Washington himself felt the loss of his unfortunate step-daughter, but he was unflagging in trying to console the mother, heartbroken at the death of the child.
Jack Custis was given in charge of the Reverend Jonathan Boucher, an Anglican clergyman, apparently well-meaning, who agreed with Washington's general view that the boy's training "should make him fit for more useful purposes than horse-racing." In spite of Washington's carefully reasoned plans, the youth of the young man prevailed over the reason of his stepfather.

Jack found dogs, horses, and guns, and consideration of dress more interesting and more important than his stepfather's theories of education.

Washington wrote to Parson Boucher, the teacher: Had he begun, or rather pursued his study of the Greek language, I should have thought it no bad acquisition; ...

To be acquainted with the French Tongue is become a part of polite education; and to a man who has the prospect of mixing in a large circle, absolutely necessary.

Without arithmetic, the common affairs of life are not to be managed with success.