How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He started doing jobs around the place he hadn't done before, but there wasn't such a lot he could do especially when there was school. The school they went to was about two miles down the valley and just the walking to get there and get home took a big piece out of his time. He couldn't see anyway that what he was learning there was going to be of help to him when he started out to turn around their lives. (2.10)
Ever feel like that algebra you're learning in school won't be useful in the real world? Tom feels ya. He thinks there are more efficient ways to be learning the skills he needs to help his family. (By the way, we'll bet you an x to a y that at some point algebra will come in super handy.)
Quote #2
"Looks like your life is about to change. Looks like you're going to quit your schooling and make some money. Not a great lot of it," she added, to Tom's disappointment. She dealt out some more cards. "But there's quite a lot of money here later on. You ain't going to go around like a low-down Dolan any more." (6.24)
Today, most of us are told that education (through school) is the way to a better future, but Tom is told the exact opposite by the Widow Breen when she's telling his fortune. A ton of stuff would be different if Tom's story were set in the modern day. How do you think the Widow's fortune-telling would be different if the book took place in the twenty-first century?
Quote #3
They were silent a while, and then she said, "You sure you want to quit school?"
"It ain't doing me any good right now that I can see. And I want to bring us some money." (7.18-19)
Sure, it might teach him that "ain't" ain't recognized by the dictionary. But again, this is a different time, and Tom has bigger fish to fry. It's not that Tom is a money-grubbing greed machine, but here, he points out the need to be practical. His reasoning floats the idea that education is a luxury that those who need to work to support their families can't afford.
Quote #4
The first day, going around with Ox, he found things confusing. It didn't seem he would ever learn which chute let down which meal or grain, and he wondered why they weren't labeled. [….]
Ox made it easy for him. He showed Tom clues to remember things by. When Tom got things wrong, Ox didn't raise his voice. He was slow and patient. (9.1-2)
Ox is the first of many male characters who teaches Tom about the working world (and yes, it's another sign of the times that it's all male characters who have that role). Ox may seem an unlikely teacher—he's the lumbering-giant type, not the glasses-and-tweed-jacket type—but Tom would probably never have succeeded at the mill if it weren't for Ox. The work he learns how to do at the mill is his first step toward success.
Quote #5
That same evening after he got home he began patching the roof. He had never done any work of that sort and at first he made mistakes and split the old shingles. But then he recalled Birdy's telling him, "Just go easy and slow, Tom. You'll get along faster in the long run doing it that way." (27.10)
A great deal of Tom's education comes from Birdy, especially when it comes to construction and the natural world. This is just one of many instances demonstrating a skill he's learned from Birdy's wise words and practice. Wise words and practice: sounds a lot like education to us.
Quote #6
It was bound in heavy black cloth and had gilt lettering that said Encyclopedia of Practical Carpentry, Mark Foster, Editor. […] Almost every page had a diagram or drawing. Tom saw that he could learn a lot, even though he found reading a slow and difficult business.
Mr. Hook said he hoped it might be helpful. It was an old book. His father had had a copy of it that had somehow disappeared. He had found this one in a secondhand bookstore in Syracuse. (29.27-28)
Mr. Hook shares the idea that the most valuable kind of knowledge is passed through generations. This passage also demonstrates different ways of approaching knowledge: Tom didn't gain skills in traditional book knowledge after he left school, but he knows that learning from a book could be helpful to him when it comes to reaching his goal.
Quote #7
The diagrams and drawings seemed to make reading come easier for him, and sometimes he did the lessons the girls brought home from school, while they made a game of being his room teacher. (30.1)
Tom never goes back to school in the novel, but his attitude toward the kind of education one gets at school shifts a little, especially after Mr. Hook brings him the carpentry book. Tom's sisters, who do go to school, help out with the tough stuff, and the fact that they like teaching him and he learns from their schoolwork shows that education is gaining new value for Tom. This passage also gives the sense that certain types of learning become easier if a person is interested in the subject, has support, and can apply the subject to real life.
Quote #8
Now he realized how much he had learned from his carpentry book. He told Birdy he thought they ought to put in a heavy post for the stone wall to butt on, a timber maybe fourteen inches square, to connect the ground sill with the second sill carrying the mow floor, and brace it two ways. Birdy agreed. (31.9)
Well, look at that. Book learnin' is worth something. Tom has been studying the book all winter, and now he finds he can apply the concepts he has learned, and even make suggestions to Birdy.
Quote #9
"I'm not the only person's been helping you."
Tom sucked his breath in. "Birdy Morris," he said. [….]
"Exactly," said the lawyer.
"You think I should give him some money?"
"Yes, I do. Without him you wouldn't have been able to move your barn at all, Tom."
"I know. How much do you think I ought to give him?"
"I think that's for you to decide."
"[…] Would five hundred dollars be right, Mr. Baxter?" (54.37-44)
Here, Mr. Baxter gives Tom some ethical guidance about how to be a good person. We don't get the feeling that Tom is intentionally trying to snub Birdy, but he does come off as a fella who's so excited about his newfound wealth he forgets he may owe someone else some credit for it. This scene shows that Tom still needs the guidance Mr. Baxter provides, and the Q&A format shows how Tom defers to Mr. Baxter's guidance, while also growing through it.
Quote #10
He and Tom discussed what Tom ought to do about flooring the stable. Tom wanted to lay down a cement floor, but Birdy persuaded him that that would take too long.
"You ought to get your critters out of that shed," he pointed out. "It's going to start getting winter cold before long, Tom."
Tom couldn't deny that.
"I think you ought to bring the old flooring down from Breen's," Birdy went on. "When you've got the stanchels up again and built a stall for Drew, then you ought to get that haystack inside the mow. You can work at making your cement floor all during the winter, laying a section at a time."
It made sense. (57. 4-8)
Don't get too cocky there, Tom. Though Tom has learned a lot throughout the book, he continues learning things from Birdy all the way through. Tom wants to put a new cement floor in right away because he has admired the floor in his neighbor's barn, but Birdy slows him down and reminds him to be practical. But don't think Birdy is a total party-pooper: later on, Birdy teaches Tom how he can run water pipes into the barn, which will make mixing the cement easier too.