Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Taught In Schools Essay

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"To Kill a Mockingbird", a book challenging the ideas of justice, racism, and human morality head-on creates a complex and interesting book with some debatable aspects around whether to teach it in schools. This book is a book centered around a young white girl, scout, whose father (Atticus) is sent to defend a black man against charges of rape. I believe the reason this needs to be brought up is because we need to address the issue of whether we should teach this book in classrooms. Certain people may say that yes, it should be taught in classrooms because it teaches the students about the bias and prejudice at the time. However, I believe that “"To Kill a Mockingbird"” is an outdated book, does not accurately represent black people, and that there are simply better alternatives in books to represent the themes in "To Kill a Mockingbird". …show more content…

The article, “Let’s Stop Pretending "To Kill a Mockingbird" is progressive on race.” The official website of the National Council of Teachers of English can give us some insights on "To Kill a Mockingbird". The article states, “Why, oh why, are we still requiring this book in school? The paternalistic message may have been progressive 55 years ago, but it isn’t now.”. This clearly highlights that this book is outdated by stating that it was progressive 55 years ago and that it shouldn’t be taught in schools. The other piece of evidence supporting my claim is that the book itself was published in the 1960s, when the effects of racism could still be felt throughout America. This shows us that this book is seriously outdated and has to be more relatable to the audience for them to understand at the