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Miss Caroline is Scout’s teacher, and including her character in the novel gives Lee the opportunity to highlight the nuances of small-town life and the challenges that come with attempting to create change. From her first appearance in Chapter 2, Lee establishes her as a clear outsider. She arrives to class wearing an eye-catching outfit, heels and a brightly colored dress, and announces that she is from Winston County in northern Alabama. These two details alone are enough to raise suspicion from the students, signifying just how deeply entrenched Maycomb’s social norms are. While Miss Caroline tries to present herself as capable and kind, her lack of knowledge about Maycomb and her inability to earn the students’ trust makes it virtually impossible for her to succeed in the classroom. The failures she experiences, such as asking Walter Cunningham to pay her back for lunch or asking Burris Ewell to bathe before class the next day, call attention to the unspoken social norms that native Maycombians take for granted. Scout, who has lived in Maycomb her entire life, is the one who eventually educates Miss Caroline about the nuances of their community.
Both Miss Caroline and the reader learn a considerable amount of information from the students, and this dynamic allows Lee to suggest that no one is ever finished learning. These lessons, however, create a significant amount of conflict throughout the school day. Miss Caroline ends up in tears after a full day of backlash from her students, Scout included. She repeatedly tries to assert her authority over Scout in particular by criticizing her ability to read and write, suggesting that Atticus is teaching her incorrectly. This desire for control reflects Miss Caroline’s own rigid beliefs about the power dynamics within education, and much like her students, she becomes offended when her worldview is challenged. The tension that builds as Miss Caroline attempts to implement her new classroom policies and teaching methods ultimately highlights Maycomb’s resistance to change. By illustrating this point with schoolchildren prior to the trial, Lee emphasizes that this stubbornness is a pervasive force throughout the entire community rather than a trait that defines a select few.
