Amish Education: A Unique Path to Community and Tradition

Introduction

The Amish education system stands apart from mainstream approaches, deeply rooted in tradition and community values. It prioritizes practical skills, moral development, and religious beliefs, preparing children for their roles within the Amish community. This article explores the distinctive features of Amish education, from its historical context to its curriculum and values.

Historical Context

Before the 1950s, most Amish children attended public schools. However, a shift occurred as small public schools consolidated into larger districts nationwide. Amish parents protested this consolidation, seeking to retain control over their children's upbringing. They also believed that formal education beyond the eighth grade was unnecessary for their agricultural lifestyle.

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Wisconsin v. Yoder that Amish parents could not be forced to send their children to high school, sanctioning their system of one-room schools and education through the eighth grade. This landmark decision solidified the Amish commitment to their unique educational path.

The One-Room Schoolhouse

Today, the vast majority of Amish children attend one- or two-room schools operated by Amish parents. These schools, often built by the community on donated land, embody the values of local control and community involvement. A local board of three to five fathers organizes each school, hires a teacher, approves the curriculum, oversees the budget, and supervises maintenance.

These one-room schoolhouses are iconic images in Amish country. Prior to the 20th century, that is how everyone attended school. When schools started consolidating into larger buildings located further from students’ homes, the Amish stayed with the one-room schoolhouse. This keeps school more local to the area’s families and community.

With over 254 Amish schools in Lancaster County alone, these institutions play a vital role in preserving Amish traditions and culture. Each school houses an average of 30 students, which are within walking distance of their homes. Once a school reaches 40 students, a new school is created.

Curriculum and Instruction

Instruction is typically in English, although students also learn Pennsylvania Dutch and High German. The teachers are usually unmarried Amish women who are graduates of Amish schools but have not gone to high school. Nurtured through periodic teachers meetings and by reading Blackboard Bulletin, an Amish teachers’ magazine, the teachers are largely self-trained.

The curriculum includes reading, arithmetic, spelling, grammar, penmanship, history, and some geography. Scripture reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer opens each day. However, “religion” is not something they teach in school. Instead, the Amish stress the basics, such as reading, math, writing, and penmanship. They are also taught some history, geography, social studies, art, and science.

With three or four pupils per grade, teachers often instruct two grades at a time. Classrooms exhibit a distinct sense of order amidst a beehive of activity. The ethos of the classroom accents cooperative activity, obedience, respect, diligence, kindness, and the natural world. The quality of instruction varies considerably across the different Amish settlements. In some communities, Amish pupils have scored very well on standardized achievement tests. However, the real test of Amish schools is not how they compare with suburban schools, but how well they prepare Amish youth for success in Amish culture.

Values and Principles

The Amish education system emphasizes collaboration and cooperation, discouraging competition or individual advancement. Amish schools stress accuracy and correctness, emphasizing memorization and completing work neatly.

The biggest differences between Amish education and “English” education is based on what each society values. In public education, however, schools push students toward individual advancement and independence.

Part of an Amish student’s education is learning responsibility. Students will often have chores as part of their school requirements.

Religion is only taught through devotionals because the Amish believe parents should teach religion at home. However, religion is still integral in the classroom as morals extended to every area of life.

Beyond the Classroom: Vocational Training and Community Life

Formal Amish education only lasts through the eighth grade. There is no option to attend modern public school, nor a higher education institution. After students complete their schooling, education becomes more informal and geared toward preparing for the adult world in the Amish community. They might focus on agricultural or craftsmanship training, with hands-on learning or apprenticeships.

Because the Lancaster, PA Amish believe that classroom learning represents only half of the knowledge needed to make one's way as an adult, farming and homemaking skills are an extremely important part of a child's education. Therefore, after formal schooling is completed, Amish children typically receive some vocational schooling, or "education by doing," once a week. They learn about the operation and techniques of farming, or the trade of their father.

With an average of seven or eight children per Amish family, each member plays a part in the family's economic survival. On a Lancaster County farm, an individual's work and responsibilities directly affect the family. Each person is less an individual and more a member of the family, with responsibilities that contribute.

The children of Amish and Mennonite families are taught from early in their lives to be productive in work, developing a strong work ethic. Much of this is learned just like any one in the English (non Amish) community learns something-by seeing it modeled.

The Role of Farming in Amish Education

While farming was not an integral tenet of Anabaptism, agriculture has always been a major part of the Amish lifestyle. Believing that practical knowledge, hard work and long hours are the "technological marvels" that make farm life fruitful, the Amish in Lancaster, PA practice impressive levels of thrift and self-sufficiency, which they believe are mandated by the Bible. Farming is not merely a job or career; it is viewed as a way of life anchored in Scripture, blessed by God and handed down over the generations by Amish ancestors.

