Educators discuss “To Kill a Mockingbird” in academic workshop

By Zoe Strozewski | Published by March 4, 2019

The Holocaust Resource Center, Kean’s premiere learning source for one of the most infamous cases of genocide in history, hosted its event, “To Kill a Mockingbird: Themes in Teaching the Holocaust and Prejudice Reduction,” Feb. 28 in the Hutchinson Hall John H. O’Meara Auditorium. This was one educational workshop in a series of academic lectures presented by the center in order to give teachers the tools and guidance they need to introduce tougher topics in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” like genocide and prejudice, to their students.

The lecture was given by Sarah Coykendall, the assistant director of the Holocaust Resource Center, and Alexandra Hourahan, a teacher at the Barack Obama Green Charter High School, while the event was attended by teachers from a variety of nearby schools. Coykendall and Hourahan opened the lecture by introducing themselves and providing some background for the decision to hold this presentation.

Hourahan, who teaches freshman students world history, anthropology and multicultural history, said that the inspiration behind this presentation came from her noticing that her students had been receiving knowledge about “To Kill a Mockingbird” in other classes.

“I wanted to connect that book to their understanding of world history and, specifically, the Holocaust,” Hourahan said.

Hourahan then asked the teachers to reflect on and share their philosophy about the role teachers play in establishing a classroom culture and community, as that role intersect with themes in the book.

“In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ it is all based around the story of a community, and we see these different characteristics in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and how it influences the younger minds in the story, including Jem and Scout,” Hourahan said. “I think it’s important for us, as educators, to reflect on our own role in creating that culture and community, so that later on when we see the connections in the characters in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ we can show how to use those relationships in the classroom.”

Coykendall went on to give some background on Harper Lee, the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and then discussed the history of the book being used in education. She also brought to attention the efforts to ban it from educational institutions both in 1961 after the book came out and in the past couple years as well.

“It’s the same regions that in 1961 were banning the book for being offensive, and now in 2017 decided that this book should not be in schools,” Coykendall said.

The presenters then discussed connections between “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Lee’s second book, “Go Set a Watchman,” talked about the idea of victims and perpetrators in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and stressed the importance of promoting diversity in the classroom.

Afterwards, they had chapter 26 of the book, which focuses on an instance in which children attempt to have a conversation with their teacher about the ongoing Holocaust, read out loud to the event’s attendees. This served as an introduction to the next part of the lecture, which focused on methods of effectively teaching the Holocaust and immorality of antisemitism to young minds.

Coykendall ended the event by previewing similar upcoming events to be held by the Holocaust Resource Center. Those events include “BESA: Courage and Humanity during the Holocaust,” and visits from Kizito D. Kalima, a Rwandan genocide survivor, and Fred Heyman, a Holocaust survivor.

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