To Kill a Mockingbird

 I don't know what to write about again... so here is another essay that I wrote. This time it's for English.


 “It was not until many years later that I realized that he wanted me to hear every word he said.” That quote represents how Atticus, the father, taught his children. The theme in this book is, “Education is not limited to the classroom.” Scout is only six year of age and she is very smart. She already knows how to read and write before she enters the first grade. She learns many life lessons over the course of this book. Education is not just math, reading, and writing. There are also many life lessons that she had to learn to be productive in life. Scout has learned many of these lessons early on. Atticus also taught her to not judge people without getting to know the circumstance that they are in. Scout was very smart for her age.
 Scout started school in the first grade already knowing how to read and write. Atticus read to her while he followed the words with his finger. While Calpurnia made her copy phases from the Bible causing her to learn to write. She was never learned these concepts at school, she learned them at her own home. This is one example of the theme, “Education is not limited to the classroom.”
 In to Kill a Mockingbird, Scout goes through many hard and educational life lessons. Her dad, Atticus, is lawyering for a colored man. So she learned how to fight with her head instead of her fists, when kids were being rude to her. She didn’t want to disappoint her father so she often let fights go. She is trying to remember that you can’t let what people say bother you. This enlightening lesson, again, was not taught in the classroom. Her dad gave Scout some advice to help her with one of her problems.
 “It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.” Atticus was trying to comfort Scout when she was called an impolite name. The name that she was called really made her miserable. When Atticus said these small, little words, it sparked something inside of her. She wanted to change. Scout didn’t want anything that people called her make her angry. Her friends called her names because of what her dad was doing with his job. Yet she remained firm and didn’t let the names bother her, and started seeing things from other people perspective.
 Atticus realized that Scout judged people a lot, so he had a talk with her. He said, "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." Scout never thought about life that way. Nevertheless, Scout respected her father so she took this lesson to heart. One instance that she portrayed this in her life was when she hopped into Mrs. Dubose skin and walked around in it for a while. As she did this, Scout realized and understood why Mrs. Dubose acted the way she did. Mrs. Dubose was always mean to her and her brother, Jem. Soon as she walked around in Mrs. Dubose’s skin Scout realized that she was sick and that’s why she acted the way she did. Mrs. Dubose wasn’t the only one that gave Scout a hard time, her Aunt Alexandra did too.
 Scouts Aunt, Aunt Alexandra, comes to stay with Scout and her family. She tries to get Scout to act more like a young lady than a boy. She tries numerous ways to achieve her goal. But when Tom Robinson dies, a black man that Atticus was defending in court, and Scout sees that Aunt Alexandra is still acting like a lady she realizes something. “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” Scout learns from example the best. She learned that you could be a lady even when times are hard. She couldn’t have learned this lesson from Aunt Alexandra talking to her about how important it is to act like a lady. Scout learns a lot by example although she learns a lot from her father, Atticus.
 “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” said Atticus. This little phrase taught Scout a lot. This line from the book means that people shouldn’t hurt anyone that didn’t do anything wrong. Mockingbirds just sing and don’t bother people. So if a person hurt a mockingbird, Atticus says it would be a sin.
 In conclusion, people could learn a lot from Scout. She is young, however, she acquires many educational lessons, by which not all were taught in a school house. All of the examples above were leaned in life not inside the classroom. Most people when they think of education they think of school. But this proves different. Education is not just in the classroom it’s everywhere in life. Scout learns things just by walking around her town to having talks with her father. As you have read above, “Education is not limited to the classroom.”