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What Do You Know About a George Washington Education?

By: Kayley Kenzie

February 22, 1732: George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on his father's plantation. Augustine Washington, his father, was both the leading planter in the area and was also a justice of the county court.

George was born from Augustine's second marriage, after his first wife died leaving two sons and daughter to be raised. George was the oldest of the six children Augustine had with his second wife, Mary Ball.

Very little is known about the kind of childhood George Washington had, and we know very little about the George Washington education.

Most children in Virginia were taught at home by private tutors, or in local private schools. Boys usually stated formal education at the age of seven. They would start with lessons in reading, writing, and basic arithmetic.

As they got older they were taught Greek and Latin. They also learned bookkeeping, surveying, and geometry. Wealthy planters would usually send their sons of to England to finish their education.

George's two older half brothers were able to go to England. However, George never was able to go because of his father's death.

George Washington education probably started with a school close to home for the first few years. Possibly he went to another school later. What we know for certain was that he was skilled in mathematics and learned surveying.

Unlike other gentlemen's sons in the area, George didn't learn Latin or Greek. He didn't go to college and he never learned a foreign language. The George Washington education ended approximately around the time he was 15 or 16.

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 incomplete, and he saw it as defective. He did what he could to make up for what he didn't learn in school by learning from the people he looked up and by reading books.

He built a vast personal library in his years of personal study. He also wrote quite a bit and subscribed to plenty of newspapers.

George may have placed such a high value on education because of his incomplete formal schooling. When he died, his will donated money for building a school in Alexandria, Virginia and for a national university.

Article Source: http://www.homesteadarticles.com

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