Discuss how Harper Lee presents the tension between formal and informal education
in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’
The tension between formal and informal education is presented by Harper Lee through the
actions of different characters in To Kill A Mockingbird. Whilst Scout matures and develops
throughout the novel as a result of her experiences and interactions with important
characters, the “treadmill of the Maycomb County school system” continues to be almost
counter-productive to her learning. Harper Lee thus outlines the need for edification to relate
to learners and, in the case of Maycomb, that informal education is far more effective than
formal education.
Scout’s first teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is shown to be a naive outsider from Maycomb
whose teaching methods do not fit the learning needs of her class, and hence presents
formal education in a detrimental manner. Miss Caroline begins by reading a story about
talking cats to Scout’s first-grade class that is ‘”immune to imaginative literature”. She does
not understand that most of the children have “fed hogs from the time they were able to
walk” and so are not interested in this. The pointless topics being taught here are again
highlighted when Miss Blount says “the sixth grade cannot concentrate on the pyramids,” a
subject that is of practically no use to the Maycomb children as they live in such a parochial
society. Miss Fisher is then portrayed as hypocritical in the way that she scolds Scout for
already being literate, saying that Atticus “does not know how to teach.” Instead she
attempts to educate the class by use of the Dewey Decimal System, which according to
Scout consists of Miss Caroline waving cards with simple words printed on them and
students receiving “these impressionistic revelations in silence”. The futility of this exercise is
emphasised when Scout becomes bored and starts writing a letter. Furthermore, the fact
that Miss Caroline scolds Scout for her advanced learning rather than trying to extend her
shows the ineffectiveness of the Maycomb school system. In this way the author uses the
antagonist Miss Caroline to cast formal education in a negative light.
By contrast, Atticus is Scout’s first true teacher and is used to illustrate the effectiveness of
informal education. Atticus is a sympathetic figure who is completely able to relate to Scout,
unlike Miss Caroline, and teaches her a number of important life lessons concerning human
nature in particular (interestingly enough he “never went to school”). Perhaps the most
important message of these lessons is the idea that “you never really understand a person
until you consider things from his point of view,” which allows Scout to sympathise with key
figures in the novel such as Boo Radley. This is a key element in Scout’s development
throughout the course of the novel: she originally takes part in a “melancholy little drama”
about an apparently insane Boo Radley, but progresses until the end of the novel where she
understands him to such an extent that she is “beginning to learn his body English.” Atticus
is in fact such a competent teacher that in the final chapter Scout concludes that there isn’t
“much else left for [her] to learn, except possibly algebra.” Therefore Atticus teaches Scout
the most important lessons she learns in an unconventional style and consequently
demonstrates how effective informal education is, as opposed to Miss Caroline’s methods.
This difference is reinforced by the use of Walter Cunningham and his relationships with
these two characters. At school, Miss Caroline offers Walter a quarter to eat downtown, not
understanding that “he didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any”. Walter has also been
unable to pass the first grade because he has to “stay out ever’ spring an’ help Papa” on his
family’s farm. As a result, however, Walter is extremely knowledgeable with regards to
agriculture and is thus able to have a conversation about farming with Atticus “like two men.”
The way in which Walter interacts with Miss Caroline, who clearly does not understand his
background, in comparison to the way in which he interacts with Atticus, who appreciates
him and talks about relevant topics, is used to summarise the need for a ‘teacher’ to be able
to relate to a ‘student’. More importantly though, Walter Cunningham presents not only the
demand for a pedagogy to be appropriate for the learner but also for the information being
taught to be relevant in itself, as Walter needs to know about farming in order to make a
living, whereas literacy is rather unimportant for him. The fact that he has learnt all of the
important skills he needs by informal education sustains Harper Lee’s teaching style
preference.
Miss Gates is used later in the novel to reinforce this view. As Scout’s next schoolteacher
she is similar to Miss Caroline; she is shown to be highly hypocritical and again, teaches
irrelevant material to her students. In class Miss Gates speaks about Hitler as a maniac and
gets “real red in the face” explaining his views on the Jewish people and claims that in
America they “don’t believe in persecuting anybody.” However Scout recalls that coming out
of the courthouse she heard Miss Gates saying that black people “were gettin’ way above
themselves” and is confused by “how you can hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be
ugly about folks at home.” Not only is Miss Gates shown to be hypocritical, she also provides
her class with extraneous information when she attempts to explain the difference between a
democracy and dictatorship, rather advanced concepts for second-grade pupils. By aligning
yet another representative of formal education with negative traits, Harper Lee reiterates the
inadequacies of this method of teaching.
Meanwhile Calpurnia contrasts this by playing a similar role to Atticus in Scout’s
development by teaching her a number of moral lessons. A clear example of this is when
Scout vocally expresses her outrage in the way in which Walter Cunningham pours syrup all
over his dinner. Calpurnia teaches Scout that it doesn’t “matter who they are, anybody sets
foot in this house’s...comp’ny” and warns her not to remark on others’ ways as if she is “so
high and mighty.” Hence Calpurnia cautions Scout against hypocrisy, which not only is an
important life lesson but also is a direct juxtaposition to the ways of Scout’s schoolteachers
and thus maintains the presentation of this tension between these teaching styles. Moreover
Calpurnia’s educative techniques are also effective in helping Scout to learn skills generally
taught formally, such as the ability to write. Merely by “scrawling the alphabet firmly across
the top of a tablet, then copying out a chapter of the Bible beneath it” and getting Scout to
reproduce her chirography “on rainy days” she manages to teach her how to write before
she even begins school. On the other hand, under the Maycomb school system, Scout
“won’t learn to write until [she is] in the third grade.” This comparison upholds the idea that
informal education is much more worthwhile than formal education.
By using a variety of characters to exemplify either the downfalls of formal education and/or
the effectiveness of informal education, Harper Lee adduces the tension between these two
methods of teaching and implies that moral lessons are far more worthwhile than learning
specific, unimportant skills.
Bateman 5A
Word Count = 1197