from Elspeth Huxleys The Flame Trees of Thika a memoire of an African
CHildhood:
I can't find the paragraph where she talked directly about here
education but she spoke about the openness of growing up in colonial
British east Africa where she would learn what was needed to be learned
without direct instruction. She was there at age 6, 1913.
"Tilly (Elspeths mother) was so taken up with the daily business of of
living that she had little time, and perhaps even less inclination, for
a brooding hen approanch to motherhood. Life was there for me to take
part in, and always offered plenty to do, but things were not invented
for me, I was not labeled as a child to be handled with care and given
special attention."
about learning from the Kikuyu..
"the Kikuyu, as a rule, were not much interested in their
surroundings. ..they walked around their country without appearing to
possess it -- or perhaps I mean, without leaving an mark. To us, that
was remarkable: they had not tried to recreate or change or tame the
country and to bring it under their control. ...The natives of Africa
had accepted what God, or nature, had given them without apparently
wishing to improve upon it in any significant way. "
I am finding this recounting and her education very interesting. At 18
she did attend Reading College and Cornell to study agriculture.