DIY Homeschooler

Writing doesn’t have to be a trial. Here is one way to develop reading, critical thinking, and writing skills using the story of Benjamin Franklin, “The Boy Printer.”

Have your students read the following story (or read the story aloud). As they are reading or listening, have your students think up questions they would like to know the answers to.

Ben was one of a family of thirteen children. His father was a poor man who followed the trade of soap and candle maker. When Ben was ten years of age his
father took him out of school and set him to work in his shop cutting wicks and filling candle molds.

But Ben didn’t like such dirty work. He liked to be out in the open, where he could play and swim and where he could sail a boat and dream about sailing the seas. So he told his father he wanted to be a sailor.

His father only laughed at the idea. “You would never make a sailor, my boy. You are not fitted for that life. How should you like to go into the shop with brother James and learn to be a printer?”

The idea suited Ben very much. He was already a great reader and here was a chance, he thought, to read to his heart’s content. So it was arranged that Ben should live with his older brother and learn the printer’s trade. The next week found him busily learning to set type for the newspaper which James published.

All went well. The boy printer learned rapidly and was eager to learn more.

Soon he wanted to own books for himself. How to buy them was a question. One day he said to his brother, “If you will give me half of what it costs to board me, I will board myself.”

His brother promptly agreed and little Ben was not long in saving up enough money to buy his first book. After that he was seldom without a book at his elbow.

Not only was Ben saving of his money but of his time also. While other boys were at play, he was at his books. He was never idle and could always manage to do some reading every day. The truth is he would rather read than eat, so he managed often to do both at the same time. This habit of reading a book while eating his lunch, led his shopmates to say, “Ben eats two meals at once.”

Thus he worked and studied until he was seventeen years of age. Then he decided to leave Boston and seek his fortune elsewhere. He sold a part of his books and with the money started for Philadelphia. Before he reached the city his funds ran so low that he had to complete his journey on foot, arriving in Philadelphia with only “one silver dollar and a shilling in coppers” in his pocket.

Ben was faint with hunger, so he hurried to the nearest bakery and bought “three large puffy rolls of bread.” Then taking a roll under each arm and eating the third, he started up the street.

As he passed along, many people smiled and some girls giggled.

Why? Just because a hungry boy was eating a roll of bread on the street?

Not for that reason alone. His clothes were so queer looking. He wore knee breeches, made of buckskin, and an old coat, much too large for him, from the pockets of which “extra shirts and spare stockings” were bulging. Is it any wonder the girls laughed at the queer looking figure?

As you may imagine, such a busy youth was not long in finding a good job. Then he worked faithfully, studied during his spare hours, and saved his money. It was Ben’s wish to have a newspaper of his own; and in 1728 he founded the “Saturday Evening Post,” a weekly, now said to have more readers than any other paper in the world.

Ben Franklin did another thing that was even more notable. He felt that the common people needed to be taught how to work and save as he had always done. As he went about, he noticed that about the only book read in the homes of the poor people was the family almanac. He decided to publish one, too, and to call it “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” Besides telling about the weather the crops, etc., Franklin put in here and there many quaint sayings, choice bits of advice, and homely proverbs.

Poor Richard’s Almanac was a great success. His sayings became household words and his almanac hung on every mantle piece. To his many other honors and titles might well be added this: Our Foremost Teacher of Thrift.

And Poor Richard’s advice is as good to day as it ever was. Would you be thrifty, follow his sound advice:

One to-day is worth two tomorrows.
A small leak will sink a great ship.
Lost time is never found.
The sleeping fox catches no poultry.
A stitch in time saves nine.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

— After Franklin.

The Lincoln Readers

Suggestions

Have your students do one or more of the following:

• Let your students ask the questions they came up with as the story was read. Help them to find the answers.
• Make an outline of the story. This will help you tell the story to someone who has not read it. It also helps you organize the information or “think through” the story. See a rough outline below if you get stuck.
• What type of habits did Ben develop? List his character traits.
• If you were going to make a movie of the story, which part do you think would make the best scene? Why? (Likely his arrival in Philadelphia because the author has helped us to “see” the scene.) Describe this scene using a Sensory Detail form.
• Copy the sayings in a copybook or using Drawing and Writing paper. Explain what the saying means.
• Read an abridged version of Robinson Crusoe. Explain various ways that he was “thrifty.”
• Learn more about Benjamin Franklin.
• Write a biography of Benjamin Franklin.
• Arrange the following list of words taken from the selection in alphabetical order.

Outline Suggestion

1. Benjamin Franklin’s early life.
   • a.
   • b.
   • c.
2. Why he chose the printer’s trade.
   • a.
   • b.
   • c.
3. Ben and his “two meals a day.”
   • a.
4. Seeking his fortune in Philadelphia.
   • a.
   • b.
   • c.
5. How he helped the common people.
   • a.
   • b.
6. Some of his sayings.
   • a.
   • b.
   • Etc.

Additional Resources

Write Something Every Day: 366 Pencil Sharpeners for Students of Writing
Our book will get you started. This huge 554-pg. resource provides carefully crafted writing prompts and challenges for each day. We use nearly 20 different forms of writing to keep the student engaged. Also included are writing instruction, tips for modifying assignments for “younger writers,” and other resources. Learn more.

Free History Studies: Benjamin Franklin {Part 2}
Franklin was also an inventor. Learn more!