The author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, believes that adults sometimes underestimate the depth of intelligence in children. Through this novel, Harper Lee presents situations where a child's intelligence is overlooked. She also writes about times when an adult acknowledges a child's intelligence, but does not know how to handle it. Harper Lee shows many examples of adults who must learn first to recognize a child's intellect, and then learn to handle it in the correct way.
             In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the main character, Scout, is wise beyond her years. Scout's uncle, Jack, had not yet realized this. When Scout yells at her cousin, Francis, and proceeds to beat him up due to cruel things he had said, Uncle Jack responds by spanking her. Later on, Uncle Jack speaks with Scout about the events that took place. "You're real nice, Uncle Jack, an' I reckon I love you even after what you did, but you don't understand children much"(85). At first, when Scout says this, Uncle Jack still thinks she is being impractical. Time goes on, and Uncle Jack begins to understand what Scout was trying to say. "Your daughter gave me my first lessons this afternoon. She said I didn't understand children much and told me why. She was quite right"(87). Uncle Jack explains this to Scouts father, Atticus, and sees that he was wrong in what he did to Scout.
             Another example of a child's intelligence being overlooked in To Kill a Mockingbird is when Scout joins her Aunt Alexandra's missionary circle and listens to their conversations. A woman there, Mrs. Merriweather, is very uptight and thinks Scout is nothing but a silly girl. The ladies were discussing the Tom Robinson case, and Scout could not help but participate. " 'Excuse me, Mrs. Merriweather," I interrupted, "are you talking about Miss Mayella E
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