Summary Chapter 2

• Dill has to go back to Meridian after the summer holidays
• Scout attends school for the first time; yet, she finds out that her teacher is not able to deal with children properly - she scolds Scout for already being able to read and Scout feels guilty for having been educated by her father
• more events furthering the gap between Scout and her teacher Ms. Caroline Fisher happen: Scout explains to her that Walter Cunningham is not going to accept the money that the teacher offers him to pay for lunch, since his family is too poor to ever pay her back
• Ms. Fisher does not understand what Scout is trying to explain to her and slaps Scout‘s hand with a ruler out of frustration

Summary Chapter 3

• Scout gets aggressive with Walter for getting her in trouble
• Jem intervenes, inviting Walter for dinner at their house
• at dinner, Atticus and Walter talk about farm business - something Scout has no knowledge of
• she gets upset when Walter pours Molasses on his food but gets scolded and slapped by Calpurnia for having criticized a guest
• at school, the boy Burris Ewell causes Ms. Fisher to cry: a bug is crawling out of his hair, and Burris leaves the classroom making vicious remarks; the Ewell family is known for being poorer than the Cunninghams and for only going to school the first day of school year in order not to get trouble with the law
• at home, Scout tells her father she isn‘t feeling well and that she doesn‘t want to go to school anymore
• Atticus declines her idea of him teaching her at home since the law demands her to attend school

Function

• different functions of the first day of school
  
  • it draws the sympathies of the reader to her side
  • provides insight to social classes of Maycomb society
  • offers a social commentary on the topic of children and education
• criticism of the teacher as well as the school‘s organisation
  
  • Scout means well but is punished, just because her teacher is not able to handle the situation properly
  • law demands children to go to school, yet Burris gets away with only coming to school the first day of the school year
  • Scout is being punished for being educated
  • Miss Caroline tries to implement a system that she had been taught, yet she is completely ignorant of the fact that this does not work for every student
• although Scout tries to behave more mature, she receives rebuke from the adult world (incidents with Calpurnia and Miss Caroline)
• Scout‘s nature is portrayed as being essentially good and well-meaning - she is not infected with the evil surrounding her
• introduction of social class
  
  • the Cunninghams as poor farmers
  • the Ewell‘s as disobeying the law, as unapologetic and ill-tempered (Burris‘ vicious comments foreshadow later events)