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: The Phillips-Exeter dates look wrong.  People don't start high school in May at age 17.  Nor would it make sense for Rev. Woods to tutor Webster for only a few months.  There is at least a three year gap there to prepare for college, as one would expect, I think.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 23:25, 20 May 2007 (EDT)
 
: The Phillips-Exeter dates look wrong.  People don't start high school in May at age 17.  Nor would it make sense for Rev. Woods to tutor Webster for only a few months.  There is at least a three year gap there to prepare for college, as one would expect, I think.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 23:25, 20 May 2007 (EDT)
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::He would have been about 14 (1796 minus 1782), which jives with a couple of other sources which mention his age but not the year.  The 1794 date comes from the Notable Names Database Weblog article, which doesn't look particularly scholarly and includes no citations.  We could work it out more accurately if we looked up his birthday.  [Why don't I do that!  He was born January 18, 1782, which would make him 14 in May of 1796 when he entered Exeter (according to the autobiography quote), and 15 (give or take a few days) when he left.  He would have started with Rev. Wood at 15, and been almost 16 (well, 15 1/2) by the time he began Dartmouth in Aug 1797.]  I agree that May sounds like an odd time to start school, but I believe the British system, on which Phillips-Exeter may have been modeled, has different terms (semesters) than we are used to.  14 is the right age for high school today, and I do believe Dartmouth as to the dates he was there.  Perhaps we can find more information to verify or refute the Exeter dates.  Don't forget that Rev. Woods had planned to have Webster for longer:  ''Mr. Wood put me upon Virgil and Tully; and I conceived a pleasure in the study of them, especially the latter, which rendered application no longer a task... In the spring I began the Greek grammar, and at midsummer Mr. Wood said to me: "I expected to keep you till next year, but I am tired of you, and I shall put you into college next month.''  <ref>Dartmouth:  Daniel Webster:  Class of 1801:
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Scholarly Pursuits[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/1801/scholar.html]</ref>  He also said that he was ''miserably prepared, both in Latin and Greek'', which is not surprising if he only studied for a few months!  (Same source)--[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 23:48, 20 May 2007 (EDT)
    
==The Wright Brothers - Homeschooled?  Or not?==
 
==The Wright Brothers - Homeschooled?  Or not?==
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