A Quest for Literacy-Education in the 1930s Due to reformers in the Great Depression Era, education has changed and evolved much in the last hundred years. Education quality in the 1920s and 30s was severely lacking, due to money shortage. Scout and Jem Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird have education quality surpassing most other schools of the time. Throughout the story, Scout is in first through third grade, while Jem is in fifth grade through high school. Most schools were in desperate need of help, and the school system in general needed help. Simply put, there was no money to fund schools, causing them to close and have old materials. In the 1930s, many people were not literate, which led to school reform and new state laws. …show more content…
Jem Finch references one of the main reformers of the time while talking to Scout: “I’m just trying to tell you the new way they’re teachin’ the first grade, stubborn. It’s the Dewey Decimal System” (Lee 24). While Jem does not mention the correct system, he is still speaking about the famous reformer John Dewey. Dewey was a big time supporter of progressive education. He spent many years trying to bend school patterns to make students, to paraphrase “A Brief Overview of Progressive Education,” more prepared to participate in a democratic society (1). He believed that students should focus more on creativity and involvement in class. On Biography.com, it also mentions other things that he believed in: “...that education should be based on the principle of learning through doing” (2). When his beliefs were developed into a system, they were temporarily adopted by the schools. However, principles of progressive education fell out of favor until later in the nineteenth century after just a few years. While Dewey was one of the main reformers, he also had help from others, such as Francis W. Parker, Ella Flagg Young, and the United States government. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal helped many groups of people, including helping Native Americans with their educational system: “The New Deal, therefore, provided the children with a basic …show more content…
For example, in regards to Burris Ewell and his lack of going to school: “She reckons she’s carried out the law just gettin’ their names on the roll and runnin’ ‘em here the first day” (Lee 36). This shows how laws were less strict, nowadays, kids must go to school, not just be on the roll. Schools were so short on money in the 1920s and 30s that they had little time to focus on kids like Burris. Some states, such as Kansas, attempted to rectify the money problem through laws: “Kansas...had an economy legislature that really did things...they sternly limited school levies” (Shannon 96). Due to lack of money, the Great Depression forced many states to pass laws to use their money more efficiently. Iowa is another of those states: “The 1933 legislature brought forth much legislation. But an analysis of the 32 new laws that affect the schools shows that all but one were concerned with economy” (95). One could argue that the Depression actually helped schools, in forcing the states to try and keep them together. Despite this, schools suffered throughout the Great Depression and there was a lot of work done later to fix some of the
He had none today, nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life” (Lee 20). In addition, student’s schoolwork and progress began to decline due to undernourishment. Many children were not able to stay in school because there was not enough money to keep the schools open. A third of a million children were out of school during the Great Depression (Farrell 14).
Why are different races and social classes treated so differently? Why was education so horrible at some points in time? Two of the characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are Jem and Scout. When Jem and Scout are growing up, they find out that many things are not as they seem. Certain people are not treated as well as others just because of the color of their skin, how they live, educational status, or even on just urban legend. At courthouses back then, blacks had to sit in a balcony. Many people in this time were so uneducated that they couldn’t read out of hymn books at church, if they had any. Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different kinds of prejudice and educational problems in the 1930’s in Maycomb County, Alabama.
“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.” This quote by Edward Everett Hale means that if somebody wants to make a change in the world, even if it is a small thing, they have the power to. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set during the 1930’s. There were different perspectives back then. African Americans did not have the same rights as white people did. This story is based around a society in which African Americans were not given the same chances as whites, and were lower in status. A man named Atticus Finch changes the viewpoint towards African Americans. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper shows that one person can change society, as shown by Atticus in the Tom Robinson trial and the decisions he makes at home.
The world is an unfair place, high social standing is longed for by most. America in the 1930’s was not the place you wanted to be if you were not born a white, rich, man. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee illustrates the inescapability of social class and the heartbreaking reality of cultural barriers. In the summer of her fifth year, Jean Louise Finch, or “Scout” for short, discovers the true colors of the world’s injustices for the first time accompanied by her ten year old brother Jeremy Atticus Finch, or “Jem,” and her neighbor’s seven year old nephew, Charles Baker Harris, or “Dill.” Together the three children come to see there are many deep layers to the residents in every town, even a small, quiet one like
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about all different kinds of stereotypes. It takes place during the 30’s in the depression. It uses a young girl’s perspective to show how these stereotypes were so abundant, and how terrible they were. The novel has many themes about racism and sexism, which the author portrays in creative ways. I believe that To Kill a Mockingbird is very much still relevant today.
Growing up is hard, but when you add in nosey neighbors, scary houses, a stuck up aunt, and taunting children, it becomes more difficult. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee that was published in 1960. The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Scout Finch is a six year old narrator. She lives with her father, her brother, and Calpurnia, their black cook. Scout spends her summers playing with her brother, Jem, and her friend, Dill Harrison. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is a lawyer and he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. The story is an account of the next three years of Scout’s life in Maycomb. Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it takes a couple years for Scout Finch to grow and mature into an understanding, empathetic, polite, young lady.
