Visits with the Amish: Impressions of the Plain Life

Chapter 4: Learning the three Rs

Amish children complete their formal schooling at the eighth grade. Amish schools look much like the rural one-room schoolhouses most Americans attended a century ago. In small white wooden buildings on country roads, all eight grades learn their lessons in one room. Amish students, called scholars, learn the “three Rs”—reading, writing and arithmetic. Even though the teachers are Amish and have earned only an eighth-grade education themselves, Amish schools have been highly successful in teaching children the necessary skills to run an efficient farm and conduct a profitable business. A farmer must know geometry , for instance, to design a new barn. An Amish businessman must be able to multiply and divide without a calculator. Virtually no illiteracy exists among the Amish. In one study, Amish children scored equal to or higher than other rural children 33 4 learning the three Rs chapter on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in spelling, reading, and arithmetic.1 This is remarkable considering that English is a second language to these children, who speak a German dialect as their mother tongue and learn English only when they enter first grade. All school lessons are conducted in English, because the Amish want their children to be able to converse comfortably with English-speaking neighbors and businessmen. Amish schools teach the values that the Amish cherish: discipline , respect, and cooperation. The classes I visited were far more orderly and focused than any modern ones I’ve seen. I also noticed that these children were accustomed to behaving in a disciplined manner, without requiring much attention from the teacher. No cloud of fear hung over the classroom, and they moved about freely, without asking for permission when they needed to go to the outhouse or leave their seats. Amish children know what the rules are and never have the opportunity to say, “But Johnny’s parents let him do it!” because Amish parents, teachers, and neighbors consistently reinforce the same ideals. Amish scholars learn to help younger children with their schoolwork . The Amish value helping each other more than competing and doing the job right more than speed. Amish children spend the greater part of each day drilling, memorizing, and reciting. Parents and teachers encourage the scholars not to rush over their work. Do not be like the world, they teach, but be contented. Hurry will only lead to lack of satisfaction. The air snaps with the sharpness of autumn as I ride down a country road near Bloomfield, Iowa, in an open pony cart. I’m cozily packed in with the Yoder children— Grace, Robert, and David, who holds the reins. A truck rumbles by, kicking up dust and gravel. Midnight slows to a walk as we climb the last hill to the schoolhouse. I’m worried that she is straining, unaccustomed to my extra weight. But David says, “I’m glad she has a load this morning. It keeps her from acting silly and shying.” Grace explains that “shying” 34 part two learning the three Rs means veering into the ditch beside the road. “We must be late,” says David. “They’re already putting up the net.” Just outside the white one-room wooden Amish schoolhouse, we see two children tying a volleyball net between the swing set and a buggy. Pleasant Hill School doesn’t actually start until 9:00 a.m., but the children like to get there early to play volleyball and other games. When we arrive, David and Grace swiftly unhitch the pony, and David leads Midnight into the barn, where the horses patiently stand while the children are in school. A horse cart, an open buggy, and two black, covered buggies already crowd the schoolyard. Grace takes me inside to meet the two schoolteachers, who teach all eight grades in one room. Ruth Graber, a young woman of 20 with rosy cheeks and steady, clear blue eyes, greets me. She wears a modest brown dress, her fine blond hair neatly contained under a white prayer cap. Ruth teaches the second, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Her co-teacher, 19-year-old Rachel Mast, has dark hair and soft brown eyes that shine through her glasses. She instructs the first, third, and fourth graders. No children attend fifth grade this year. Ruth invites me to look around, and says that I can walk about freely even after classes start. A wooden floor and rows of windows...