Adults are in children’s lives to better them and teach right from wrong. It is essential that they give discipline correctly. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird Scout Finch, an eight-year-old girl living in Maycomb, Alabama gets wrongly disciplined by her Uncle Jack. Scout’s dad, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer. He is working on a case for a black man in the 1930s; However, that is highly frowned upon because of racism in that time period. The Finch family went to a family Christman party. Scout’s cousin, Francis, knowing the circumstances Atticus is in, then calls him a cruel word in front of Scout. That resulted in Scout punching him after calling him a curse word. Uncle Jack was only willing to listen to Francis’s side of the story not knowing it was not truthful, leaving out Scout’s opportunity to speak up; Uncle Jack proceeded to spank Scout as a punishment. After fighting with Francis …show more content…
Uncle Jack went straight to penalizing her without talking to her first… “I turned to flee but Uncle Jack was quicker. I found myself suddenly looking at a tiny ant struggling with a breadcrumb in the grass”(Lee 97). Uncle Jack did not handle this situation correctly. Even though Scout made some poor decisions, physical punishment should never be the answer. Furthermore, if Uncle Jack issued the problem differently Scout could have learned for future situations. After reading “What’s the Best Way to Discipline My Child?” it says “The AAP advises that parents and caregivers should not spank or hit children. Instead of teaching responsibility and self-control spanking often increases aggression and anger in children”(“What’s”). Spanking Scout was not right in general. Although if he chose to go about it in a different manner it would have been more respectful. Moving forward in Scout’s life she will need adults that respect her, so she can learn from different mistakes and move on