Very few colonial children received formal educations in the early years. "As members of the family workforce, children were vocational apprentices of the parent of their own sex: fathers trained sons in agriculture or in the family trade, while mothers taught housewifery to their girls." Children were to be prepared

Even with the establishment of schools and districts, by the middle of the eighteenth century, only half of the women of New England were literate, while eight-five percent of men were literate. Even with their renowned private schools, in the middle colonies only one-third of the women could read, whereas sixty-three percent of men could read. Finally, even with a few different methods of education, in the south only one fourth of women were literate, while fifty-five percent of their counterparts were literate. Educational institutions, whether like the ones in existence today or not, were available in colonial times. "No southern woman shared equal access to schooling with men of her own class", this was also true for the other regions in America. Overall, female education showed occasional spurts of progress during the colonial period, yet it still lagged behind men. Aside from the fact that women had less accessability to schools and educations, female curriculum differed from Male curriculum. Girls were taught domestic tasks, such as sewing and needlepoint, while the boys were learning geography and possibly Latin. Latin was the language used in higher education, so omitting this language from the girls curriculum ensured the fact that women did not attend college. Social class played a big role in what kind of education one received, the same is true for today's society. However, if social class was the only variable responsible for yielding the literacy rates, then the lower class must have been flooded with females. No information of this sort has surfaced.. One historian suggests that everyday life experiences counted more than reading writing and arithmetic. However, was the male everyday life experience less important? Did it give them more time to learn reading and writing? The answer is no, to each child in colonial society, regardless of gender, experience was greatly important in order to ensure future survival. A more likely reason for lower literacy rates, stems from the idea that "ignoring education for females had a strong religious base." Aside from religion, the dismissal of the need to educate women was in existence. Attitudes and beliefs had more to do with the ignorance of women than the need for everyday skills did. Education would change along with the country, because of the American Revolution.

"The disruptions of the revolutionary war had changed women's realities greatly." Women now, more than ever, saw themselves as a useful part of their society because they had played such important roles in the war. The idea of the republican mother stemmed from the revolution, "a woman's patriotic duty to educate her sons to be moral and virtuous citizens linked her to the state and gave her some degree of power over its future." This did not challenge male superiority, rather it played on the role that women had on the men

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Revolution, Benjamin Rush, Deluder Act, Latin Latin, Field Schools, England Dame, Governor Berkeley, America Overall, Colonial America, , reading writing, private schools, american revolution, women's education, children educated, social class, schools schools, everyday life, middle colonies, basic reading writing, teach children, reading writing skills,
Approximate Word count = 1951
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)