I would argue that you may need to teach it more than once. The discussions are different in middle school, high school and college classrooms. I still believe this text should be taught, but how it’s taught should be carefully contextualized. So, do you think the novel should be taken out of curriculum altogether? That said, if we can’t modernize the discussion of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” we’re doing a disservice to the spirit of the book. The text moves us away from that and moves toward a portrait of white courage, even white guilt to a certain extent. That’s often neglected in these discussions. We have Tom Robinson, who is literally killed by the system of judicial practice that is going on during this time period. But what’s lost in that is the focus on Black humanity and Black complexity. The focus of the novel is zeroed in on either Scout as an innocent character or Atticus, a paragon of moral virtue standing up against injustices. Rather, it approaches racism from one direction - from an external, white outsider mentality. The very idea that this novel actually speaks about racism as a complex well-rounded treatment is a bit of a misnomer. That’s one of the things I’ve been getting my students and teachers to focus on. More recently, the book has come under scrutiny. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is studied in classrooms across America. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, for a conversation about the book amid renewed controversy - and guidance on how to approach it in the classroom. Widely considered a coming-of-age novel, the story is told from the perspective of Scout Finch, Atticus’ daughter, who is six years old when the book begins.Īs the book marks its 60-year milestone, and as teachers prepare for fall, Pittwire reached out to Geoffrey Glover, a lecturer in the Department of English in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Atticus Finch, a white man, serves as Robinson’s lawyer. The novel, set in the 1930s in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, is anchored around the trial of Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of raping a white woman. Some have labeled it having a white savior complex. In recent years, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has sparked criticism for how it addresses race and racism. This month, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” turns 60.
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