Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Taught In Schools

Currently in many schools across the country students are reading To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee. Most teachers believe they are anti racism while also reading a classic. This is not necessarily true. The book has many racial undertones that most don’t bring up. This can lead to students blindly reading and acting like the book is the gospel. It’s trying to teach kids how to be anti racist and when authority figures tell you how to act you usually listen. This book tells you this is the right way to be a ally and you will be praised by all of the poor people who need your help. Because of this To Kill a Mockingbird

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Atticus was explaining to Scout that you have to be open to their view on things, whether it is about segregation in Tom’s case or about personal choices like Boo Radley’s. Because Scout has showed maturity,

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned and/or challenged over thirty times since its publication in 1960. Effectively preventing many students from enjoying the novel and benefitting from its message. To ignore racism is no different than denying it ever existed. To Kill a Mockingbird is appropriate for mature adolescence/students and should not be banned from schools. Despite its sexual related content, or profanity, a valuable lesson remains that should be taught to students.

Throughout the Novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee shows readers that everyone has a different perspective and how a person’s perspective can change their personal beliefs. Lee wants readers to realize that everyone has a different perspective, and you should never judge a book by its

In this essay I will be describing and telling you whether or not To Kill A Mockingbird should or shouldn't be taught in the 9th grade. To Kill A Mockingbird is a very good and intellectual book to read. It is a winner of the pulitzer prize and a wonderful book it talks about this family(Atticus, Scout, and Jem) back in the day when black people didn't have many right and privileges. They live in a little town called birmingham Alabama, the kids father is a lawyer and is defending a black guy(Tom Robinson) that got accused of Rape. The reason for the father (Atticus)defending this man is because he knows that Tom Robinson didn’t rape this girl. Overall this book shows how you should act toward someone if you know they are not guilty even if they are black(Everyone Is Equal). So in my opinion this book should be taught in the 9th grade because it shows how white people acted toward blacks back in the day.

Many schools are taking books out of their curriculum because of the harsh and uncomfortable language and topics. The Biloxi School District had taken To Kill A Mockingbird out of their classrooms and Drake High School had even burned all copies of Slaughterhouse -Five. It is wrong that schools began taking books like that from their lesson plan because students should not be oblivious to these kinds of topics and it is sending the wrong message about the authors and their books.

Have you ever heard or seen someone being racist to somebody else? Well if you have, you know it’s not right. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses unforgettable characters to explain civil rights and racism in the Southern United States of the 1930’s. I think schools should teach that book (To Kill a Mockingbird) because I think students will learn how racism hurts people. I believe it is an important book because it also shows its readers good examples of character development. This book also has great characters that students can relate to. I think that schools need to have a requirement to read this book because it shows students the right way to treat people even if they are different and that it is wrong to discriminate against people.

The book To Kill A Mockingbird is constantly being criticized by parents whose children read the book. One parent whose child went to a Virginia school said, “This is great literature. But there [are so many] racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can’t get past that” (Hooton). This is seen when Cecil Jacobs calls Atticus a “Nigger lover” when on the playground with Scout (Lee 74). In To Kill A Mockingbird, parents have found ample reasons to not want their children reading the book. These include, multiple racial remarks, along with profanity (Kean). Some may argue that the use of this is inappropriate for some to read. This is seen as a parental choice. Parents should be able to decide if their child is mature enough to read

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the greatest novel to Teach kids about diversity and the complex relationship with racism. It details the life of Jem and Scout, two siblings who grow up in a time of racial inequality and unrest. Jem Finch is what most would call a typical young boy; fascinated with sports, guns, and being tough. Scout Finch, on the other hand, is an Atypical tomgirl, tough enough to handle anything that comes her way. Yet, both of their childhoods are different from many of their friends and families that live in the town of Maycomb. Harper Lee creates these characters to portray the internal and external conflict that many young adults encounter when their morals clash with the cultural norm. We see that " you really don't understand a person till you climb into his skin and walk in it" (lee 30) Through Jem’s and Scout’s voice and characterization, Lee reveals how average day kids can change the course of people’s live.

The novel “[Deals] with pathetic loneliness, an accusation of rape, the strangely sexual content of bigotry, a complete failure of justice” (Gerson 2). These are mature topics that can make many uncomfortable. Additionally, teachers say they, “can teach the same lesson with other books,”(Nelson 1). Therefore, they believe if other materials can be used to convey the same learnings without making kids uncomfortable the other materials should be used. However, To Kill A Mockingbird confronts us with our history that can not be changed, and although the novel may make some kids uncomfortable that is not necessarily a bad thing. By being uncomfortable, one is forced to go beyond their comfort zone and forced to think for themselves. If children are shielded from the unfortunate prejudices and inequities of our past, they cannot learn from them, and we are at risk of them being repeated. To Kill A Mockingbird gives insight into American history and the language used during the 1930s, and although this history might make us uncomfortable, it is this uncomfortableness that will help us

To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, based in 1930’s Alabama, follows Scout, a six year old girl, as she navigates through the moral jungle of the racist south while her father defends an alleged black rapist. Although it is often glorified for pioneering new racial awareness but in this new reality of racism, that is 2017, it fails to provide students with a proper education of the issue at hand. Scout, being one of the many white main characters, explores racism but lacks the ability to properly educate today’s ninth graders. Therefore, TKAM should not be a core 9th-grade book at BHS because it negatively portrays people of color and mismatches today’s classroom.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is not only an edifying book about the immorality of racism and prejudice but also a coming-of-age novel. Over the course of the novel, Scout Finch, the protagonist, matures from a critical, disparaging child, to a considerate, respectful lady. She learns to look beyond the common preconceptions about others and realize that everyone is human and therefore deserves a basic level of respect. Through her experiences with Walter Cunningham and Arthur “Boo” Radley, Scout learns that instead of judging others, she should respect them as human beings.

In To Kill A Mockingbird it shows me the side really nobody wants to see, racism. Some characters are not racist at all like Atticus, Scout and Jem. Atticus teaches his children to treat others with respect and with treat others how they want to be treated. But others like Bob Ewell is a very racist man. For example, he and a bunch of other people got together and went to the jail that Tom Robinson was staying in and they wanted to do some bad things to him. I think that this book taught many people to respect others. It really gets to the point of how to treat

Standing in a person’s shoes is one of the first things Atticus explains to Scout in the novel, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” This is said in chapter three. Atticus is explaining how the things that went wrong on her first day of school (Miss Caroline finding Scout impertinent for correcting her, speaking bluntly about the pupils and being able to read, as well as the episode with Walter Cunningham) could have been avoided or at least made better.