To Kill a Mockingbird

How does Harper Lee present Scout’s development through a series of learning experiences in this novel.

The author is critical of education the children get at school and makes fun of the way the educational system totally ignores the needs and abilities of the children.
Miss Caroline Fisher is Scout’s first grade teacher; she is new to Maycomb and is unfamiliar with the customs and habits o the people in the town.

Scout is a lively, intelligent, astute girl who prefers boyish activities. She has a strong will and a hot temper which gets her in to trouble with adults. She dislikes school intensely as Miss Fisher will not let her read and lets her feelings be known to the teacher.

Her mind and approach to life is often seen in the novel as being an advantage, as seen by the incident outside the courthouse. Scout learns by experience that adults are not always right, and the trial is the most powerful example of this. Scout illustrates the importance of developing an open and unprejudiced mind of one’s own. She decides very early in life that no matter how other people seek to divide up the human race into different sorts or types of people, there is really ‘just one kind of folks. Folks.’

Scout learns an important lesson in bravery from Mrs. Dubose, when she discovers that her nasty behaviour was because she was trying to free herself from a morphine addiction. The children find that Atticus shooting a rabid dog is more impressive, than Mrs. Dubose’s brave feat but Atticus sets them straight and tells them “Mrs Dubose is the bravest person I know”.

Scout is spontaneous and open with people with other people and it is these qualities which deflate a nasty situation outside the courthouse when Atticus faces a lynch mob. Scout has a very close relationship with her father, who is always trying to make her use her head instead of her fists. Before the trial Scout is subjected to mocking and teasing from the other children at school because Atticus was...