On Wednesday, Feb. 28, Darlington School’s Upper School students and special guests will hear from Mary Badham, the actress who portrayed “Scout” in the 1962 film version of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Badham’s visit is the third and final cultural opportunity brought to the school as part of a Thatcher Professional Development Grant which was proposed by Karen Bennett, registrar and executive assistant to the Director of the Upper School and Melinda Holmes, director of library services.
“My personal hope from hearing from Mary and learning about ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is that we find it within ourselves to be understanding, civil, mindful and courageous in our thoughts and actions with regard to our interactions with others,” said Bennett.
Badham was chosen for the role of “Scout” at the age of ten, with no prior acting experience. She won an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, the youngest person at that time to have ever done so.
After filming “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1962, Badham appeared in two other films in 1966: “This Property is Condemned” with Robert Redford and Natalie Wood, and “Let’s Kill Uncle.” She also had TV appearances on Dr. Kildare's "Sister Mike" in 1963 and Twilight Zone's "The Bewitchin' Pool" in 1964 before retiring from acting to pursue an education as a teenager.
Badham now maintains a busy schedule lecturing to audiences internationally about “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the film. Her interest is in expanding knowledge about the film's message of social injustice and to insure that each generation of students can experience the film’s impact.
Published in 1960, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” immediately became an overnight success and a modern American classic. Imagine being a young, child actress living in Birmingham, Ala., but traveling hundreds of miles to Hollywood to be given the part of a young girl who loses her innocence as she grows up in a racially divided world. Mary Badham did just that. She has been quoted as saying: "I didn’t understand the importance of the film until much, much later. I didn’t even get to see it until we had the premiere. Then I really kind of understood it. The messages are so clear and so simple. It’s about a way of life, getting along, and learning tolerance. This is not a black-and-white 1930s issue, this is a global issue. Racism and bigotry haven’t gone anywhere. Ignorance hasn’t gone anywhere."
In the weeks leading up to Badham’s visit, Darlington’s faculty has been integrating “To Kill a Mockingbird” into their curriculum. The Upper School Design Thinking class organized a geocache scavenger hunt and memory box activity for all advisory groups to complete. The class designed the geocache objects connected to the book in Tinkercad and then printed them in 3D. AP Psych students designed posters displaying the various psychological components that were found in the film. Middle grades English students wrote persuasive essays outlining the differences between the movie and film and also created a multimedia project connected to the first part of the book. Upper School English classes also participated in an activity where they titled all of the chapters in the book, using 3-5 words for each chapter title.
About this Thatcher Professional Development Grant: Hip Hop, Harper Lee, and the Geodesic Dome
“Hip Hop, Harper Lee, and the Geodesic Dome” was a three-pronged grant proposal from Bennett and Holmes. In addition to Badham’s visit to campus, faculty and students heard from the directors of two documentaries.
Upper School students viewed the documentary “More Than Music: Senegal,” which was directed by Babacar Ndiaye from Atlanta and details the true story of how hip hop elicited governmental change in Senegal during a time of complacency.
Faculty and staff viewed the documentary “Fully Awake: Black Mountain College” which was co-directed by Cathryn Zoomer and Neeley House. “Fully Awake” explores the personalities behind the creation of Black Mountain College and the pedagogical ideas of its creators.
From the grant proposal:
Cultivating empathy and seeking different cultural perspectives are two important components of Darlington’s Portrait of a Graduate, and the grant’s proposal was to impart opportunities for Darlington’s faculty and students to enrich themselves and grapple with the following questions: How do we impart tolerance or empathy and the courage to learn and embrace other cultures if we have not personally embraced these characteristics ourselves? And if we have embraced them, are we purposeful in our applications? Do we have the courage to discuss topics that make us uncomfortable or that we do not understand? Do we have the conviction to follow our dreams even when the journey is hard or risky? Are we tolerant and listen to others’ ideas while not pre-judging them? Or, are we authoritarians in our classrooms; do we censure different thought and opinions; and do we shy away from troublesome topics? Are we able to admit when we don't know the answer to a question, or when we are not qualified to speak of an experience that we have not had?
