Ben Franklin Education (2024)

FAQs

What did Ben Franklin say about education? ›

A few quotes on education by Benjamin Franklin: "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." "The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance."

He attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career" for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten.

He stayed at the new school until he was ten, doing well in writing and badly in arithmetic. He then left school to work with his father in their candle shop. Ben's further education came from his own reading and lifelong conversation and debate with his friends.

However, his family could not afford formal education, and he had to leave school at the age of 10 to work with his father. But this didn't quench his thirst for knowledge. Franklin turned to books to educate himself. He borrowed volumes from anyone who would lend them and read every book he could get his hands on.

“Well done is better than well said.” “A right Heart exceeds all.” “What you seem to be, be really.”

Franklin easily contributed more to the American education system than any other man in the eighteenth century as he founded libraries and schools, and advocated for female and African-American education. But Franklin's confidence was based solely in man and his hard work.

He only had two years of formal education.

Franklin spent just two years attending Boston Latin School and a private academy before joining the family candle and soap-making business. By age 12, he was serving as an indentured apprentice at a printing shop owned by his brother, James.

An early and notable exception is Benjamin Franklin, who received an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Andrews in 1759 and the University of Oxford in 1762 for his scientific accomplishments, and thereafter referred to himself as “Doctor Franklin.”

Unlike the other Founding Fathers, Franklin began as an artisan, with only two years of formal education, and was the architect of his own fortune. He was a self-made man representing American social mobility through frugality and industriousness.

Franklin left school at 10 and began an apprenticeship in his brother's print shop at 12. At 17 he ran away, first to Philadelphia, then to London, then back to Philadelphia, where he set up a print shop and began to publish The Pennsylvania Gazette.

Did Ben Franklin drop out of school? ›

Benjamin Franklin quit school at the age of ten and became an apprentice to his brother, a printer, two years later. Franklin worked as a printer from 1718 to 1748.

Franklin was fascinated by electricity and devoted much of his time to studying its properties. Growing up during the age of Enlightenment, Franklin applied the reason-based scientific method set out by Isaac Newton and others.

With a limited formal education, Franklin was effectively self-taught, and spent a significant portion of his early years in the newspaper business. He began by writing for his brother's newspaper under the assumed name Silence Dogood.

Benjamin Franklin

Dropped out of school at the age of 10 to work as a soap and candle maker with his father. Later Franklin moved on to apprentice under his brother who was the founder of the first independent newspaper in the colonies.

At age eight, Franklin began his schooling at Boston Latin School. He spent the next year at George Brownell's English School. After that, his father had no more money to continue his education. At age ten, Franklin worked in his father's shop as a soap and candle maker.

Thomas Jefferson believed only educated citizens could make the American experiment in self-government succeed. He proposed a system of broad, free, public education that was radical in his day and his founding of the University of Virginia partially achieved his larger goals.

Education is a great investment.

Ben Franklin was one of the greatest thinkers in American history. And he knew something about wise investments. So it's no surprise that Franklin said that an investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Education matters - and it pays off!