The book, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the Early 1930’s. The 1930’s was a decade of racism,pain and struggle. However, this decade soon became the new beginning. To escape the horrendous reality of being unemployed and unable to provide for their families, many turned to entertainment to escape the hardships and realities that they were going through. Many families went to church regularly to ask for forgiveness and to hope that things would change for the better. Many churches seen about a 5 percent increase in the amount of members attending church when the Great Depression had started. Also, the 1930s was a time where there was a lot of tension between the races. Discrimination against blacks was not yet illegal, and therefore
In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird the teacher Miss Caroline tried her best. She did not have the right ideas for education though. Miss Caroline scolded Scout for knowing how to read and write. In education now, we encourage children to learn to read and write before school starts. Another problem with the schooling in To Kill A Mockingbird is that they judge the children on social status, not academics. I am not saying that no one ever thinks that poor kids get nowhere and rich kids have it all, but we base judgement more on character than social status now. For example in To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout speaks up about the Cunningham’s financial issues. In Scout’s hometown they pay a lot of attention to wealth and how the people live (Lee). Today, wealth is still a fixation, but people get in trouble for making fun of others wealth.
“No!” The child screamed. This one word comes out of the mouthes of young children all the time in contemporary society and it is directed towards their parents. When parents ask their children to do something, this is a common response. It is a usual response from children who think they have a right to challenge their parents’ authority. Children in the 1930s generally acted very differently towards their parents. A high degree of respect was expected from children by their elders. In modern society, this expected degree of respect has declined. Many theories exist to try to explain why the respect children give their parents is plummeting. This disrespect from children displays a great deterioration in civility in modern society. Since many children’s respect for authority appears to have declined in contemporary America, the responsibilities of parenting must become a priority to reinstate civility.
To Kill a Mockingbird and American History The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, has many different relations to American history. The book shows good examples of racism, working life, church, and many other things. The book takes place sometime in the 1930's. It's about two children named Jem and Scout.
In the average person’s life, education is everything and is shown everywhere, even in places you would not expect to find it. Education is important for life in today’s average society because if you do not have an education you most likely will not get a high paying job or no job at all because education is needed for almost everything. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Education in Maycomb is shown by many people and is interpreted to Scout, Jem and Dill in many ways even though it is flawed and sometimes backwards in most cases. Other ways education is taught throughout the book are moral; school and through their dad which effected scout the greatest through the book. Once Scout reaches the minimum age of going to school she thinks that school will be great and easy but when she arrives she knows that it will be the exact opposite when she finds out a new teacher is teaching her.
The 1930’s were a time in which blacks faced many hardships. It was a time in which the Ku Klux Klan had its peak. However, most importantly, it was the time when Nelle Harper Lee, the writer of To Kill A Mockingbird, was being raised. She was raised in a world where “niggers'; were the bottom class in one of the most powerful countries in the world. She was also being raised during the Great Depression, a time when the attacks on blacks were intensified, as they were the scapegoats of the immense downfall of the US economy. However, she was only a small, innocent child who believed in equality for all. Thus, Harper Lee expressed her disapproval over the treatment of blacks in her Award-Winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, through the eyes of a fictional character called Jean Louise Finch, better known as “Scout';.
Jean Louise “Scout” and Jem Finch experienced life in the 1930’s living in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Their childhood was a nonstop adventure that brought jocund days and testing trials that teenager’s today experience even with the world around us changing every day. The moral upbringings, educational importance, and the crime rate of small towns all contributed to the childhood memories that were built every day in Maycomb County. These attributes to childhood experiences have changed a lot over the vast time period between the 1930’s and 2000’s. The moral upbringings are different in the way that children living now are experiencing a different surrounding in their everyday life and have lost morals that were taught in the 1930’s. Education is more important now than in the 1930’s because of the many laws that have been established to keep children well educated to help them succeed. Living in a small town had many advantages like the low crime rate; crime rate has risen and caused an effect on small town life. There are many similarities as well as differences between the childhood in the 1930’s and the 2000’s. The changes that have occurred affect my life as a young Alabamian every day in many ways.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about the coming of age by Harper Lee, in which she narrates the story through Scout Finch who describes her childhood. The novel begins with Scout living with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in Alabama’s town of Maycomb during the time of the Great Depression, Atticus is a lawyer and the Finch family are rich in comparison to others. Jem and Scout befriend Dill, who came to Maycomb for multiple summers. They become fascinated with a house on their street called the Radley Place and the mysterious and spooky character of Boo Radley. Scout goes to school for the first time and hates it. Scout
To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel of many themes. Education is a major one. In the novel, Scout and Jem, as well as many other characters learn quite a few valuable lessons about the way humans act as well as the way Maycomb functions. As children in the story, Jem, Scout and Dill are naive to some of the ways people act in their town as well as the extent of the racism and social inequality that Maycomb experiences. I believe the experience of going to the court and watching the whole Tom Robinson case educated the children more than Atticus or anyone else's words could’ve about inequality and the way people act.