Character and Education: Young Washington in History Historian Roundtable

0:07 One really interesting thing, as you watch Washington develop. You see the competing influences of Lawrence and his mother in his character as it develops. Lawrence’s aspect of that is that he was a dreamer. He was he was somebody he talked about the things that he did in the Navy,

0:28 the things that he was going to do, and he liked to bring George into his dreams. And that was the episode of him potentially going off to join the Navy to seek adventure, pursue your dreams. And you see that in the film. Whereas his his mother, Mary Bol, she really taught him the virtues of personal conduct, things like diligence,

0:50 commitment loyalty honesty. You have to think many of those things came from his mother. But you see those elements almost at war within George Washington as he grows up. The dreamer and the practical man of business.

1:13 work. I like the idea in the scene that the George is a voracious reader. As he develops and he gets older, he will read more and more, and he will develop his own library. Eventually, as an adult, he’s interested in learning. He will have a, a bit of a complex, you know, his entire life, because he doesn’t have that classical education.

1:34 He’s trying to be at this point, English gentleman. The way to be an English gentleman is to have a classical education, to speak French, and as we know for sure, will become a big, serious issue. So I’ve always felt that too, though, that that’s it’s a whole that he feels. I think it’s a good lesson, especially for if you think if you’re a a student applying to colleges

1:55 and you don’t get into your first choice, your life isn’t over. Right, right. He didn’t get to go to Appleby School. He still did pretty well for himself. This is such a great moment. And I think in one of Washington’s letters he wrote at the time,

2:15 he said, I put myself forward for this role. I think it’s impossible to to overestimate the courage because he believed he could do it. He may not have merited it, but he believed he could do it. He knew he could do it. Deliver this message which says, what, sir? That they leave immediately.

2:37 And if the French refuse, do not permit them to refuse. This moment is like a 22 year old kid saying, yeah, I’m ready to step on that helicopter, fly out into Afghanistan. You dropped me in there with a few guys. I’m going to talk to some hostile tribal leader and tell them to get out, and then I’m going to come back home on my own. I mean, that that is the equivalent of what we’re talking about here.

2:59 It’s that kind of a wilderness and incredible courage. There is something to be said for when you have an inner voice of like, I know given the opportunity, I could do that thing when you have no basis of anyone else saying that around you, but something is telling you, I could do that if someone would give me a chance. It is such an act of courage to go in front of someone

3:20 like Dinwiddie and say, if you give me the chance, you know, if you give me the ball, I will win the game for you. And there’s something just me that has incredible courage about that statement. And that is what Washington did. And one of the things that I wanted to portray is, is that that is a sign a lot of times that people that end up doing great things is there’s something there’s an inner voice that they listen to even when those around them disagree.