The Old Order Amish Education System

The Old Order Amish began with Menno Simons, who was born in 1492 in the Netherlands. As a Roman Catholic priest, numerous expectations were laid upon him but Simons fled seperated from the church and established his own movement, the Mennonites. Simons believed in the seperation of church and state, adult baptism which was previously a crime, and refusal to bear arms or take oaths. The belief system that Simons operated under was called "Meidung," which is defined as the shunning or aviodance of excommunicated members. It was this belief that led to the estabalishing of the Amish. A preacher named Jacob Amman was born in Switzerland in 1656 and became an important member of the church and respected leader. Amman was concerned by the lack

The concept of schooling tends to refer to reading, spelling, arithmetic, permanship, and grammar. The establishment of an Amish education system consists of an unassuming, efficent, and economical environment that holds no extracarricular activities such as clubs, athletic programs, bands, or school formed dances. Amish schools are either built or bought from the state, and contain no electrical, heating, air condition systems or modernized toilet

Government interference was displayed in 1960, when parents were arrested for not sending their children to the local school, which led to a series of legal problems and a Supreme Court case. Yoder v. Wisconsin in 1972 determined that the states interest in providing an education to all citizens excluded the persons protected under the First Amendment. The government regulations have discontinued in regards to education, while persisting in other areas such as requiring Amish dairy farmers to inspect their produce, paying state and federal income taxes and sales taxes. There have been issues concerning building codes, unemployment insurance, military consciption, social security and medicare, and safety devices installed in their buggies. Today there are over 233,000 Amish throughout America and Canada. The Amish religion has shaped economic attitudes and behavior by providing a guidline for their lifestyle which excludes unnessecary objects, such as television, and automobiles. The idea that school was designed for exclusively learning instead of being clouded with sports, clubs and dances displays the way the economic attitude was formed. The future of the Amish is clear because they will likely outlive and outsource the other religious groups by their farming skills, social tendancies and respective knowledge through their "God-given