He then attended Braintree Latin School under Joseph Cleverly, where studies included Latin, rhetoric, logic, and arithmetic. Adams's early education included incidents of truancy, a dislike for his master, and a desire to become a farmer. All discussion on the matter ended with his father's command that he remain in school: "You shall comply with my desires."Deacon Adams hired a new schoolmaster named Joseph Marsh, and his son responded positively.[9] Adams later noted that "As a child I enjoyed perhaps the greatest of blessings that can be bestowed upon men – that of a mother who was anxious and capable to form the characters of her children."[10]

College education and adulthood
At age sixteen, Adams entered Harvard College in 1751, studying under Joseph Mayhew.[11] As an adult, Adams was a keen scholar, studying the works of ancient writers such as Thucydides, Plato, Cicero, and Tacitus in their original languages.[12] Though his father expected him to be a minister,[13] after his 1755 graduation with an A.B. degree, he taught school temporarily in Worcester, while pondering his permanent vocation. 