Hull was educated at a small, one room school in the village of Sickels where there were about twenty to thirty people. He often missed school to help work on the farm. He displayed an early proficiency for mathematics, but found grammar a bit difficult. When he was 11 or 12, he was forcibly converted by a religious group known as the Christian Crusaders. This experience caused him to rethink his religious identity, eventually renouncing religion entirely. At the age of 17, he passed a teacher's examination test and became a teacher in a similar small schoolhouse.[ A combination of his religious crisis and his experience teaching inspired him to seek further education. He attended a high school in west Saginaw County, living with the superintendent of schools in exchange for household ch Hull's atheism almost caused the superintendent to kick him out, but his wife got him to reconsider. After completing high school, Hull left the superintendent, but kept in contact with him until his death.