at the very beginning of Chapter 2.  At that point, Scout says that she had never looked forward to something more than she was looking forward to school.

Although she does not exactly say why she is looking forward to school, it would appear that she is eager to go so that she could play with Jem and the other kids.  She does not say anything about wanting to learn -- she just talks about how she watched them play their games and how she wanted to join them.

Often when younger children have no one to play with when they are left behind as the school year begins, they are eager to go to school and be a part of what the others are doing. This is true of Scout.

In Chapter 2 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout recalls how she often spent hours in the tree house, looking over at the schoolyard through a telescope, "secretly sharing their misfortunes and minor victories." Unfortunately for Scout, her first day does not meet her expectations of school. Before the morning is over, Scout is brought to the front of the classroom and her teacher, Miss Caroline, hits the palm of her hand with a ruler before placing Scout in the corner. Further, Miss Caroline criticizes Atticus for having taught her to read improperly.

Like many precocious children, Scout is well-meaning, but when she tries to help her teacher, who is new to southern Alabama, by offering background knowledge on some of the children, Miss Caroline misreads Scout's intentions. She thinks that Scout is trying to undermine her authority, and she disciplines the girl. Thus, Scout ends the day miserable.

At last Scout would be entering the first grade.

I never looked forward more to anything in my life.  (Chapter 2)

Atticus has stressed the importance of education to his children though he was home-schooled himself. Jem loves school and is an avid reader, and Scout has already learned to read--and write cursive. She and Atticus read together each night, and Scout looks forward to the great learning experience that awaits her. She greatly anticipates the first day though Jem warns her that "school's different." For Scout, it is an end to the loneliness and boredom that she must have experienced in past years while Jem was at school. She spent hours in the treehouse "spying" on the kids in the schoolyard through her telescope, learning their games and

... secretly sharing their misfortunes and tiny victories. I longed to join them.  (Chapter 2)

Going to school would be the next step toward growing up for Scout. It meant meeting new friends, learning new things, and not having to spend as much time with Calpurnia each day. Sadly, her first day at school was not a good one, and the rest of the year "was no more auspicious." By the end of the year, Scout "could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something."

Scout is anxious to begin school because she cannot wait to play with the other children at recess and participate in all of the exciting classroom activities that she hears so much about from her brother. In Chapter 2, Scout mentions that she is miserable after Dill goes home because she misses him. Scout then remembers that she will be starting school in a week and begins to get excited. When Scout recalls watching Jem from their treehouse run around on the playground with the other students, she comments, "I longed to join them" (Lee 12). Essentially, Scout is lonely without Dill and cannot wait to begin school so that she can be around others. Scout looks forward to playing with her classmates and joining in Jem's playground games. Despite Scout's excitement, Jem tells her that she is to stay with the first graders and leave him alone to play with his fifth grade friends on the playground.

Like so many young children who have watched their older siblings and friends go off to school each day, Scout wants to be included.  She is used to the companionship of other children, and when the older ones are in school she is left alone to play by herself each day.  She recalls sitting alone in a treehouse overlooking the schoolyard, "spying on multitudes of children...learning their games, following Jem's red jacket through wriggling circles of blind man's buff, secretly sharing their misfortunes and minor victories...I longed to join them" (Chapter 2).  She doesn't really have a concept of what school entails other than the fact that the students, who seem to be having fun on the playground, go there everyday and she is not allowed to be with them.

When Dill left Maycomb in early September in order to return to his hometown of Meridian, Scout was depressed for a time; however, her depression was replaced with happiness and excitement when she realized that she would be starting school in just a few days.  In the first paragraph of Chapter 20, Scout's enthusiasm for school is made evident when she says:

I never looked forward more to anything in my life.  Hours of wintertime had found me in the treehouse, looking over at the schoolyard, spying on multitudes of children through a two-power telescope Jem had given me, learning their games, following Jem's red jacket through wriggling circles of blind man's bluff, secretly sharing their misfortunes and minor victories.  I longed to join them.

Unfortunately, Scout's enjoyment of school was short lived; on the first day alone, she was criticized for being literate, punished for trying to explain Walter Cunningham's behavior, reprimanded by Calpurnia for treating Walter poorly, and informed that she could not receive her education at home (plus a few other inconveniences).  Had it not been for Atticus's excellent fathering and his recognition of those things that mattered to his daughter, Scout probably would have been extremely unhappy returning to school; however, Atticus and Scout came to "an agreement reached by mutual concessions" which resulted in Scout's continuing her formal education.

At the beginning of Chapter 2 after Scout and Jem see Dill off to Mississippi, Scout copes with missing her friend by thinking of school.  She says,

". . .I would be starting to school in a week. I never looked forward more to anything in my life" (15).

This statement is part of Scout's characterization.  She is a precocious, mature-for-her-age little girl who longs to associate with older children like Jem.  The narrator's attitude toward school also serves as a way for Lee to satirize the educational system of her day.  Children are sent to school excited about learning, and in Lee's view, the system drains that love of learning from them and replaces it with boredom and useless information (i.e., Miss Caroline's teaching).

Scout was also depicted as a precocious child who loved nothing better than to compete with her brother. Since Jem went to school, Scout wanted to as well. School was also an outlet for Scout to become her own person rather than the "younger" of the two Finch children.  During her first experiences as a child in school, Scout developed her own friendships as well as her own enemies and was not afraid to show both her allegiance to a friend (despite his background) as well as her displeasure to anyone who criticized her or her family. School provided an opportunity to develop the character of Scout as well.

The narrator of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout was obviously a highly intelligent child, modeled after author Harper Lee herself. Scout could already read and write (including cursive!) before entering the first grade, and her blossoming writing career (though unmentioned in the story) was probably already being nurtured by her nightly readings with Atticus. Maycomb was also a boring little town with little to do or see, so for Scout, school was expected to be a great new adventure. She and Jem seemed to have few playmates or close friends besides Dill, so school was undoubtedly something Scout was looking forward to absorbing.

Scout wants to be like Jem. As the younger sister, Scout is always trying ot be like him. She tries to act ike a boy and dress like one as well, much to the dismay of the women in her life who want her to act like a girl.  Going ot school is something Jem does, so she wants to follow him. The problem arises, however, when she is forced to wear a dress to school. When Jem teases her and later when the teacher criticizes her reading with ther father, school is not what she had expected it to be