Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Education
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper
Lee
The Theme of Education
Education is one of the key themes of ‘To Kill
a Mockingbird’.
Harper Lee comments both on formal
education systems and informal life lessons,
and the importance of each of these.
Formal Education
Miss Caroline represents formal education in the
novel (see Chapter 2).
Before going to school Scout is excited; however, her
first day is generally a negative experience.
Miss Caroline is young and inexperienced, and is
also unfamiliar with Maycomb. She tries to impose
rigidly the techniques she has learned in college.
Scout can already read and write; because this is not
what Miss Caroline had planned for, she is
unimpressed and regards this as a flaw in Scout.
Formal vs. Informal
Formal Education: Miss Caroline and the teaches
at the Maycomb school
Vs.
How Learning is
Transmitted
Scout Jem
Formal Education
“She discovered I was literate and looked at me with faint distaste.”
(ch2)
Miss Caroline’s form of education is structured and does not take into
account the needs of individuals.
“It was the first time I ever walked away from a fight.” (Ch
9)
At the very end of the novel Atticus articulates another key concept: