Scout goes to school, and right away the teacher wants to "undo the damage" caused by Scout already knowing how to read, which makes me question how good the quality of teaching used to be. I'm also amazed how far we've improved the schooling systems across the country (while a tad unimpressed by how the grading system is set up). Scout then teaches Miss Caroline about how Cunninghams don't borrow anything they can't pay back, which causes Miss Caroline to become frustrated and punish Scout via tapping her arm with a ruler and making her stand in a corner, which is a very disagreeable way of punishing a student (they miss out on knowledge; the punishment is disproportionate compared to the action; the teacher lets her emotions control her too much).
Scout then feels the need to punish Walter Cunningham because
why not Scout blamed him for making her get in trouble, or "start off on the wrong foot" as it were. Quite interesting to me how promptly she did it, almost as if it were a normal thing to do (keeping in mind how subjective "normal" is in this sense).
Then we get to Burris Ewell, who shows up for the first day of school briefly, and then never comes back. Education really does seem to be much less enforced back then, or cared about. Then again, the economy was in a really really pathetic shape, so not much could really be done about it, could there?
I find it interesting to compare modern schools and past schools. While there's been major, major improvements, I can't help but feel there's just a few things that have stuck, such as silly gossip and a overvalue of physical activity vs. technological expertise. Meh, teenagers have a wonky morality.
Atticus teaches Scout how to perceive multiple sides of a situation, which is a good first step towards beneficial morality.
Overall, a quite interesting first few chapters, gives me much to think about.
Thanks,
~B.E.
dD datadyne
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