A well-developed theme in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is education and its importance to aging. Scout learns self-control, courage, and standing up for what is right. Scout Finch's educational process begins outside the classroom with Atticus, her father, as her teacher. The Finch family lives in Maycomb County, Alabama in the 1930s, where racial prejudice and inequality are widely accepted and practiced. Atticus defends himself when a black man is tried for the rape of a white woman. Scout learns many valuable lessons from her father that influence her daily actions. One of Scout's first lessons is the skill of restraint. Scout is constantly fighting and "rubbing people's faces in the dirt". Cecil Jacobs surprises her in the schoolyard and begins making fun of her father and his helping a black man in court. Scout beats him and later tells Atticus what happened. His father tells him, “Just keep your head up and your fists down” (76). Atticus introduces the first idea of ​​becoming a more civilized woman, even me....