Dusk
by Mary Beth Landis
Title
Dusk
Artist
Mary Beth Landis
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
At dusk the clouds roll in over the silhouette of an Amish Schoolhouse roof.
From http://www.padutchcountry.com
The Amish in Lancaster, PA build and maintain their own church-funded, one-room schoolhouses, where children study a curriculum that emphasizes basic skills - reading, writing, spelling, geography and practical math, plus both English and German. Each school houses an average of 30 students, which are within walking distance of their homes. Teachers are typically single Amish women who are chosen by a local school board of parents for their academic ability and commitment to religious values and Amish views.
Formal Amish education only lasts through the eighth grade. There is no option to attend modern public school, nor a higher education institution. The Amish in Lancaster, PA believe that either of these options would pull children away from their community's families and church traditions, threatening their values with individualism, competition, rational thinking and secularism. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court officially ruled that the Amish could not be forced into compulsory high school education and sanctioned their system of one-room schools and education through the eighth grade.
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. Boys start helping out with plowing and other related jobs at an early age, and girls work with their mother and sisters.
Uploaded
April 18th, 2013
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