In this instructional video, Lois Letchford narrates the formative years of Isaac Newton, emphasizing the importance of placing historical events on a timeline. She outlines Newton’s family situation after his mother’s remarriage, his boarding at the King’s School in Grantham, and his social experiences—including friendships with a girl named Catherine, bullying, and a violent altercation. Letchford highlights Newton’s intellectual curiosity, noting his borrowing of John Bate’s The Mysteries of Nature and Art and his construction of mechanical models such as windmills, mousetraps, water clocks, and lantern‑carrying kites. She describes his mother’s decision to pull him from school in 1659 for farm work, his failure as a farm manager, and the subsequent recommendation by his uncle and headmaster that he return to school and eventually attend university. Throughout, she encourages viewers to create their own timelines to contextualize Newton’s life within broader historical events, and ends with a typical YouTube call‑to‑action.
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Hello, hello, I am Lois Letchford, author of the book Reverse to Memoir, founder of Teaching Students with Dyslexia, and reading about the scientist Isaac Newton, and we are on his young life. I'm leaving the part out about day to day, and we're moving on to Isaac's school days. In 1653, the moment we have a date, Start creating a timeline because it gives us a context for what we're reading about. These people and these events don't just happen anywhere in history. It's a context. Find out about them, see who they connect with. So, 1863. Barnabas Smith died and Hannah returned home. Isaac at last had his mother back at Walthorpe Manor, but he did not have her to himself. She had given birth to 3 more children. Isaac now had 2 half-sisters called Mary and Hannah and a half-brother called Benjamin. In 1654 or 1655, Isaac was sent off to a boys' school in Grantham. This busy market town lay about 8 miles to the north of Woolsthorpe. Isaac could not travel that far every day, so he boarded in the house off Grantham's main street. The building was the home of the town's apothecary, whom today we would call a pharmacist. He was a man named William Clarke. Isaac shared rooms with Mrs. de Clarke's stepchildren, Edward, Arthur, Catherine, and Storer. Isaac thoroughly disliked the boys, but he was friends with the girl. He made dolls' furniture for Catherine, and it was later suggested that they were older children These two became sweethearts, but as an adult, Isaac never had a girlfriend and would never marry. The King's School in Grantham was one of the many free grammar schools that were founded all over England in the 16th and 17th century. School hours were long and dull, and much of the information was simply learnt by heart. Beatings were frequent. Even so, English grammar schools did produce many great scholars of the years. The grammar referred to was Latin, not English. Latin, the language of ancient Romans, was still used by scholars and scientists all over Europe, so learning it served a purpose. Pupils were also taught some Greek and Hebrew for studying the Bible, as well as arithmetic. Isaac was unpopular and often bullied by other boys at the King's School. One day his patience snapped and he fought back furiously, smashing his tormentor's face into the churchyard wall. The fight certainly made Isaac no friends. Isaac found his lessons dull, and at first he seemed to have failed to impress his headmaster, Henry Stokes. However, Isaac's mind had already started to race ahead. The boy borrowed books from the library in the church. One of them was called The Mysteries of Nature and Art. by John Bate. It was full of machines and contraptions. Now Isaac began to make his own working models of windmills and all sorts of other ingenious gadgets, including mousetraps, water clocks, and kites that carry lanterns. Mr. Stokes at last began to realise that he had a very special pupil on his hands. However, Isaac's mother Hannah did not recognise her son's special talents In the fall of 1659, she took her son out of school. She thought it was time for the 16-year-old to learn more about farming, and so he returned to Walsall Manor. However, Isaac proved to be completely useless as a farm manager. He was fined for learning, for letting his. pigs and sheep stray and for failing to keep his fences in good repair. His uncle William Ascot and the schoolmaster Henry Stokes both agreed if Isaac was sent to university, it would be better for him and better for the farm. Isaac was sent back to Grantham to finish school and now boarded with Stokes. This book also has a timeline at the bottom in blue. So it's one created here, but also create your own and see what else was going on and make connections what else was going on in the world at the time. Thank you. Hit like. Hit subscribe.
