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Dawgfanwill t1_iu7awc1 wrote

I have no idea how To Kill a Mockingbird ever got on middle school reading lists, but it has no business being there. I was forced to teach it to 8th graders one year, and they had no understanding of the significance of events, even in the rare cases that they could comprehend what the text was saying. 10th-11th grade is the sweet spot for it. Challenging, yet engaging.

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akira2bee t1_iu8wb1t wrote

Can't agree more, I had to read it twice for school: once freshman year of high school and again sophomore year of college. I absolutely did not understand it in high school and found the entire story completely boring except for the trial.

When I read it later I was in awe of how much the nostalgia of Scouts childhood affected me. Made absolutely no sense to read it when I was still a child.

I feel like teachers/schools see a "kid" protagonist and forget that its technically Scout as an adult looking back on her childhood.

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