When you think of an Amish school, you might picture an idyllic country schoolhouse similar to something in Little House on the Prairie. In many ways, an Amish school room may look like you stepped back in time one hundred years or more.
Generally, each Amish community has their own one-room schoolhouse. Their teachers are recruited from either their local church group or from another Amish community of like faith.
When the number of students reaches twenty-five to thirty, they build another schoolhouse at a central location, and a new school is established. This process is repeated as the community grows and more schools are needed. Occasionally, they hire a teacher's assistant as the number of students increases.
The curriculum core subjects are normally Reading, Math, History, English and Grammar, Writing. Art and additional electives of the school's choice are also often chosen. There are usually no extra-curricular activities, and the subject studies are reasonably intense and undiluted. They also have a PE session which is a time of recess when the students play sports and various outdoor games.
Students range from first grade through eighth grade. Higher education is considered unnecessary and worldly. Practical hands on training of life skills in the home is their version of higher education. The simple Amish lifestyle that they live does not demand a higher education.
Students carry their own lunch to school. Because Amish generally have many children, some families have as many as six or seven school lunches to pack every weekday morning. Since they obviously don't have a microwave, the children can warm a sandwich wrapped in foil on top of the wood burning stove which heats the schoolhouse during the winter months.
Like many school in America, the Amish school year typically begins in September and ends in April or May, with usually only a one-week break at Thanksgiving and Christmas time.
Most Amish children do not ride a school bus, but walk up to a mile to school. Sometimes students look forward to bad weather since that means they get to ride to school and back in the buggy!
In my book, The Greater Inheritance, I share many more little-known Amish facts like this!
The Greater Inheritance
Don’t forget to pick up a copy of my book, The Greater Inheritance