Many Christian educators teach their children about he men who founded the United States of America,
and they focus on students becoming familiar with who they were and what they
did. But if we expect our children to become more like the men of this time, we
should not only teach them about these
men, we should teach them the way these
men were taught.
The education of the Founding Fathers,
in addition to being specifically Christian,
was deeply and thoroughly classical. It was
designed to teach them wisdom and virtue.
In many towns and rural areas, elemen-
tary education was conducted in what were
called “dame schools.” These schools were
often headed by housewives or widows who
taught in their own homes. They focused
on the “Four Rs”: reading, ‘riting, ‘rithme-
tic, and religion. The dame schools were
rudimentary in nature, but many of the
boys went on to “grammar schools,” where
the grammar they learned was based on the
grammar of the Latin and Greek languages,
Thomas Jefferson received early training
in Latin, Greek, and French from Reverend
William Douglas, a Scottish clergyman. At
the age of fourteen, Jefferson’s father died,
and, at the express wish of his father, he
continued his education with the Reverend
James Maury, who ran a classical academy.
After leaving Douglas’ academy, Jefferson
attended the College of William and Mary,
where his classical education continued
along with his study of law.
It is interesting to note that knowledge
of Latin and Greek, which is what the term
“classical education” originally implied, was
not something they learned in college, but
something they were expected to know before they got there.
Without exception, the higher education
of the colonial and revolutionary period
was centered on the classics. Several of the
founders, including Adams, attended Har-
vard. The academic requirements for ad-
mission to Harvard University in the 1640s
were as follows:
“When any scholar is able to read Tully
[Marcus Tillius Cicero] or such like clas-
sical Latin author ex tempore and make
and speak true Latin in verse and prose
suo (ut aiunt) Marte [by his own power,
as they say], and decline perfectly the
paradigms of nouns and verbs in the
Greek tongue, then may he be admitted
into the college, nor shall any claim ad-
mission before such qualification.”
No ACT or SAT scores. No application
essays. No extra-curriculars. Just Latin and
Greek.
Students were also expected in these early
years, according to the Harvard College
Laws, to be able to translate the Old and
New Testaments from the original Greek
and Hebrew into Latin. Not only that, but at
Harvard, students were prohibited from using English in class or in class assignments.
When Alexander Hamilton entered
King’s College (now Columbia University)
in 1773, he was expected to have a mastery
of Greek and Latin grammar, be able to
read three orations from Cicero and from
Virgil’s Aeneid in the original Latin, and be
www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
By Martin Cothran
The Classical
Education of the
Founding Fathers
If we expect our
children to become
more like the men
of this time, we
should teach them
the way these men
were taught.
