Take a Walk

Often, students ask me why we still read To Kill a Mockingbird. They are insulted by the racial slurs and consider civil rights to be an issue we've put behind us. To some degree, their outlook makes me proud. This generation is far-removed from the time and place in Harper Lee's classic novel. I believe we have good discussion about the importance of understanding how we got from there to here and most students appreciate the conversations we have along the way. However, this book is about so much more than race. 

I could write for days about why I love To Kill a Mockingbird. I cry every semester when I show the courtroom scene and not one teenager in that room dares to laugh at me. Atticus Finch is my hero. More eloquent writers than I have written entire dissertations on his character, but suffice it to say that I believe he embodies qualities which deserve to be praised and taught. 

Earlier this week, a twelve-year-old girl committed suicide after being bullied online by her peers. Investigators say the girl had been "absolutely terrorized on social media" and jumped to her death at an old cement factory. 

This is why I still teach To Kill a Mockingbird. 

In one of the early scenes in the novel, Scout is not happy about her first day of school. Her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is new both to the classroom and the community. When Walter Cunningham doesn't have lunch money, the teacher does what she thinks is kind and offers him a quarter. Scout tries to explain that he won't accept the money and why this is embarrassing to him, but only manages to get herself labeled a troublemaker. In typical Scout fashion, she tells Atticus that she is not going back to school. Ever. 

Atticus patiently sits with Scout and asks her to put herself in Miss Caroline's shoes for a few minutes. To consider things from her perspective. She is a new teacher. Doesn't know anyone in the community. Doesn't understand who is rich and who is poor. Is probably very nervous. Had Scout considered any of that? He says..."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."

This is a fairly minor scene in the scope of the novel, but the message is powerful. By the end, Scout has learned to see the world differently. To look at things through the eyes of Miss Caroline, Walter Cunningham, Tom Robinson and, most poignantly, Boo Radley. 

This week's bullying tragedy in Florida is just one story. Forty-two percent of kids say they have been bullied online and seventy-seven percent say that something mean has been said to them or about them via social media.  There are countless stories. I see them in my own school. If you thought Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter were bad, you should see the conversations taking place on ask.fm. Since it allows users to post comments and send messages anonymously, the vile is unbelievable. Ask your teenager about it.  

I take my job very seriously. I teach students grammar, vocabulary, critical thinking, writing and a myriad of other skills. However, I also feel a great responsibility to use literature to open a dialogue. It can open our minds to new ways of thinking. We can be better than we are today.   

Until my students are willing to take a walk in someone else's shoes...To Kill a Mockingbird is still relevant. 

Until teenagers stop bullying one another...Atticus Finch's message is still needed. 

Until we can be kind to one another...I will still teach this book.