How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Her first term was with her father, who spared her only in not letting her have the wild letters addressed to her by her mother: he confined himself to holding them up at her and shaking them, while he showed his teeth, and then amusing her by the way he chucked them, across the room, bang into the fire. (I.2)
James is a sly, subtle writer. He describes Maisie's visits to her father as a "term" which could describe either a) a prison term or b) a school term. Both are accurate: she's both imprisoned by her parents and getting an education by splitting her time between them.
Quote #2
She puzzled out with imperfect signs, but with a prodigious spirit, that she had been a centre of hatred and a messenger of insult, and that everything was bad because she had been employed to make it so. (II.2)
Maisie's education has nothing to do with reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic and everything to do with puzzling out the nasty, coded relationship between her two deadbeat parents.
Quote #3
They dealt, the governess and her pupil, in "subjects," but there were many the governess put off from week to week and that they never got to at all: she only used to say "We'll take that in its proper order." Her order was a circle as vast as the untravelled globe. She had not the spirit of adventure—the child could perfectly see how many subjects she was afraid of. She took refuge on the firm ground of fiction, through which indeed there curled the blue river of truth. She knew swarms of stories, mostly those of the novels she had read; relating them with a memory that never faltered and a wealth of detail that was Maisie's delight. (IV.3)
Here's what going to school looks like when your teacher happens to be Mrs. Wix. Sounds fun, right? Well, yes and no. James's narrator is a little judgmental about Mrs. Wix's lack of education, and here he pokes fun at her impatience with difficult school subjects. But, of course, Mrs. Wix does turn out to be a life-changing teacher, so James's poking of fun at her is countered by his appreciative depiction of the way she comes to Maisie's rescue in the end.
Quote #4
Yes, there were matters one couldn't "go into" with a pupil. (V.4)
Remember Lisette, Maisie's doll? Well, here she is again, acting as Maisie's pupil rather than her playmate or pretend daughter. Maisie is imitating her governesses and showing that she's already aware of adults' tendency to keep secrets from children. For better or worse, adults like Mrs. Beale, Sir Claude, and even Mrs. Wix will keep fewer and fewer secrets from young Maisie as the novel progresses.
Quote #5
Her reflexions indeed at this moment thickened apace, and one of them made her sure that her governess had conversations, private, earnest and not infrequent, with her denounced stepfather. She perceived in the light of a second episode that something beyond her knowledge had taken place in the house. (XI.4)
The vocab used in this quote—"reflexions," "perceived," "knowledge"—lets us know again that her messed-up family life is serving as her unofficial education. Maisie goes to the School of Familial Hard Knocks.
Quote #6
"Isn't he sympathetic?" asked Mrs. Wix, who had clearly, on the strength of his charming portrait, made up her mind that Sir Claude promised her a future. "You can see, I hope," she added with much expression, "that he's a perfect gentleman!" Maisie had never before heard the word "sympathetic" applied to anybody's face; she heard it with pleasure and from that moment it agreeably remained with her. (XI.20)
Check out Maisie learning new vocabulary. Instead of learning via flashcards what "osmosis" and "eloquent" mean, she learns from Mrs. Wix that "sympathetic" can be used to describe a person's physical appearance. Use it in a sentence, Maisie!
Quote #7
It brought back to the child's recollection how she sometimes couldn't repeat on Friday the sentence that had been glib on Wednesday, and she dealt all feebly and ruefully with the present tough passage. Sir Claude and Mrs. Beale stood there like visitors at an "exam." (XXXI.80)
How great is this? At the climactic moment of Maisie's decision, James compares her to a student completing school exercises and then taking a test. This is a way of emphasizing the contrast between Maisie's school-of-hard-knocks education and the kind that other schoolchildren receive. Maisie's lessons have been learned the hard way.