Theme Of Education In To Kill A Mockingbird

Many people tend to not see past their beliefs. They think only one way, or from how they were taught at a young age. These individuals may not understand that there is more than only what they think. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates this idea with some of the characters. In this novel, children and adults demonstrate blind spots about teaching and self education. A six-year old girl named Scout Finch, who lives in a small town called Maycomb, possesses a blind spot. Scout, a first grader, is met with confusion when her schoolteacher, Miss Caroline, tells her to stop reading with her father, because she believes it interferes with her education. Later that day, Calpurnia, their cook, who helps to raise Scout, reprimands

Scout blames Calpurnia because she thinks she is at fault for being smarter than the other kids. Scout also was already upset at Calpurnia before, so she had someone to blame. Since Scout is little, she is unable to see that Calpurnia is not at fault. Scout thinks she is in trouble for being advanced; she fails to understand that Miss Caroline could be wrong, and no one is in the wrong for teaching her anything prior to the first day of school. Additionally, Miss Caroline, a school teacher who is boarding from the North, possesses a blind spot. On her first day of teaching, she encounters Scout Finch, a six-year old girl living in Maycomb. Scout is very smart, since she was taught from her father and other guardians before she started school. When Miss Caroline starts teaching, she notices Scout is ahead of the class and is very bright. Since she was very advanced, ”miss Caroline told me to tell my father to not teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading”(Lee 19). Miss Caroline is ignorant of the fact that Scout Finch, a smart girl, learns a lot by reading. She may be ahead of the class, but Miss Caroline should not prevent her from reading