Maycomb’s education system is depicted as a failure throughout chapters 2 and 3. Lee’s description of the student’s poor learning attitudes, the teacher’s unskillful teaching methods, all highlights the failure of Maycomb’s education system.
Lee depicts the failure of the Maycomb education system through the description of elderly students in Scout’s first grade class. When the class was questioned about their knowledge on alphabets, Scout explained by saying “Everybody did; most of the first grade had failed it last year.” The adjective “failed” depicts that the students did not learn much in Maycomb and was unable to take in knowledge under the Maycomb education system. Not being able to take in knowledge, students are unable to pass through
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This is evident when Miss Caroline looked at Scout “with more than faint distaste.” after she reveals to Miss Caroline her capability to read and write. The noun phrase, faint distaste, shows that Miss Caroline is pull out by Scout’s knowledge, as she preserve that grade one students were not suppose to know how to read and write. From what she expected, we can deduce that Miss Caroline’s teaching method is impersonal, and does not suit the needs of the students in Maycomb’s society. With her incapability to differentiate for different abilities, Scout will not be challenged academically and learning is lost.
Lee reinforces the failure of Maycomb’s education system once again through students in grade one, who were not expected to contribute and participate during class. This is evident when “no comment seemed to be expected of us” in Miss Caroline’s class. The noun phrase “no comment” emphasis that learning is silence from Miss Caroline’s class; therefore students were unable to clarify their thoughts and questions towards what they are learning. Not being able to ask and clarify, students will not be excited for their lessons, yet motivation on learning will be