Amish Schools

Amish Schools



The Amish retain their German language by teaching their children from birth to speak both English and German.

In the home they also teach all of the skills necessary for sustaining their households and their community. A great deal of their education is on-site, hands-on learning whereby women learn how to cook, sew, make quilts, do gardens, mow the grass, and generally all the skills of managing a household.

The boys are given responsibilities of managing the care of livestock, working the fields, and learning carpentry and a variety of farming skills. They are also taught skills related to their father's enterprise--buggy making, harness making, woodworking, or whatever.

Amish children may attend public schools. Many, however, attend their own parochial schools, which are often one-to-four room school buildings located in the countryside throughout the community. These are typical of the one-room country schools of a much earlier era in American history and, in many ways, give the visitor a very authentic insight into pioneer history.

The community constructed 17 schools for the Central Illinois Amish colony. Often each school will have two teachers. They are usually women who are not married. They have gone no farther in their own education than eighth grade. One teacher gives instruction to children in the first through fourth grades. The other teaches fifth through eighth grade. The curriculum provides the children with the basic skills needed for survival: math, spelling, writing, health, and social studies.

The teachers do not teach much science because the community emphasizes the need to remain a rural centered community where essential understanding of farm life is taught at home.

The students do not go to high school. The Amish wish to avoid expanding their knowledge into "worldly" pursuits. They wish to maintain their simple life focused on the truths of their faith and community.

Since they have no radio, television, i-pods, or other electronic distractions, the children spend their evenings with their family where they read, play board games, or sometimes softball or volleyball.