George Washington Carver

What children learn in Level 32

• George Washington Carver was born in Missouri, around 1864. He was born enslaved. Slavery was cruel and wrong, and it ended while he was a baby.
• Carver was raised on a farm. He was often sick, so he helped in the garden. He loved plants so much that neighbors called him the Plant Doctor!
• The school near his home would not let Black children in. That was unfair. So when he was about 11, he left home to find a school that would teach him.
• He worked hard, cooking and washing clothes for other people, to pay for school. Later, he studied plants at a college in Iowa.
• In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to teach at the Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama. Carver taught there for 47 years!
• Carver was a scientist. He studied plants and soil, and found ways to help farmers in the South.
• Your turn! Sort them. Who did it: Roosevelt, or Carver?
• Try it with a grown-up! Plant a seed in a cup of soil. Give it water and sunlight, and watch it grow, like a plant doctor!