4. School

In 1952, short­ly after her birth­day, Kya Clark, often left to her own devices, encoun­ters a piv­otal moment that thrusts her into an unfa­mil­iar world. While engrossed in observ­ing a tad­pole, she notices a car approach­ing her seclud­ed home, a rar­i­ty in itself. The vis­i­tors, a tru­ant offi­cer named Mrs. Culpep­per and an unnamed man, aim to take Kya to school, mark­ing her first encounter with for­mal edu­ca­tion. Despite her appre­hen­sions, the promise of a hot meal, specif­i­cal­ly chick­en pie, entices Kya to fol­low Mrs. Culp­per to school.

Dressed in her only fit­ting dress, Kya embarks on this new jour­ney with mixed feel­ings. Upon arrival, she is placed in the sec­ond grade due to over­crowd­ed­ness and lack of for­mal records. The school envi­ron­ment is com­plete­ly for­eign to Kya, exac­er­bat­ed by her lack of pre­vi­ous edu­ca­tion­al and social expe­ri­ences. This unfa­mil­iar­i­ty leads to a moment of pub­lic embar­rass­ment when she mis­tak­en­ly spells “dog” as “G‑o-d,” fur­ther alien­at­ing her from her peers.

How­ev­er, Kya’s curios­i­ty about learn­ing remains undi­min­ished, even as she nav­i­gates the chal­lenges of fit­ting in. The lunchtime scene offers a brief moment of solace through the enjoy­ment of her first school meal, despite her soli­tude among her class­mates. The day ends with Kya fac­ing mock­ery and exclu­sion, rein­forc­ing her sta­tus as an out­sider and lead­ing her to decide against return­ing to school.

Post-school, Kya resumes her soli­tary explo­ration and learn­ing through nature, main­tain­ing her inde­pen­dence and resilience in the face of soci­etal expec­ta­tions. A sub­se­quent injury involv­ing a rusty nail leaves her vul­ner­a­ble and scared, high­light­ing the harsh real­i­ties of her iso­lat­ed life. With­out access to med­ical care and in fear of tetanus, Kya resorts to tra­di­tion­al reme­dies and the com­forts of nature, epit­o­miz­ing her self-reliance and the stark con­trast between her world and that of the soci­ety around her. This chap­ter encap­su­lates Kya’s strug­gle with soci­etal inte­gra­tion and the pro­found sense of alien­ation she expe­ri­ences, set­ting the stage for her con­tin­ued growth and sur­vival against the back­drop of the nat­ur­al world she holds dear.