Jack learns to listen to children before punishing them and explain things clearly.
When Jack spanks Scout for fighting with her cousin Frances, she tells him that he doesn’t understand children much and then proceeds to explain to him why it was unfair for him to punish her. She complains that he did not stop to listen to her side of the story before he started to hit her.
“… When Jem an‘ I fuss Atticus doesn’t ever just listen to Jem’s side of it, he hears mine too, an’ in the second place you told me never to use words like that except in ex-extreme provocation, and Francis provocated me enough to knock his block off—” (Ch. 9)
She tells him what Francis said about her father, which was a racially charged insult regarding his defense of Tom Robinson. When Jack heard what happened, he regretted having punished her and wished he had punished Francis instead. Scout asks him to just drop the matter.
Later, Atticus tells Jack that he was right to punish Scout, but he had the wrong reason. She did deserve to be punished, but not for swearing or fighting Francis when he told her not to. She would outgrow swearing, but not stubbornness.
Atticus tells Jack that he needs to speak frankly to children when he tells Atticus that Scout asked him what a whore-lady was and he gave an indirect answer.
“Jack! When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness’ sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em. (Ch. 9)
Atticus’s point is that children should be listened to, and adults should not be evasive in explanations to children because rather than teaching them it just confuses them. Jack has no children, so he doesn’t really understand children. As Scout’s uncle, he feels that he should play a role in her life, but he doesn’t really have experience to know how to deal with her.
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