I conceive a knowledge of books

is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.¹

America’s first president, George Washington, was not educated formally; his two older half-brothers received their education at Appleby School in England. George’s father planned to send him to England as well. His unexpected death, however, prevented George, now 11, from receiving the same education as his brothers.

Instead, George received his education by books and tutors.² In addition to reading, writing, and basic legal forms, he studied geometry and trigonometry — preparing him for his first career as a surveyor. Toward the end of his schooling, George copied 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation,³ which would shape his character and conduct for the rest of his life.  His formal education ended at fourteen.

Throughout his life, Washington was a voracious reader; he took notes, jotted down memoranda, created personal indices, underlined, and on rare occasions, wrote in the margins. He took the time to thoroughly investigate a topic, collecting information from a variety of sources and perspectives, before pursuing his own opinions and course.⁴

His pursuit of knowledge had been a hard-fought quest to overcome his educational deficit while simultaneously building his career. For him, reading was fundamentally an act of self-construction, a means of intellectual and moral improvement.⁵

Charlotte Mason understood keenly what Washington had learned from his studies:

If we are to read and grow thereby, we must read to know, that is, our

reading must be study—orderly, definite, purposeful. In this way, what

I have called the two stages of education, synthetic and analytic,

coalesce; the wide reading tends to discipline, and in the disciplinary or

analytic stage the mind of the student is well nourished by the continued

habit of wide reading.⁶

Maryellen St. Cyr

Co-Founder and Director of Curriculum

Ambleside Schools International