Letter

Source:

Colonial williamsburg .

Quote:

 

Philip Vickers Fithian journal entries:

Monday November 1st  [1773]

We began School—The School consists of eight—Two of Mr Carters Sons—One Nephew—And five Daughters—The eldest Son is reading Sallust; Grammatical Exercises, and latin  Grammar —The second Son is reading english Grammar Reading English: Writing and Cyphering in Subtraction—The Nephew is Reading and Writing as above; and Ciphering in Reduction—The eldest daughter is Reading the Spectator; Writing; & beginning to Cypher—The second is reading next out of the Spelling-Book, and beginning to write—The next is reading in the Spelling-Book—The fourth is Spelling in the beginning of the Spelling-Book—And the last is beginning her letters—

Saturday  [January]  15.  [1774]

I rose at seven—The morning fair the ground muddy—…. I spent some hours to Day with the Girls when they were practising Music on the Guitar, & Forte-piano, Priscilla plays her tunes true and exceeding finely—….

 

Paraphrase:

eight in this school  

all family members in the school 

oldest son learned latin grammar  

one son English grammar

they are all learning different things 

practice music 

 

 

My Ideas:

I think that this letter is very interesting. I notice that schooling has a lot to do with you social status because The higher you are differs what you learn. For example you learn how to dance and sing the higher you are because it tells a story about your family and yourself. What I am trying to say is that dancing shows your knowledge and that is to them would be just as important as writing. I am not so sure about reading because you need to be able to read the bible because  them the bible represents God which was one of the most important things to almost everyone. I wonder if the neighbors would go to school with them? I can infer they did not because they were such a big and rich family, so there was no point to have other kids learn if they weren’t in the family. I notice that kids are all learning different things.I wonder if the kids did their lessons with any help? I can infer they did because most of their lessons  seemed to not be very progressive. I think that it must of taken longer for kids to learn. I think that they thought that kids should get a book and just learn about things themselves. I think that this letter really show what rich families education would be. I wonder why learning latin was so important? I can infer it ran in the family because I do not think everyone would learn Latin. I notice tah they also talk a lot about math I think that math was also very important so you can run a business. 

History:

Created: 11/04/2016 01:29 PM