Importance Of Education In To Kill A Mockingbird

800 Words2 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is based during a time period of challenges being faced in education. The children, Jem and Scout, attend school and tell the stories from their point of view, describing how teachers treat children and how education is controlled. Public education should focus on the quality of education instead of regulations and rules within the schools. In To Kill a Mockingbird educators are more concerned with how the children learn instead of the importance of their education. Scout says “Miss Caroline caught me writing and told me to tell my father to stop teaching me”(Lee 123). What is the problem with Scout’s father teaching her at home? In today’s society children are taught the basics of education at home by their parents …show more content…

“It was not until one reached the sixth grade that one learned anything of value” (Lee 49). As said in To Kill a Mockingbird the children were not taught how to write until the third grade (Lee 13). Grade levels from kindergarten and beyond begin teaching children the necessities for a successful life in today’s society while information taught back then was not useful. Children needed to be taught skills that would assist them in their daily life and communicating with the people they have to interact with. “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-’ ‘Sir.’ ‘-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it (Lee 30). ” If a child was to misbehave or get in trouble at school they were given a physical punishment such as a slap with a ruler or stood up in a corner. “Miss Caroline picked up her ruler, gave me half a dozen quick little pets, then told me to stand in the corner” (Lee 16). Today, punishing a child in a physical way such as hitting them, is considered illegal and would result in consequences to the teacher or educator who committed the action. If a child is being disrespectful or causing a disturbance they are sent to administration and given a write up or sent to ISS for the day.
Education in society

Open Document