ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with discussion of research into the psychological needs of the young child and outcomes if they are not met. When this happens they may turn to nature for escape as a place where they can safely express emotions. There is discussion of “place identity” theory in which people construct their identity based on the physical settings in which they live. While nature allowed some students, the nuns who taught in the convent and Christopher Milne to see themselves as free through nature, it was different for the author. She outlines three significant memories from her time in the preparatory school which, she argues, were the beginning of her historical imagination. Attention is also given to the intergenerational pattern of sending children to boarding school, including the author’s father. He, like Christopher Milne, developed a significant stammer at that time. Research into stammering is explored, considering whether it is caused by trauma or genetics, with a conclusion that it may be both. The chapter concludes with a recognition of an event much later in life that indicated the author’s hidden longing for her mother, which she could not admit to herself and therefore could not express to others.
