Implicit vs. Active Knowledge

I greeted the young mother next door, and noted  with approval  the locomotive progress of the heir and baby, Master Jack.   “It’s Mr Crawlies!” I observed colloquially, as he busied himself amid the bugs and flowerbeds. He is actually capable of walking “six steps”, his mother assured me;  but he prefers to crawl (lazy fellow) “because it’s easier”.  I noticed that his cotton onesie was fitted with leather soles, which might  more realistically  have been applied at the knees.

Then up skipped his elder sister, my little friend Marya, who lately has marched into kindergarten.  With scarcely a glance at her young sibling, for whose quaint ways  she shows indulgence but no doting,  in a half-whisper  she informed me:

“Today is my first day to write.   I knew how to write before, but I kept it in my head,”, she said, indicating the noggin in question  with a well-informed forefinger, “and didn’t let it out.”

What exactly that might mean, I leave for the elves to interpret.  She herself, when grown to womanhood, will no longer know.   But years later (after I am gone), she might happen to read this, and wonder, then smile at a dim remembered light ….