Themes and message

Formal versus informal education

The theme of the story “Butterflies” by Patricia Grace is the differences between formal and informal education.

In the first part of the story, the grandparents stress the importance of formal education, advising the granddaughter repeatedly to “ ‘listen to the teacher’ ”. The grandfather brags to the neighbor about the granddaughter’s education: “ ‘clever (...) writes every day in her book’ ”. 

The second part of the story highlights the value of informal education, as well as the conflict which can exist between the two types of education.

Informal education refers to what is learned outside of school. In the story, the granddaughter has learned that butterflies are pests which must be killed to protect the crops. This is what she kn...