In Chapter 26, Miss Gates lectures her students about what constitutes a democracy. She says that America, unlike Germany in the 1930s, is a democracy, and this is because Americans "don't believe in persecuting anybody." She explains that "persecution comes from people who are prejudiced." She tells the children that the persecution of the Jews by Hitler and the Nazis is a hateful and deplorable act. Miss Gates also points out how irrational the persecution of the Jews is when she says that Jews "contribute to ... society" and "are a deeply religious people."

Later in the same chapter, Scout tells Jem that she overheard Miss Gates, "coming out of the courthouse" after the trial, saying to Miss Stephanie Crawford that it was "time somebody taught 'em a lesson," and that "they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they can do is marry us." The "they" that Miss Gates refers to so contemptuously are African Americans, and the "us" is of course white Americans, specifically white women.

Scout astutely points out the irony, or hypocrisy of Miss Gates's views when she asks, "how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home." Miss Gates's views are ironic because they are contradictory. She is deeply critical of Hitler and the Nazis for irrationally persecuting the Jews in Germany. At the same time she is, hypocritically, complicit in precisely the same kind of irrational persecution of African Americans in her own country. She is one of the ignorant, "prejudiced" people that she was critical of in her own aforementioned lecture. It is also deeply and tragically ironic that Miss Gates seems to be utterly oblivious to her own hypocrisy.

Miss Gates, Scout's teacher, carefully goes over with her class the Nazi persecution of the Jews in 1930s Germany, calling it "prejudice" and condemning it as wrong. She is blind to the parallels between how the Nazis treat the Jews and how the South, particularly Maycomb, treats Black people.

This is ironic because Miss Gates misses the truth that the two situations very closely parallel one another. She is an example of the old truism that our paychecks quickly alter our notions of truth. Her comments about Black people getting too uppity and needing to be put in their place mirror those of ladies like Mrs. Merriweather in the ladies' Missionary society, who are similarly blind. Mrs. Merriweather wants to send money to Africa to help poor people there, when the far more glaring need is to help Black people devastated by the Great Depression in her own backyard.

In both cases, the economic benefits white people derive from treating Black people with gross injustice are too great for these women to want to change or even notice the cruelty in the system at home. Miss Gates's comment about Black people needing to be put in their places suggests that, like the ladies in the Missionary society, she too benefits from a cheap labor pool she can exploit to do her cooking, cleaning, and yard work.

The irony of Miss Gates's remarks about Nazi Germany's anti-Semitism is twofold. First of all, she makes a statement that is contradictory to one she has previously made about another minority group. Secondly, she may not even think that she is bigoted.

People who have grown up within a certain culture do not always realize that they are unjust to others who differ from them. They blind themselves to such injustice because "that is the way it has always been." Miss Gates's remark about "keeping them in their place" (Ch.26) seems to suggest that she feels that the social order in Maycomb should remain unchanged. She believes, as do many others in her town, that the African Americans in Maycomb are naturally inferior. Evidence of this idea appears in her remark that the black citizens of Maycomb "were gettin' way above themselves." (Ch.26) Ironically, such a comment fits the concept of racial superiority held by the Nazis, a concept that she criticizes. However, it is doubtful that Miss Gates would perceive the similarity to her own bigoted observation. 

Miss Gates is an "armchair critic": she condemns when it is safe for her in the comfort of her town, which likely does not have one Jewish resident. As long as nothing affects her, she can afford to be fair to others. Miss Gates is a foil character to Atticus Finch, who, in contrast to Miss Gates, has the integrity to defend the innocent Tom Robinson and the courage to put his social position in the community into jeopardy. Atticus truly believes in the phrase, "Justice for all" (Pledge of Allegiance). This conviction about justice and fairness to others is the reason that he responds to Scout as he does when she asks him about taking the role of the defender in Tom Robinson's case. Atticus tells his daughter that it is the only way that he can live with himself.

Scout obeys her father because he has credibility. Miss Gates has no credibility with Scout. Scout asks Jem, "How can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly [a Southern colloquialism for hateful] about folks right at home?"

Miss Gates is Scout’s teacher who lectures the class on the evil of Hitler’s regime which persecutes the Jews. She says she can’t understand what the Jews have done that warrants persecution and deplores Hitler for singling out an ethnic group to target and oppress. She virtuously contrasts American society with Germany under Hitler; in America, she says, a free and democratic country, no one is discriminated against.

“Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Prejudice,” she enunciated carefully. (chapter 26)

Yet, most ironically, she herself appears to be a wholehearted subscriber to the oppression of African Americans in her own country. Scout recalls the nasty remarks she made about African Americans at Tom Robinson’s trial and asks Jem, ‘how can you hate Hitler so bad and then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home?’ (chapter 26)

Miss Gates, then, is appallingly blind to injustices in her own country while loudly condemning other societies for their prejudices and persecutions. Scout, in her childlike innocence, is honestly bewildered at such inconsistency. Jem is even less able to cope, in fact he explodes in fury at Scout’s question, leaving her ‘too surprised’ even ‘to cry’ (chapter 26); in the immediate aftermath of the trial he cannot bear to think about it. As so often in the book, the ways of adults are here put under the critical lens of the children’s open-hearted, enquiring innocence and revealed to be narrow-minded and irrational.

This is a good question and there are two main ironies. First, she is blind. She thinks that she understands democracy, but she does not. More to the point, even a young girl recognizes her inconsistency. For example, in her sanctimonious lesson on the greatness of American democracy, she fails to realize that she and her town are filled with racism and that shortly before they condemned an innocent black man. From this perspective, Maycomb and Nazi Germany are only different by a few degrees. 

Then Miss Gates said, “That’s the difference between America and Germany. We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship. Dictator-ship,” she said. “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Prejudice,” she enunciated carefully. “There are no better people in the world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me.” 

Second and perhaps more seriously Miss Gates is racist. She does not believe that all people are equal. She is incredibly prejudiced and she does not even know it. Scout says to Jem that she overheard Miss Gates talking and what came out was hatred, the ugliest bias, and blind racism. 

“Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was—she was goin‘ down the steps in front of us, you musta not seen her—she was talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say it’s time somebody taught ’em a lesson, they were gettin‘ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an‘ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home—”

Miss Gates, Scout's second grade teacher, preaches about the bad treatment that the Jews receive at the hands of Adolf Hitler in Chapter 26 of To Kill a Mockingbird. She sympathizes with the Jews, saying

"They contribute to every society they live in and... are a deeply religious people."

She stresses the importance of democracy--"with equal rights for all"--over a dictatorship, reminding the children that the Jews "have been persecuted since the beginning of history." But Scout remembers a conversation she had overheard between Miss Gates and Miss Stephanie following the trial of Tom Robinson, and the hypocrisy of her teacher's words confused her. Referring to Maycomb's Negro population, Miss Gates had said that

"... it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can marry us."

Though Scout was not yet eight years old, she understood the irony and hypocrisy of her teacher's two views: that it was not acceptable for the Jews--white people--to be discriminated against, but that it was okay for the white people of Maycomb to persecute black people in the same manner in which Hitler treated the Jews.