Atticus wants his children to look beyond rumor, innuendo, and quick judgments. Atticus thinks that each person has a story and we must discover that story and empathize with it before any judgments are made. As in the case with Mrs. Dubose, Atticus wanted his children to see beyond her pain and understand the person inside. Note Atticus's famous quote below:
"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."
Not the simple structure of the sentence. Harper lee uses a strong metaphor, climb into his skin, to round out the structural meaning of the sentence.