Horses are a trademark identity of the Lancaster Amish and their farming, used to plow, cultivate and harvest crops. Tractors are commonly used on Amish farms in Lancaster, PA, but only for power around the barn - to blow silage to the top of large silos, power feed grinders, spin ventilating fans and the like. They are not used for field work. Why the distinction? Over the decades since the invention of the tractor in the early 1920s, several versions were rejected for field use, most notably because of the fear that their self-propelled, mobile nature would surely lead to cars. Moreover, using horses in the fields helps to limit the size - and corresponding cost - of Amish farms, thereby promoting equality and protecting the small family farm. Over time, additional farm equipment with independent powers sources (such as wagons, corn planters, plows and sprayers) was permitted on the fields to increase productivity, as long as it was adapted for horse-drawn use.

Adaptation and Change: Amish Businesses

As most visitors to Pennsylvania Dutch Country quickly notice, a large number of the Amish in Lancaster, PA earn a living in non-farming occupations. Amish shops selling everything from quilts to gazebos dot the countryside. What were the factors behind this shift from "plows to profits," and how is it affecting Lancaster Amish culture today?

Horse-drawn equipment became increasingly scarce after 1940, as more American farmers began using tractors. Consequently, several Amish mechanics opened machine shops to refurbish horse-drawn implements, and welders and mechanics began producing parts to repair the equipment. Taking a major turn, they also began buying equipment designed for tractors and adapting it for use with horses.

By the 1970s, making a living by farming was becoming more difficult. The increasing Amish population, coupled with decreasing farmland and higher prices, made getting started difficult or impossible for some. Others found the payments on the farm, building, loans, mortgages and interest a hardship. One alternative was to move to another area where farmland was available and cheaper. Others looked at ways to supplement their income by having a family member work out for others, sometimes on a carpentry crew, as a farmhand, or as a cleaning lady in homes of non-Amish. But of most concern to the Amish in Lancaster, PA was the concern of known as the "lunch pail" problem - the possible necessity of having to work in a factory. They were concerned about work that involved going outside the family and community for economic survival, fearing it could drive a wedge into the family and cause disruption.

A good compromise between farming and factories came to be in the 70s and 80s - that of Amish manufacturing shops and cottage industries. During this period of explosive business growth, Amish entrepreneurs ventured into industry within the Lancaster Amish community, then to non-Amish neighbors, then to tourists. Over the years, they have found that Amish industry has enriched community life. Work remains near the home, family members often work together, and financial resources are kept within the community.

Amish shops in Lancaster, PA, produce an amazing variety of products and services. Woodworking trades comprise the largest cluster of enterprises - furniture building, cabinet making, and storage barn and gazebo construction, as well as more general woodworking activity. Smaller wood products, such as doghouses, birdhouses, cupolas, picnic tables, and lawn furniture, also flow from Lancaster Amish shops.

Challenges and Criticisms

Economics Professor William A. Fischel’s paper “Do Amish One-Room Schools Make the Grade? The Dubious Data of Wisconsin v. Yoder,” was published in March by the University of Chicago Law Review.

“My criticism of the Yoder case is that it’s locked the Amish in amber in a way that’s not in their interest anymore,” says Fischel, whose paper “Do Amish One-Room Schools Make the Grade? The Dubious Data of Wisconsin v. Yoder,” was published this month by the University of Chicago Law Review. “Part of the reason it’s bad for the Amish is because farming is no longer an occupation that generates much income. The Amish have very large families-six or more children are common-and are sub-dividing their farms to small and inefficient sizes.

The Amish are reluctant to now make changes to their formal educational system, Fischel says, because they fear it will nullify the Yoder ruling and they would “be at the mercy of state school officials. They feel that if they have eighth-grade schools and continue to perform along the lines of how they did 40 years ago, the government is not going to hassle them. And I think they’re correct in that assumption. But as a result they’ve now created this educational ceiling.”

Fischel says, “The rules for the Amish schools are not divinely inspired, they are functional, in the sense that they want to maintain their separateness and self-identity. So the rules can bend.”

The rule Fischel wishes the Amish would now bend is the Yoder decision. “How can we get the Amish out of the Yoder bind?” he asks. “This decision is in effect a contract between the Amish and the Supreme Court. But their perception that they are bound by this is actually bad for them and their children.”

Fischel suggests that the Amish should consider increasing the education their children receive. “I don’t know exactly what that would be, though I’m sure it would be provided by the Amish and would be different from the public schools.

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