*
Remember those books everyone read in high school? Remember
when by uttering a name, like: Tom Sawyer, Hermione Granger, Mr. Heathcliff,
Homer, Atticus Finch or Elizabeth Bennett, conjured images in not only in your
own mind but in the minds of others with whom you communicate?
There’s a curriculum of education that says (and I’m
paraphrasing here…) that if you require children to read the classics, works of
literature that have been held up as worth-while reading for decades and even
centuries, they will have an incredible education. The result of reading these
is that if they read the classics, their minds will instantly
understand complex philosophies or moral quandaries or age-old conflicts that
have confronted man forever. When I was first heard of this curriculum, I
questioned it. I wondered how much value could there be in reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin when I understood the
basic premise. Sure the kids would have read great literature, but how much of
an “education” would have really have learned?
I didn’t understand because I hadn’t read a lot of classics,
and now, each time I read a classic or a wonderful, time-tested literature, I
understand more the value in this educational philosophy.
This week I added to my own personal “education” another example.
I finished a book I should have read 35 or 40 years ago. I finally read Harper
Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.
I thought I understood the book. I thought I understood what
was contained within the printed pages, so I didn’t really feel I needed to
read the book. I could not have been more wrong. To me, the most powerful
aspect of the book is in the innocent narration of a child, looking at life and
the evil—and good—of mankind she sees. I believe it resonates to the degree in
which it does because as all of us age, we each realize at some point that life
is not fair and true evil exists in the world. At at the same time, Scout has as
an example a man of character, of morals, someone to show her that goodness is
attainable and should be the goal.
There’s not much more I can say that hasn’t already been
written about this work. My hope is that in the decades—and even centuries—to
come, if someone says that a particular person is like a, “modern-day Atticus
Finch,” that everyone will instantly know what that means.
* Photo used without permission from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2657.To_Kill_a_Mockingbird?from_search=true
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