Written by Helena Jackson

Rather famously, Abraham Lincoln‘s education was largely a result of his own endeavors. The sixteenth President of the United States had, at best, attended one year of formal schooling in his life, all of which happened by age fifteen. The rest of his learning could be credited to Lincoln borrowing books from family, friends, and neighbors.

Abraham Lincoln’s Beginnings

He began in 1816 by attending five schools across Kentucky and Indiana. Lincoln later appeared to resent the education he received there, stating in a letter to Jesse W. Fell that the teachers had no qualifications “beyond the “readin, writin, and cipherin” to the Rule of Three.” He insisted that this environment did “absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education,” and that the “…little advance [he had] upon this store of education, [he] picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.”

Abraham Lincoln’s Father’s Education

In an autobiography requested by John L. Scripps of the Chicago Press and Tribune, Lincoln would go on to state that his father “grew up literally without education,” never doing “more in the way of writing than to bunglingly write his own name.” It would not be unreasonable to assume this was one of the reasons Lincoln’s relationship with his father was so fraught.

Abraham Lincoln at University

Abraham Lincoln’s education also lacked a college or university of any kind. Despite the fact that he entered a career in law, there were few law universities west of Ohio. This left Lincoln to rely on shadowing and borrowing textbooks from licensed lawyers. Lincoln seemed light-hearted about this, though. Allegedly, he joked “at least I’ve been through college” as he was led through a university to debate with Stephen Douglas.

Abraham Lincoln’s Laws and Proposals for Education

It is speculated that these might have been some of the motivations behind Lincoln’s proposals. This includes his sponsoring of the 1825 Free School Law, his 1840 proposal that state-funded teachers must pass an examination, and his signing the Morrill Act into law in 1862, making industrial college more accessible in every state. Given these actions, it is clear Lincoln truly considered education “of vital importance.”