*This article was originally published in the Inland Catholic magazine, Ordinary Time 2024 issue.
“I’m dreadfully in debt, and it won’t be my turn to have the rag-money for a month.”
“In debt, Amy? What do you mean?...”
“Why, I owe at least a dozen pickled limes, and I can’t pay them, you know, until I have money, for Marmee forbade my having anything charged at the shop.”
In Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women, we find Amy, the youngest of the March sisters, in consternation over what seems to us like a silly thing: owing limes at school. She has gone into debt, and her social status is in danger. When Meg gives her a quarter, Amy rushes to purchase twenty-five limes so she can pay back her classmates. She parades them in front of the other students at school, basking in the social attention they afford her… until she is caught by Mr. Davis. He punishes her severely, and Amy goes home to recount the shameful story to her family.
When Amy tells her sad tale at home, it is clear that she is still most sorrowful about the loss of her precious limes. Her mother, Marmee, is also concerned but for entirely different reasons. While Amy is mourning the loss of her limes, Marmee is becoming increasingly concerned about the influence that this school might be having on the formation of her daughter’s character. She sees that her daughter is adopting behaviors and vices that are at odds with the values she is trying to reinforce at home. Before the chapter ends, Marmee makes an executive decision to pull her daughter from school and have her learn at home for a while.
Now, we could interpret Marmee’s decision as a reaction to the capital punishment that Mr. Davis inflicted on Amy. Or, we could say that perhaps she disagreed with Mr. Davis’ teaching style. But I think there is a deeper reason for Marmee’s decision to take Amy out of school. It is the same problem facing many parents today whose primary concern is raising virtuous children. Marmee is not pulling Amy out of school because she fancies herself a better teacher than Mr. Davis. She is discerning a deeper issue, one in which academic accomplishments have little sway. With an unorthodox wisdom for her day, Marmee decides that by keeping Amy home, she will be better able to mold her in the virtues that she deems fit for a young lady to have. This is the real reason why Amy is pulled out of school.
What can we, as readers, learn from Marmee’s decision? I think this question is best answered by posing another question: What are the fruits of Marmee’s decision? What sort of young woman does Amy become as a result of her mother’s choice? Amy’s character arc was perhaps my favorite out of all the March sisters. By the end of the book, we see a very different Amy than the sad little girl who cried over her limes. Where the young Amy was conceited, the adult Amy is elegant. Where the young Amy was vain, the adult Amy is beautiful and modest. Where the young Amy was overly concerned with what others thought about her, the adult Amy is self-assured, humble, and hospitable. It seems that all of her childish tendencies have been redeemed and transformed into virtues. She has become everything a young woman ought to be.
This transformation does not come about by accident. Even though it takes up a small, seemingly insignificant chapter in the book, the entire course of Amy’s life is changed when her mother decides to keep her home from school. It is just one of the events that reinforces the overarching theme of the book: that home is the most important place, and the family is the bedrock of a person’s formation. Little Women, after all, is a story about home. It is a story about how family has an incredible power to shape who we become. Fortunately for Amy, she had a family who was invested enough in her character to make those hard decisions so they could continue being the primary influence in her life. One wonders what course Amy’s character could have taken had her mother not made the decision to step in as the primary formator of her daughter’s virtue.
Today, education options vary greatly. From public schools to prep schools, hybrids to full-blown homeschooling, it is easier than ever for parents to choose exactly the kind of education they want for their child. However, Little Women broadens the issue, reminding us that the question of a “home education” extends far beyond curriculums and schedules. Regardless of what God calls each individual family to in terms of the education of their children, one thing remains irrevocably true. The formation of every person begins and ends in the home. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and the family is the “school of deeper humanity,” as Pope St. John Paul II said.1 Practically this will look different for each family; but whatever decision is made it ought to be the one which best preserves the primacy that parents have as the formators of their children. There is no better place to learn about life and love than in the school of the home. Amy’s visit to the valley of humiliation reminds us of the irreplaceable role family has in the formation of the human person.
The “home education” that Little Women encourages us to embrace simply means doing whatever it takes to keep the family at the center of the child’s formative experience. Mr. Davis’ school was not a “bad” school, nor was he a “bad” teacher. However, Marmee simply decided that the price of limes was not one she was willing to pay. Her daughter’s formation in virtue was more important to her than anything else, and she knew that it was her role, not the teacher’s or the school’s, to pass those values on to her children. In other words, Marmee knew that the education of home life was a far greater treasure to give her daughter than anything she could learn elsewhere.
Pope John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, Part Two, 21, at The Holy See, www.vatican.va.
Little Women is one of my "forever stories," a timeless favorite! When I was little Jo was obviously my favorite (and I still adore her) but as a young woman I feel much more drawn to Meg and Amy's stories. Amy especially, because of the transformation she undergoes, from a bratty little girl to an artistic, elegant yet selflessly kind young woman. I only realized the impact Marmee's home education had on Amy's life when I grew up. When I was younger I sympathized with Amy against the villainous Mr. Davis who humiliated her in front of her classmates. But now I see the deeper heart issue in trading limes for popularity with her friends in the first place. Little Women and it's timeless lessons!