March 28, 2008
What Do You Know About a George Washington Education?
George Washington was born in 1732 on February 22. He was born on his father's Westmoreland County plantation in Virginia. His father, Augustine Washington, was a justice of the county court and also the area's leading planter.
George's mother was Mary Ball Washington. Augustine had been married before, but the mother of his first two sons and daughter died. Augustine would have six children with his second wife Mary, and George was the oldest.
Very little is known about the kind of childhood George Washington had, and we know very little about the George Washington education.
We do know that most children in the state of Virginia were instructed by private tutors or in local private schools. At age seven, boys usually began their formal education. They learned how to read, write, and do basic arithmetic.
Boys would later learn classic languages, Greek and Latin. They also were taught bookkeeping, geometry, and surveying. If their fathers were wealthy, they would be sent to England to complete their education.
George might have gone to England to further his education like his two older half brothers did, but he wasn't able to after his father died.
The George Washington education most likely started in a school located close to home for a few years. He may have gone to another school later. But what we know for sure was that was very good at mathematics and learned surveying.
He didn't learn Latin and Greek like many of the other gentlemen's sons in the area. He never learned a foreign language or went to college. It is estimated that the George Washington education ended around the age of 15.
To the gentry class, social skills were one of the most important components in a young man's or woman's education. After George's father passed away, he began spending more time in Mount Vernon with his older half brother Lawrence.
Lawrence helped in many ways, such as: mentoring and tutoring him in his studies, teaching him social graces, and introducing him into society.
The George Washington education was seen as defective his whole life. He made every effort to make up for all the things he didn't learn in school by reading books and learning from people he respected.
Through the years of his personal studying, he built up an enormous library. He also subscribed to many newspapers. He also wrote a lot.
It is thought that his lack of formal education made him put a value on education. He left money in his will for establishing a school in Alexandria, Virginia, in addition to a national university.
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