Month: February 2011

The Making of a President: George Washington’s Childhood

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Unlike other presidents who left records of their childhoods, we know very little about George Washington’s youth. The lack of information has led some stories that are not true about his childhood to pass for what really happened. For example, there is no evidence that George Washington confessed to his father that he cut down a cherry tree, saying, “I cannot tell a lie.” The only thing known for certain about George’s relationship with his father was that it ended when his father died suddenly. George was only eleven years old, and as a younger son he was not supposed to inherit the family estate, known today as Mount Vernon. 

Though he would inherit Mount Vernon eventually, George spent his youth with his mother in a six-room farmhouse near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Although there was a college nearby, George never attended it and only received an elementary school education. His lack of official instruction bothered him during the Revolution when he met other colonists who had more education than he did.

George’s older half brother, Lawrence indirectly influenced the man George Washington would later become. Lawrence had married into the Fairfax family, and one of the Fairfax cousins gave George his first job in 1748. During his work surveying Fairfax property in the Shenandoah Valley, sixteen-year-old George started his now famous diary. He wrote about the conditions of the country, stating that he “went into the Bed as they call’d it when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw.”

Though he would endure some hardship away from home at times, George was not destined to be a poor younger son. Lawrence died young and George inherited his land. George did not want to sit at home, however. When Lawrence was ill, he applied for a small post in the Virginia militia. Despite his lack of experience, the same Fairfax cousin vouched for his character. Since Lawrence’s death created an opening in the military, Virginia’s governor decided to accept George. Major George Washington left for the west within a year.

 

 

Abraham Lincoln’s Education

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Abraham Lincoln, 1858

Abraham Lincoln, 1858

“What he has in the way of education, he has picked up.” Abraham Lincoln wrote this statement in a 3,000 word autobiography during his presidential campaign. At the age of ten, he attended school in Indiana, but school terms were far shorter than they are today. Abraham might attend school for one to three months in the winter and then he would be expected to help out on the family farm.

Trying to learn anything in just a few months each year was hard enough, but to make things worse country teachers were not always well educated. Lincoln remembered, “no qualification was ever required of a teacher, beyond readin, writin, and cipherin.” The educational system did not help most children become interested in learning. Abraham, however, was not like most children.

Though he did develop some talent for farm chores like chopping wood, Abraham was most interested in reading. He was not ashamed to beg others to let him take one of their books home with him. The chores he had meant that young Abe often stayed up late or got up early to read. Some of the books he read, like Robinson Crusoe and Aesop’s Fables, are still read by schoolchildren today. His stepmother, who supported his reading efforts, remembered that Abe had a scrapbook in which he would write down quotes that he liked and wanted to remember.

As he entered his teenage years, Abe also developed a talent for public speaking. When he attended church with his family, he would pay close attention to the sermon. After church, he would recite what the preacher said to a small audience of other children. Although no one could have predicted it at the time, Abraham’s habits of reading, writing and reciting would prove invaluable when he became president.

Cleopatra’s Education

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When the Greeks ruled Egypt in the first century B.C., they stressed education for both royal boys and girls. Cleopatra and her sisters received the same education as their brothers in case one of the girls would rule Egypt. Living in the city of Alexandria, home of a great library, Cleopatra had access to the best teachers and great works of literature.

First, young Cleopatra chanted the Greek alphabet. When she successfully learned the alphabet, she traced its letters on a wooden tablet. Teachers then gave her difficult words to read aloud so she would learn syllables. Like children today, Cleopatra knew Aesop’s fables well. Sometimes teachers in the first century B.C. assigned a tale to their students and asked them to retell it aloud. Public speaking skills were highly regarded at the time, and historians have remarked on Cleopatra’s ability to speak well in front of others.

As Cleopatra grew up, she decided that she would also learn to speak and read Egyptian. Amazingly, there is no record of previous Greek rulers of Egypt learning the language of the people they governed. This was probably because Egyptian writing was so complex. Cleopatra, however, did not want to rely on others to interpret what the Egyptians were saying.

Historians state that Cleopatra learned languages easily; one says that she could speak nine of them. Ancient historian Plutarch said that “It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another.” By receiving a good education, Cleopatra communicated easily with other rulers when she became queen of Egypt.