What metaphors are used in What My Child Learns of the Sea by Audre Lorde?

In the final two lines of the first stanza, Lorde introduces the idea of revision, an important part of learning. Because of the incorporation of new sense data, ideas, and reflection, one's initial ideas about the world are periodically revised. In this case, the speaker predicts that her daughter will "childlike / revise every autumn." As a metaphor, autumn can represent a person at or past middle age, but in this instance, it is modified by the word "every," indicating that actual yearly cycles are meant. What happens every autumn that would inspire revision to one's learning? In the United States, the school year begins anew every autumn, and students learn new things while revising what they have already learned from previous years.