I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya has trouble adjusting to her new all-girls school in San Francisco, where “the young ladies were faster, brasher, meaner and more prejudiced than any [she] had met at Lafayette County Training School” (214). Soon Maya is transferred to the well-regarded George Washington High School, where she is one of three Black students. It is located in the white residential area of San Francisco, and Maya loathes having to go through the neighborhood with its “neat streets, smooth lawns, white houses and rich children” (215).

Soon Maya realizes that she is not the most brilliant student at the school, and this feeling is new to her since she is used to being the smartest among her peers. Maya can't get along with other students, but she develops warm relationships with one of the teachers, Miss Kirwin. "Stimulating instead of intimidating" (216), the teacher treats Maya the same as other students, seemingly not noticing that she is Black. At fourteen, Maya receives a scholarship to the California Labor School, where she attends drama and dance classes in the evenings. The girl strives to become a graceful dancer like her mother, and the classes help her shed her shyness.