The Relevance of To Kill a Mockingbird

Look at these 13 and 14-year-old kids. They were so rapt while watching the courtroom scene from To Kill a Mockingbird that I didn’t have one request to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or go to the nurse. Sure signs of 8th-grade ennui, a synonym for bored out of their wits. Atticus, Jem, Scout, Boo, and the other characters have won over readers, even reluctant readers once again.

I am teaching this classic to a multi-cultural, multi-racial group of freshly evolved teenagers that smother themselves in social media, virtual reality, and, thank goodness, good old-fashioned teenaged angst. Yet, this story never fails to bring out compassion in the kids. They get it because they see it in real life. Even though they live in a bubble of privilege, injustice, poverty, and inequity is visible everywhere in South Africa outside of the safe perimeters of their complexes.

Forlorn and hungry beggars kneel in the middle of busy thoroughfares, hands clasped in prayer looking for handouts; apples, a sandwich, or a couple of rands. Mothers with tiny children loiter on corners, and sons roll their blind parents up and down lane lines at red lights looking for donations. My students drive by tin shack townships on their way to 5-star lodges on game reserves where many poor South Africans have never been. The students don’t suffer from the oppression they see, but they feel it in their souls.

By the end of the book and after watching the movie, my students were indignant about the bold lies, the racism, and the injustice. Our lively discussions during class give me hope that these kids might be the ones to create lasting, systemic change in all of the countries that they call home.

I suspect some will. Some won’t. Just like the generations that came before them.

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