What lessons does Atticus teach throughout To Kill a Mockingbird to his family, neighbors, and community?

Atticus gives guidance to his children, and he treats them with fairness and honesty. He tries to bring them up best, as a single parent. Atticus has a close relationship with his children, probably reinforced by his being their only parent. He treats his children like equals, this is apparent from the beginning, especially as they call him Atticus and not father.

Atticus is advices to his children, so that they will become more kindhearted people. He gave a good example for the children when Mr. Ewell challenges him. Even though he is provoked and insulted, Atticus simply has a “peaceful reaction”. This shows the example to his children never to get into fights with people when they are upset about something and when they are aggressive. Atticus shows children about courage and all the forms it appears in.

Atticus also role models his sense of bravery by refusing to carry a gun to protect Tom Robinson from angry farmers and refusing to carry a gun to protect himself after Bob Ewell threatens guns. Atticus shows bravery when he takes Tom's case despite knowing that his town would turn against him and his children. Throughout the book Atticus tries to teach his children bravery, he struggles to make Scout realize that it is, in actual fact, braver to turn away from people who antagonize her, than to fight; something that she would have to face a lot during her father's involvement in Tom Robinson's case.

When Jem is told to read for Ms. Dubose and she dies, Atticus explains to Jem about her morphine addiction, and how she died “free”. This shows Jem that courage isn’t always where you expect to find it, and how to get to know about people who they really are. The one of the most important piece of advice he gives his children is that “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” This is important for the children to know, and helps them to be more caring about people, and get more understanding about others. Atticus also teaches his children to abide by their own morals and not to judge something right just because a powerful or 'respectable' person says it is.

Atticus treats everyone with fairness and honesty. He always hears both sides of the story before taking action and decision. He does this after Scout has gotten into a fight with Francis Hancock. After a time Atticus hears Scout’s side of the story and realizes that it wasn’t totally Scout’s fault.

When he is confronted by awkward issues Atticus never tries to hide or cover up the truth. He tells Uncle Jack at Finches landing that when a child asks you something, “answer him, for goodness sake.” After Atticus is confronted by the mob outside the county jail, he doesn’t try to pretend that they weren’t there to hurt him. He admits that Mr. Cunningham might have “hurt me a little.” When Scout asks Atticus if they are poor, the usual response would be to say no, so as not to scare Scout. But Atticus believes honesty is the best policy, so he says, “we are indeed.” Atticus considers lying horribly dishonest, so he tries to be truthful at all times with his children.

Atticus can be seen as the epitome of moral character, he lives by his ethics and in doing so teaches his children and the town alike how to stand up for one's beliefs; this is particularly evident when he takes on the Tom Robinson case. Education is important to Atticus, he believes that education is the key to unlocking the ignorance that causes prejudice, this is noticeable during the Tom Robinson case where Atticus says, 'confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their calibre' . Consequently, he teaches his children from an early age, although he does not employ the conventional methods used to tutor children. Scout was taught to read by following whatever Atticus was reading in the evenings; again, Atticus did not treat her as inferior but allowed her to read from newspapers etc like an adult.

Atticus is a good model parent. He loves his children more than anything in the world, and he does as much as he can to bring them up as respectable people. He may not be able to “play football” with all the other fathers, but he has all the qualities a good parent could hope to have.