July 11th marks the 50th anniver­sary of the book “To Kill a Mock­ing­bird.” Did you have to read it in school? I did and I didn’t fall in love with it until I was a few years older and re-read it because I wanted to. The lyri­cism of the words, the descrip­tion of the small, South­ern town and the char­ac­ters drew me in like a fly to honey. I grew up in the South and felt a kin­ship with some of the peo­ple and wished I had been able to know oth­ers. And I am very sorry to say that I did know a few peo­ple who bore more than a pass­ing resem­b­lence to a few less than savory characters.

I got to think­ing about Atti­cus Finch, Scout’s father in the book, the other day. And I real­ized that there was much to learn about par­ent­ing from Atti­cus and some of the folks who inhab­ited that world. (more…)