Teaching Children Values in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“I don’t have to listen to you because you’re not the boss of me.” Many little kids often think that they don’t have to listen to other people or do what they are told, which is how Scout was in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. She continued this kind of defiance until Atticus, her dad, began to change it. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and is about a young girl, Scout, who grows up in the small town of Maycomb in the 1930’s. Scout is the daughter of Atticus and her brother’s name is Jem. Throughout the book, Atticus tries to raise Scout and Jem into the best people they can be. Knowledge, honesty, and kindness are the three values that Atticus strived to pass down to his children.

The first value Atticus strived to pass down was knowledge. He told Scout to stay in school so that she could get a quality education. Atticus told her that if she wanted to live a successful life full of happiness then she needed a quality education so she would be able to get a nice job. “We’ll consider it sealed with the usual formality” (Lee 31). He made a deal with Scout that if she stayed in school then he would continue to read to her. She was confused as to why some people acted the way that they did because it wasn’t the same as the way her family acted. Scout asked her father why and he told her about a variety of families in Maycomb and explained that they act the way that they do because that’s how their particular families had been raised. Scout was then able to understand more clearly why they acted different because she knew that they had a certain reason for doing the things that they did. Atticus taught his children man life lessons, lessons like how to act around people and also how to make good decisions. ...

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...as very mad. For Jem’s punishment, Atticus made him apologize to Miss Dubose and read to her every day after school. Jem hated doing it in the beginning but as time went by he started to enjoy reading to her. His punishment taught him that he needed to respect everyone even if they were mean or disrespectful.

Three values that Atticus passed down to his kids were knowledge, honesty, and kindness. These values changed Scout and Jem and they began to act differently around people and were more honest to themselves and to others. These lessons relate to modern experiences because if people have these three values and succeed in them, then they will live a good life. The three values will affect people in every day life and if they use these three values that Atticus taught to his children, then people will also become mature young adults just like Scout and Jem did.