To Kill A Mockingbird Education Analysis

Children are required to go to school almost ten out of the twelve months of the year to get an education. They learn their basic math, science, and english studies with a teacher and planned lessons of exactly what they should know. However, the education of a child does not have to be reliant of the school system. In some cases, children's lives and what they observe from the world around them may educate them more that the school system can. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, two children, Jem and Scout Finch, are growing up in the racist community of Maycomb County, Alabama. As their lawyer father, Atticus, defends a black man named Tom Robinson, they experience the different judgements at their very own doorstep and the harsh reality of equality. In this text, real life taught the children more lessons over the course of three years than their school education ever did.

This very much upset her first grade teacher, Miss Caroline. Scout says, “After making me read most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud, she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste.” (Lee 22) Miss Caroline was clearly bothered about her ability to read. This is showing that it is uncommon for a child know how to read already at that age. Scout also claims that she was “born reading”, implying that Atticus did not teach her how to read. She says, “‘Teach me?’ I said in surprise. ‘He hasn’t taught me anything, Miss Caroline. Atticus ain’t got time to teach me anything.’” (Lee 22) Not any form of “school” taught her how to read, she had learned on her own. From this we can see that Scout is ahead in her education, having already knowing how to read. Although school has just started for her, she must turn to real life to be able to learn new