To Kill a mockingbird debating question?

R

Robert

New member
Hi. In English at school we are doing debating and its based on To kill a mockingbird. My topic is.... Atticus teaches "that you should never judge a person until you have walked a mile in their skin". Is this advice, the advice of the wise, not the cowardly or the ones who can't make up their minds." My team is negative, meaning we think the quote is cowardly, but we cant think of any points. Please, may you give me some? Im stuck, really badly. Thankyou
 
The only negative side I can see to that quote is how could you know what that feels like unless your the person who was there? You couldn't possibly understand could you? (Not you I'm just debating).
 
I really can't see that side of the argument, sorry. I agree with the quote.
All I can say is try re-reading key points of the book and seeing how it doesn't relate to the situation. Good luck! :)
 
It is a cowardly statement because it is saying that you can't actually take a stand on anything. Its almost distancing yourself from a problem because you can't say that you know the person. So its almost like saying that you can't judge Hitler as a bad person (sorry for the uber cliche example) because you don't know what was happening in his mind. Then you would always be making excuses for people. Saying oh well, we can't understand them so, what they did wasn't wrong so lets just not get into a confrontation with them. All in all, its a evasion thing.
 
This is one of those situations where there really isn't a negative side to it. You just have to get creative. Maybe you could say that, when a person is truly evil (such as Bob Ewell), you shouldn't waste your time trying to empathize with that person. Maybe you could try and work with that? I might actually talk to my teacher if I were you. He or she could probably help.
 
I think that when a person is debating from a negative stand point they are not always based on facts.

Just that one quote alone is a tough one, because you can't "judge a person until you have walked a mile in their skin". is nowhere near cowardly.

I hope someone comes along and helps you out with this one. I just can't see it.
 
This is one of those situations where there really isn't a negative side to it. You just have to get creative. Maybe you could say that, when a person is truly evil (such as Bob Ewell), you shouldn't waste your time trying to empathize with that person. Maybe you could try and work with that? I might actually talk to my teacher if I were you. He or she could probably help.
 
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