One of the toughest challenges of teaching To Kill a Mockingbird is facing some of the language of the novel. A school in Florida has been wrestling with the same issue I wrestle with every time I teachit – and one that I had to work through while writing The Mockingbird Parables. Check out the story here:
“In a very real sense, the lasting offensiveness of some of the language in To Kill a Mockingbird has added to the poignancy of its homily on the evils of racial prejudice. We are so shocked by reading those words it forces us to look into the mirror and remember from whence we have come – and prompts us to search our hearts and wonder how far we still have yet to go” (159).- “The Parable of Tom Robinson”