John Adams And Ditching School – Presidential Anecdote

Everyone has heard the expression “ditching school.”  Why do we use that odd expression?  You can trace the history to one of our best-educated and most erudite Presidents: John Adams.

At age 15, John Adams had grown to hate the Latin lessons his father insisted he take.  This story, quoted from “John Adams” by John Patrick Higgins sets the scene:

His father, however, a farmer and outdoorsman himself, wanted his son to study Latin to prepare for Harvard College. When he protested that he hated the subject, his father replied: “Well, John, if Latin-grammar does not suit you, you may try ditching, perhaps that will; my meadow yonder needs a ditch, and you may put by Latin and try that.” Young John looked forward to the “delightful change,” only to discover after a day and a half of hard, backbreaking work that he preferred Latin to labor. But he felt too humiliated to admit it to his father. Finally, at nightfall, “toil conquered pride, and I told my father, one of the severest trials of my life, that, if he chose, I would go back to Latin grammar. He was glad of it; and if I have since gained any distinction, it has been owing to the two days’ labor in that abominable ditch.”

After graduating from Harvard, the brilliant Adams became a highly respected schoolteacher.  He was a demanding and tough teacher.  According to legend, when the attention of one of his students would wander, John Adams would proceed to tell the story of his experience digging the ditch.  He would conclude by telling the students that they had better work hard in school – because the alternative was ditching!

John Adams

John Adams – the great scholar, more educated than George Washington or Paul Revere or Benjamin Franklin, would become more famed as a political philosopher than an effective politician.  Yet his name is indirectly linked to the popular expression for NOT going to school!

The next time you hear someone talk about ditching school, you can explain the history of this odd phrase!