Martin Luther King Jr. Once said that “intelligence plus character is the goal of true education.” In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses a young girl named Scout Finch’s views on her schooling in Maycomb, Alabama in order to critique the education system. Scout is a bright young girl who is well above her peers in terms of maturity and intelligence. However, as Scout experiences backlash from her teacher for her advanced skills, she becomes bitter and hardened toward her schooling. Harper Lee uses the perspective of a young child to magnify the flaws in the education system and the negative effects it can have on a society.
Shortly after Scout begins her first year of public schooling, the notion that the Maycomb educational system leaves …show more content…
Nonetheless, Atticus’s teachings at home prove to be far more valuable to his children than any curriculum they may learn in the classroom; both morally and otherwise. Later in this novel, Atticus acknowledges the tendency for certain people to use the phrase “all men are created equal” out of context. Atticus states that “the most ridiculous example he can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and the idle along with the industrious – because all men are created equal, educators will tell you that the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority” (Lee 173). Through the industrialized education system, the reader can acknowledge that we are not all created equally in the sense that some are more intelligent than others, some have more opportunity, and that some are plainly gifted beyond the average scale of most men. The reader can now understand that the public schooling system, in some cases, can do more harm than good. Provided no child should be left behind, no child should have to be constrained based on formalities.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird magnifies the flaws in the education system and the negative effects it can have on society through the perspective of a young child. Towards the end of the novel, Scout recognizes that life experiences are the legitimate teachers and that her father Atticus has taught her more than school ever will. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee expresses a lack of credence in the institutionalized education system which evokes the reader to speculate if it does more harm than good. In conclusion, perhaps a more valuable education can be found in the
Shortly after Scout begins her first year of public schooling, the notion that the Maycomb educational system leaves …show more content…
Nonetheless, Atticus’s teachings at home prove to be far more valuable to his children than any curriculum they may learn in the classroom; both morally and otherwise. Later in this novel, Atticus acknowledges the tendency for certain people to use the phrase “all men are created equal” out of context. Atticus states that “the most ridiculous example he can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and the idle along with the industrious – because all men are created equal, educators will tell you that the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority” (Lee 173). Through the industrialized education system, the reader can acknowledge that we are not all created equally in the sense that some are more intelligent than others, some have more opportunity, and that some are plainly gifted beyond the average scale of most men. The reader can now understand that the public schooling system, in some cases, can do more harm than good. Provided no child should be left behind, no child should have to be constrained based on formalities.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird magnifies the flaws in the education system and the negative effects it can have on society through the perspective of a young child. Towards the end of the novel, Scout recognizes that life experiences are the legitimate teachers and that her father Atticus has taught her more than school ever will. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee expresses a lack of credence in the institutionalized education system which evokes the reader to speculate if it does more harm than good. In conclusion, perhaps a more valuable education can be found in the