tkam education theme essay

Education As the novel begins you can see that education is very important theme along with all the others in the book. The theme of education runs through the novel which is not always based on school, but always where Scout realizes that school is not what you expect it to be, where the children are in a rougher environment, though they are smart. There are many instances in Tkam that prove education is a theme that is important and needed throughout the whole story because most of education is shown through the lessons learnt from Atticus, and those lessons are about acting proper, discrimination, preparing the kids for the moral life for the children when difficulties like racism, and savagery are part of a daily routine.
Basically, one form of education in the novel is when Aunt Alexandra teaches Scout to be a lady and Cal teaching the children to behave properly. Scout at first does not agree and feels very uncomfortable about it. She has always been a girl with no girly manners especially because she had no mother to teach her such discipline. Scout has to discover and map in order to make it to womanhood. Jem as well learns the same lessons in which men don’t always operate by the visible rules. As aunt Alexandra continues to teach Scout of the ways to becoming a woman she realizes that being a lady wasn’t so bad. “Aunt Alexandra looked across the room at me and smiled. She looked at the tray of cookies on the table and nodded at them. I carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk to Mrs. Merriweather. With my best company manners, I asked her is she would have some. After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I. (24.93) Acting proper is an education a lady or a young boy turning into a man would both have to educate themselves with, as well as in the education you get in school.
Similarly, the lessons Atticus gives the kids, like Scout are used furthermore in the story. Scout’s first day at school to help introduce many of Maycomb’s families and their backgrounds, through representatives in Scout’s class. She uses the teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, to highlight the naivety and prejudice of many adults in the town of Maycomb. The author does not approve of the American education or the ‘Dewey Decimal System’Harper Lee is critical of the education system, she shows us through Scout’s reading and writing ability that it does not allow you to excel as it does not take into account ability or need. Miss Caroline's bias is first demonstrated when Scout shows Miss Caroline she can read: "she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste" (17). Miss Caroline then proceeds to do whatever she can to get her style back under control and tells Scout that her father is a bad teacher: "‘Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now"' (17). Here, in effect Miss Caroline is telling Scout to forget everything she has learnt before school and learn to read and write again in the ‘correct manor’ of the ‘Dewey Decimal System’. However, his teaching at home, both morally and otherwise, is far more valuable to his children than anything they learn in the classroom.
As well, throughout the novel Scout explores the differences between black people and white people. She is getting prepared and educated for the moral world of where you go through the difficulties of savagery. She goes through difficulties seeing how blacks are treated in maycomb like how Tom Robinson goes through a trial for an action he never did, which is raping a white girl and being found unfairly guilty. Jem and Scout also believe in racial equality, but are obviously in the minority. When Atticus loses the trial, he tries to make his children understand that although he lost, he did help move along the cause of ending racism as evidenced by the jury's lengthy deliberation period. She and Jem attend church with Calpurnia and Scout truly enjoys the experience. Here you can see that they do know more than children their age know, being influenced by their father who agrees that blacks and whites are equal.
Therefore, the reader could see the significance of Education in Tkam. Throughout the novel you can see how the lessons learnt from Atticus, as in acting proper, discrimination, preparing the kids for the moral life for the children when difficulties like racism and savagery develop the characters throughout the novel. When one tallies all the details and examples that are shown throughout Tkam, you can see the need and importance of education in the novel.