To Know a Mockingbird: Disability Studies Meets Boo Radley

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding the Construction of the Dis/abled Child Through Literacy, Literature, and Schooling: Critiques and Ways Forward

Abstract

For educational sites to be democratic communities, they have a responsibility to uphold the rights of individuals (Dewey, 1916). Despite legislation that assures equity in education, many students with disabilities struggle for inclusion. They are frequently isolated and kept away from the non-disabled students, demonstrating that they are too fragile, different, or dangerous for a standard educational experience. Schools must combat these errors in thinking about disability. This piece suggests that a constructive place to begin is an examination of the portrayal of disability in the literature included in the curriculum. This critical reading of To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee, 1960) examines the portrayal of one character, Boo Radley, through the lens of disability studies.

Author

• Dorothy M. Bossman, University of Nebraska