Ben Franklin received very little formal education as a youth and thus had to educate himself. His older brothers all became apprentices in assorted trades, but Ben was put into grammar school at the age of eight, instead. He was an eager learner when it came to reading and thus he was at the head of his class for some time. However, his father was unable to afford this line of education so Ben was sent to a school for writing and arithmetic under an esteemed master. This is where Ben learned to write, but arithmetic was a weakness of his. He remained here until he was ten and these two years are his formal education in its entirety. Ben always had a devotion to books, perhaps instilled in him by an uncle with his namesake. This ingenious uncle was som

ewhat of a role model for Ben, who looked up to his uncle's writings and poetry. Ben went on to become a printer's apprentice under his brother; still retaining his love of reading and desire to write. As a result, much of Ben's skill developing was left to be done under his own discipline. He borrowed books and read them voraciously in order to emulate their writing style. In a sense, this lack of a formal education sets the stage for Franklin's way of living and individualistic virtues, which he will espouse later in life. Self-discipline and temperance was encouraged, as he had to balance his passion for writing and his apprenticeship to his brother. In fact, the young boy sometimes stayed up and read through the better part of a night to fulfill his love of books, but he never allowed this to completely dominate his life. Ben understood the importance of honest, hard work at an early age. Additionally, he had to take initiative to learn. His early manner of self-education is a foreshadowing of the self-improvement that he will be so fervent about later in life. Ben Franklin became friends with a prosaic young writer by the name of John Collins. The two corresponded through letters and held amicable debates, in which Ben made better use of reason, but John Collins's remarkable style of writing frequently outshone Ben. This drove Ben to work on his weakness of style but embellish his strength of reason, and also helped to humble him and show him that there is always room for improvement. He learned to study his own actions and adjust them accordingly, as he would do later in life by adding humility to his list of virtues. Without the help of John Collins to hone his skills, Ben Franklin would not have gone to writing samples,

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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)