gat

them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so
obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause always deserved.
Might there be an instructive parallel between teaching a kid to drive as my uncle taught me to do
at age eleven, and the incredible opportunities working-class kids like Franklin were given to
develop as quickly and as far as their hearts and minds allowed? We drive, regardless of our
intelligence or characters, because the economy demands it; in colonial America through the early
republic, a pressing need existed to get the most from everybody. Because of that need, unusual
men and unusual women appeared in great numbers to briefly give the lie to traditional social
order. In that historical instant, thousands of years of orthodox suppositions were shattered. In
the words of Eric Hoffer, "Only here in America were common folk given a chance to show what
they could do on their own without a master to push and order them about." Franklin and Edison,
multiplied many times, were the result.
George Washington
A good yardstick to measure how far modern schooling has migrated from the education of the
past is George Washington’s upbringing in the middle eighteenth century. Although Washington
descended from important families, his situation wasn’t quite the easeful life that suggests. The
death of his father left him, at eleven, without Ben Franklin’s best rudder, and the practice of
primogeniture, which vested virtually the entire inheritance in the first son (in order to stabilize
social class) compelled Washington to either face the future as a ward of his brother, an
unthinkable alternative for George, or take destiny into his own hands as a boy. You probably
already know how that story turned out, but since the course he pursued was nearly schoolless, its
curriculum is worth a closer look. For the next few minutes imagine yourself at "school" with
Washington.
George Washington was no genius; we know that from too many of his contemporaries to
quibble. John Adams called him "too illiterate, too unlearned, too unread for his station and
reputation." Jefferson, his fellow Virginian, declared he liked to spend time "chiefly in action,
reading little." It was an age when everyone in Boston, even shoeblacks, knew how to read and
count; it was a time when a working-class boy in a family of thirteen like Franklin couldn’t
remember when he didn’t know how to read.
As a teenager, Washington loved two things: dancing and horseback riding. He pursued both with
a passion that paid off handsomely when he became president. Large in physical stature, his
appearance might have stigmatized him as awkward. Instead, by developing the agile strength of a
dancer and an equestrian, he was able to communicate grace through his commanding presence,
élan that counterpoised his large build at any gathering. Thanks to his twin obsessions he met his
responsibilities with the bearing of a champion athlete, which saved his life during the Revolution.
In the midst of the fray, a British sharpshooter drew a bead on this target, but found himself
unable to pull the trigger because Washington bore himself so magnificently! George Mercer, a
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