 James (Howard's brother) enrolled at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton in 1848 at age ten, completing his coursework there in 1855. After his graduation Johnson's father urged James to become a teacher, and at age 17 he taught a summer school on the South Fork South Branch Potomac River. James was also Howard's primary instructor, preparing him for higher education. Johnson followed in his brother's footsteps two years later, enrolling at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind at age eleven. Although he studied there for four years, the school closed after the 1861 outbreak of the American Civil War and he was unable to complete his education there. At Staunton, teachers and acquaintances acknowledged Johnson's "remarkably rapid" progress in his studies. His studies were otherwise uninterrupted during the war; he attended a common school in Franklin, and was taught by James with sighted children. Johnson could not read text, and his lessons were read to him by his classmates.
