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Even at this stage of Edison's life, technology and invention were crucial shaping devices in his development. For example, Milan, Ohio, had once been a bustling port town, but when the railroad was built on a track that bypassed Milan, the town lost much of its business. Port Huron, which was where the family relocated, caught a great deal of attention instead because the railroad was nearby. It was that same railroad that gave Edison his first job, his first exposure to business techniques, first sight of urban centers like Detroit, and first taste of financial independence.

Edison's schooling is in the tradition of many great men: he was largely self- taught and self-willed when it came to learning. He was also dismissive, even as a child, of rigid structure and an environment that discouraged innovation. He did well at home or when he was learning on his own, but the idea of rote instruction bored and discouraged him. Fortunately, his mother, having been a schoolteacher herself, did not listen to the teachers and the principal, and she prepared a looser structure from which Edison could learn effectively. Thanks to her tutelage, Edison also read some of the classics early: she introduced him to Shakespeare, among others.

Like most boys of his family background and limited means, however, the time for Edison's schooling was short. It was not at all unusual for a boy of twelve at this time to leave school in order to help support his family. And the railroad was where Edison learned most of the rules that would assist him in the future: the laws of supply and demand as a candy butcher, for example, of the importance of publicity and marketing and the vitality and opportunities of a large urban center.

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