Did Roosevelt's upbringing, background and character help him understand the fears and concerns of ordinary Americans?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born into a well off family. He was the only child of James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. As an infant he was very rarely out of his mothers sight and he was a spoilt child. Sara Roosevelt was over protective of him and she dressed him in dresses until he was five years old. With him being spoilt like this and living a life of luxury he would not have been aware of the fears and concerns of ordinary Americans because he had not been exposed to the normal world.
FDR's mother supervised his education until he was fourteen years old. French and German speaking tutors did most of the actual teaching. When he did finally start school his parents selected Groton, where the headmaster, Endicott Peabody, stressed to his students the importance of the less privileged people in society and to be grateful for the opportunities that they had. This would of helped FDR to understand the fears and concerns of ordinary Americans because this is what he was being taught about. At Groton he was sometimes left out of the group because of the two years that he missed when his mother kept him at home. His peers saw him as bizarre because of his snobbish attitude and his strange accent due to the foreign tutors. As a teenager Roosevelt was an avid reader. When he left Groton he went to Harvard University and got his Bachelors Degree in 1903.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born into a well off family. He was the only child of James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. As an infant he was very rarely out of his mothers sight and he was a spoilt child. Sara Roosevelt was over protective of him and she dressed him in dresses until he was five years old. With him being spoilt like this and living a life of luxury he would not have been aware of the fears and concerns of ordinary Americans because he had not been exposed to the normal world.
FDR's mother supervised his education until he was fourteen years old. French and German speaking tutors did most of the actual teaching. When he did finally start school his parents selected Groton, where the headmaster, Endicott Peabody, stressed to his students the importance of the less privileged people in society and to be grateful for the opportunities that they had. This would of helped FDR to understand the fears and concerns of ordinary Americans because this is what he was being taught about. At Groton he was sometimes left out of the group because of the two years that he missed when his mother kept him at home. His peers saw him as bizarre because of his snobbish attitude and his strange accent due to the foreign tutors. As a teenager Roosevelt was an avid reader. When he left Groton he went to Harvard University and got his Bachelors Degree in 1903.
