Did Walt Whitman graduate

Answer 1

Education during the early 1800s was far different from today. Formal education consisted of learning basic reading, writing, and arithmetic. Anything more involved private institutes. Therefore, Walt Whitman "finished" his education at the age of eleven, attending a school in Brooklyn for six years, where all the students were in one class. This might seem young to modern audiences, but this was far more education than either of his parents received.

Since he came from a poor, working class family, with no money to attend one of the large universities, he could not go further in his education and therefore became an autodidact (self-taught). He sought what was perhaps a more focused education exploring Manhattan's libraries, museums, lecture halls, and theaters.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3833.html
http://poetry.about.com/od/19thcpoets/p/whitman.htm
http:/www.whitmanarchive.org/biography/walt_whitman/index.html