Building and branching out are sub-themes of family, class, culture, gender, race, religion and education. Thematically, "Mockingbird" pivots on a central theme: difference. In addition, with the focus now on cross-curricular approaches among the core content areas and humanities - social studies, mathematics, science, cultural studies - educators add context and resources outside of the literature itself. Students today take ownership of the text and wrestle with it by choice, on their own terms.
Whereas earlier audiences viewed race, civil rights and social justice as central issues, Generation Z access texts initially through multiple pathways, with race being one of so many, each path itself multifaceted. In my work with high schools students I find them to be reflective, ernest, risk-taking, intensely curious, daring, and - often perplexed and burdened by events around them.This is a generation forged by 9/11, the Great Recession, immigration and other social and personal upheavals. (2001 Tribune photo by Terrance Antonio James) The follow-up, a prequel, "Go Set a Watchman," came out last year. "To Kill a Mockingbird" came out in 1960. Students today read and experience this novel, and others, differently from students of the past. Typically, students experience "Mockingbird" in 10th or 11th grade American literature class. The death of Lee last month gives new credence to the connection this novel has with young people today. But this is the message a colleague received from her 14-year-old daughter, a girl who has connected deeply with Jem and Scout and Harper Lee's monumental "To Kill a Mockingbird." This is not the type of text one expects to get in the middle of the school day from a ninth-grader. Class culture education ethics language race
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