amanda says. “You can be pushed in a corner and that is a lonely place to be. You fight the same battles over and over. But I truly believe that every teacher goes into the job to make a difference and so it is worth it.” Pat Conroy spoke to this himself, saying: “Teaching is a record of failures, but the glory of teaching is in the attempt.”

     Amanda is the MTSS Coordinator and Intervention Specialist at the school. This means she oversees support for academics and behavior. Her job is to provide the students with the necessary support to be successful inside and outside of the learning environment. This all loops back around into advocacy. She works to break down any stigmas or stereotypes that would prevent her students from receiving what they need — from special education to after-school tutoring.

     If you ask Amanda why it’s so important to her to advocate for her students, she says, “You have to be the teacher you needed when you were a child.” She works hard to prove herself to her students’ parents as someone who understands their needs and will fight for those needs to be met. “I didn’t have that, which is why I dropped out of high school,” Amanda says.

Amanda loves working with middle schoolers because they are so confused. It is truly a make-or-break season of their lives. Amanda has wanted to be a teacher for as long as she can remember, and her own struggles as a child have allowed her to better understand her students and the struggles they experience. Amanda’s desire is simple: she wants to create change. Change in the lives of students, change in the lives of teachers, and policy change. She wants students to be provided with what they need, teachers to be appreciated and cared for, and for policies to serve the students and teachers first. “Whale Branch Middle School has some of the best educators in the county,” Amanda says. She hopes that more people will begin to recognize this and show appreciation for it.

     Amanda knows that if she continues to push and prod for these changes, she could, like Pat Conroy, eventually be out of a job. That is a risk she is willing to take. And like Conroy said, “… life was good, but it was hard; we would prepare to meet it head-on, but we would enjoy the preparation.”