Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Taught At Belle Chasse High School?

“As all literary works depict conflict, it would be impossible to suggest that we avoid any literary work that portrays evil” (Shannon 1). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel that tells the story of Jeremy Finch and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch while growing up in their small town of Maycomb. Lee’s story teaches thorough lessons through the events that occur throughout the novel, while also using language that would have been used in the 1930s. The use of this derogatory language has disturbed many readers and led them to doubt if the novel should even be taught in schools. To Kill a Mockingbird should be taught in 9th grade at Belle Chasse High School because it teaches empathy and the value of understanding others, it sparks

To begin, To Kill a Mockingbird should be included in the Belle Chasse High School 9th grade curriculum because it involves the teaching of empathy and how to understand why others are the way they are. Walter Cunningham, a kid in Scout’s classroom, is an impoverished kid who doesn’t even bring lunch to school. After a misunderstanding in class, Jem invites Walter to dinner at the Finch house. Walter floods his food with syrup and Scout says something about it. Later, Atticus, the children’s father, tells Scout, “‘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. . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’”(Lee 33). This illustrates the theme of empathy,