A Surprising Critique of Progressive Education: A Short Outline of the Episode
I. Moments when Progressive education is openly blamed; and a small moment reminding the reader of what the older education system looked like.
II. Atticus often evinces astonishing mental clarity which forms the foundation of very modest hopes for political life. This sobriety is upended or slowly eroded by an overly optimistic assessment of human nature.
This optimism is all the more disappointing in light of Atticus’ awareness that sometimes civilization needs force to defend it (he knows how to shoot well and even has to make use of this skill, but he doesn’t teach his son how to shoot; showing that he hopes for a world in which such defense will no longer be necessary.
III. Atticus ultimately confirms something like the American Founders view of equality. Men are equal under the law and not necessarily in any other way.
In this way, a book that obviously promotes tolerance and decries prejudice suggests that progressive education and the progressive view of human nature are not the proper tools to bring about the world that the author hopes for.
LIT 101: A Surprising Critique of Progressive Education