Scout’s Loss of Youth In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, the main character, undergoes a sudden change when she hears the verdict of Tom Robinson’s trial. Scout goes from an immature, rash and stubborn child, who gets in fights and doesn’t think about her actions, to a young woman who formulates her own opinion, fully understands racism, and understands the role it plays in her town’s justice system. Before this turning point Scout is immature and childish. For example, Scout tried to get Calpurnia fired for selfish reasons. Scout claims that “[Calpurnia] likes Jem better’n she likes [Scout], anyway” and then proceeded to “[suggest] that Atticus lose no time in packing her off.”(25).
Monday February 18, 2013 Essay An Education Problem Author Mary Sherry In the Praise of the F Word The author Mary Sherry is a school teacher and mother who believes in flunking students that are not motivated to master the basic skills in reading, writing and math. She thinks many high school students are cheated by the educational system that graduates them, lacking these basic skills. Also, she feels students should have these basic academic skills before they enter into the real world of college or employment. The author states the lack of not having the basic skills can lead to many social, educational and financial problems later down the road. She understands that people come from different environments and everyone can learn; they just need to be motivated.
The tall blonde woman is wrong in stating the school isn’t raising rocket scientists because she makes a dangerous assumption, leads these kids to feel uncomfortable in their learning environment, and deprives the kids from being proud of who they are and wanting to learn. A teacher making their own decision to focus on art, specifically because they believe it is the only way for these children to succeed is wrong. Most children want to learn and feel like they can achieve anything they desire ranging from a doctor to a pilot. They are hungry to learn and as Nilsa tells stories of animals she states that the kids, “Listened, some with mouths open, as if they were being fed” (Mariano 553). As shown, all these kids want is to learn, learn more of their culture, more of the academics, more of history.
Julia loves watching the worms and is upset when they quit moving. Then she realizes that they are molting. Julia’s mom agrees to let her spend a bit longer time at Mr. Dixon’s, but Julia continues to have questions in her mind about prejudice and racism. Patrick refuses to hold the worms, and Julia finds out he is afraid of them. She finds that hard to believe because boys aren’t supposed to be scared of crawly things, and Patrick had wanted to do this project.
She seems intelligent by the standards of her time and place, but her thoughts and ideas are still immature and childish, like when she speaks of her engagement with Dill. When scout starts school, she is excited to begin, learning that it is not okay to be so blunt about the truth. Unlike the other children, Scout already knows how to read and write, but for some reason her new teacher is not appreciative of that. Her teacher tells her that it is wrong, based on the fact that she is more intelligent. She tells her father, and they come up with a compromise.
David’s rude teacher not only criticized, but broke down not only him, but also his fellow classmates emotionally as well. While his classmates where being humiliated for their word choices with their answer, he sat there thinking of answers that wouldn’t bring him the most humiliation. Speaking in French, he had to list a few things that he disliked; David’s list of things that he disliked was “blood sausage, intestinal pates, and brain pudding” were a few of the things he mentioned (Sedaris). Then he goes and delivers a few things that he liked such as “IBM typewriters, the French work for bruise, and my electric floor waxer” but he then forgot that he needed to give these objects a gender (Sedaris). Students left class feeling discouraged to keep on learning the language.
He made it sound like were runnin’ a still” (75). Scout was curious why it was a problem if Atticus was defending an African American. She wants to find out the truth behind the things happening around her, which shows maturity. In the first half of the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows the immaturity of a six-year-old, but she also shows a lot of maturity because of her desire to learn. Like a typical six-year-old, she believes everything she hears, she is scared easily, and lastly she is ignorant about a lot of things.
Knowledge is not always power because the more you know does not necessarily mean you understand what you have learned. In the short story “Everyday Use”, education seemed to make a rift in the relationship not only between the mother and the daughter, but also between the sisters. Dee was one to always try and outsmart her family members always seeking answers knowing no one knew. It was mama who eventually got the community together to help send Dee to school so her daughter would be happy and satisfied. The values of heritage seem to have been lost with the gain of knowledge when Dee has gone to college.
The parents usually do not socialize with other parents because they usually receive negative comments towards their child. Parents who anti-socialize usually channel that aggression to their spouse which results in violent arguments. Schools as well as teachers are also responsible on placing kids with ADHD in an environment where they can perform their best. This is not to segregate the children but to place them in an environment where they can learn their best. Also, if the child does not perform at his/her best, it greatly reduces the self-esteem not only of the child but the parents as well.
The quote “ I tried to see a friendly face in the mob” implies that she feels feeble and helpless as well as lonely. Elizabeth generally doesn’t seem to mention the feelings of the whites but just their actions, however, by analysing what Eckford is describing we can get a faint idea of their thoughts too. By shouting “lynch her!” refers to the fact that the whites are angry about de-segregation at their school and want her to leave them alone. They are being quite selfish towards her while being thoughtless and not thinking. Eckford finally recounts the actions that she saw on that day.