Martha Washington's Education

Excerpt from the book George Washington: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall about the education of Martha Dandridge Custis, later to become the wife of George Washington.

Her education was fairly typical of Virginia's more fortunate daughters. Schooled at home, she had learned to read the Bible, sermons, and tracts, and how to ride and dance. According to Virginia legend, itself a masterpiece of embroidery, she learned great adeptness at weaving and sewing at an early age. Taught how to cook by her mother from recipes passed down in writing in her family, she became a famous cook. She learned how to supervise the growing, harvesting, and preserving of large quantities of foods as well as how to furnish and decorate a house and keep its accounts. She was also expected to take charge of hygiene and health care for her family and her slaves. Martha was taught that her privileges brought commensurate responsibilities. In effect, she had to learn to be a town manager, supervising every detail of the lives of a growing number of people, especially when her husband was away for months on end. She was expected to master all of this by the time she made her debut in Williamsburg at age fifteen.

A worker at home - taught specifically how to be a worker at home! She had to learn all of the womenly duties of the home (sewing, cooking, housekeeping), learn the duties of her husband to execute his role in his absence (planting, harvesting, manager of staff and business), and be the teacher of the children in both religion and education. Not an easy task!

I fear our daughters today are not as well rounded in their experience and knowledge nor are they able to handle all of this at such a young age. Given, we are not in such laborious times any longer, but a life of luxury has also brought idleness and wasteful energy. We fill our extra time with things that don't matter or provide experiences in which to grow. We may have more people than ever going to college these days but we may be the least educated generation of the modern world.

I may not want to work as hard as Martha and the women of her time had no choice but to do, however, I would love to have her knowledge and expertise, as well as, her honor. I also like the fact that the Bible was the main source of educational knowledge versus some liberal professor's humanly point of view. There are some things worth reviving from the past.