Montreal Gazette: One of the many fringe benefits of being a high-school English teacher is the opportunity to teach Harper Lee`s To Kill a Mockingbird. I have worked with it many times over the last 15 years, and I re-discover its literary genius and its compelling humanity every time.
The ugly history of racism and hypocrisy in the U.S. South and the twin human curses of ignorance and cowardly conformity are interwoven throughout this story of children learning about their world. In their world, innocence is...