To Kill a Mockingbird Forum

WHAT IS MISS.CAROLINE'S THOUGTHS ON EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES.

Miss Caroline is the teacher.  Right?  Where did she get her ideas?  Did she have previous experience.  Did she think about the feelings of her students or was she just interested in their academic "book" learning?

Miss Caroline thinks that the details she was taught in college are exactly what she will experience in the classroom.  She has a very difficult first day of school as she sees that those details do not come true in Maycomb.  She chastises Scout for already knowing how to read, rather than praising her skill and enilsting her help in teaching the other children.  She also forbids cursive writing.  She cannot understand why Walter Cunningham will not accept her quarter; "He's a Cunningham" is not enough of an explanation for this outsider.  "He's one of the Ewells" also does not explain Burris's behavior to her.  She needs time to get to know her students and their ways. 

Just as Miss Caroline mistakenly believes she has this classroom business all down pat, the children mistakenly believe they have Maycomb all down pat--each family has a reputation and everyone knows the reputations, so no one needs to consider anyone's behavior as individual choices.  Everything operates by tradition.