As it is a central turning point that has key events both leading up to it and following it, the Ms. Cunningham class outburst serves as this chapter’s climax.
Both Jem and Scout are somber when Charles Baker Harris, or Dill, leaves Maycomb to head back up to Meridian at the end of the summer months. However, Scout’s sorrows are soon quelled when she realizes that this is the much-anticipated year that she begins school.
On her first day of school, Jem, who adjured Scout not to address him during school hours, escorts her to her classroom. At the beginning of the course, much to the surprise of Ms. Cunningham, Scout’s professor, Scout is able to successfully read stock quotations from The Mobile Register.
However, Ms. Cunningham is not thrilled to find out that Scout is literate. After she reprimands Scout and refutes her truthful claim that her father did not, in fact, teach her how to read, Scout complains to Jem at recess, referring to Ms. Cunningham as a “damn lady.” Jem calms her, and informs Scout that Ms. Cunningham is utilizing a new hands-on teaching style that she learned how to implement in college. “It’ll be in all the grades soon,” he says. …show more content…
Cunningham fails to understand nor respect that fact that Walter Cunningham, an impoverished boy in Scout’s grade, cannot afford lunch. She continues to push the boy to take her money, buy himself a meal, and then pay her back the next day, not comprehending that Walter will be unable to, and is therefore will not take the money. After some verbal prodding from classmates because of her knowledge of the Cunningham “tribe” and their financial state, Scout stands up for Walter, and informs the teacher that he and his family are too proud take her
Both Jem and Scout are somber when Charles Baker Harris, or Dill, leaves Maycomb to head back up to Meridian at the end of the summer months. However, Scout’s sorrows are soon quelled when she realizes that this is the much-anticipated year that she begins school.
On her first day of school, Jem, who adjured Scout not to address him during school hours, escorts her to her classroom. At the beginning of the course, much to the surprise of Ms. Cunningham, Scout’s professor, Scout is able to successfully read stock quotations from The Mobile Register.
However, Ms. Cunningham is not thrilled to find out that Scout is literate. After she reprimands Scout and refutes her truthful claim that her father did not, in fact, teach her how to read, Scout complains to Jem at recess, referring to Ms. Cunningham as a “damn lady.” Jem calms her, and informs Scout that Ms. Cunningham is utilizing a new hands-on teaching style that she learned how to implement in college. “It’ll be in all the grades soon,” he says. …show more content…
Cunningham fails to understand nor respect that fact that Walter Cunningham, an impoverished boy in Scout’s grade, cannot afford lunch. She continues to push the boy to take her money, buy himself a meal, and then pay her back the next day, not comprehending that Walter will be unable to, and is therefore will not take the money. After some verbal prodding from classmates because of her knowledge of the Cunningham “tribe” and their financial state, Scout stands up for Walter, and informs the teacher that he and his family are too proud take her