Although Tante Atie wasn't interested in going back to school herself, you could tell it was important to her that Sophie had the chance to get an education. Atie moved away from her village and away from her mother so that Sophie could attend school. When Sophie and Atie return to the village where Atie grew up to visit her grandmother Ife, she proudly tells her mother how well Sophie was doing in school. Education was also important to Marguerite. She often found herself feeling angry and embarrassed by her mother's tendency to leave out verbs when she spoke. In fact, one of the reasons Marguerite admired Mrs. Flowers so much was that she was an educated woman. Mrs. Flowers, however, was a woman who believed in the importance of both formal education and the education that came from life experiences. Mrs. Flowers even explained to Marguerite that there was wisdom in the old farmers and that she should pay attention to what they had to say because their wisdom came from the life experience of several generations. He told Marguerite that there was a difference between ignorance and illiteracy and that there were people in the world without formal education who were just as intelligent and smarter than some university professors. Education has always been important to my mother. He always corrected my English when I spoke. He said I needed to make sure I spoke correctly, especially since English isn't my first language. My mother is extremely happy with my decision to go back to school and it makes me happy to see her like this