HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1963-11-28, Page 5School Bells of the Amish
(In Christian Science Monitor)
Now the sound of the school
bell is heard once more in the
tan and along little lanes
ing through the Amish
c ntryside the small one,
:room schvlhauses are the mecca
of little girls in sunbonnets and
'little boys in black !rats and
broadfall trousers. And won -
r of winders, this week I took
re place of "teetscher" 1
Miss Mary Denlinger, dangle,
ter of a deacon in the New,
order church in our school dis-
trict, is our schoolmistress; and
the very fact that she was able
to pass the required state -i
board examination of teactrers
bespeaks her energy and single-
ness of purpose. Finding tea-
chers for Amish schools is not
so easy. The eight grammar
grades are all the church allows
Amish youngsters.
So the young lady who de-
sires to teach must do a lot of
Private studying, and this is
not easy on a farm, where
everyone is expected to carry
his or her full share of the load
of never-ending work. But
Mary is qualified, and a most
amiable young lady, so Amos
Zaugg and the other trustees of
our school count themselves
fortunate.
However, when through cir-
cumstances beyond her control
Mary was required to be away
front school for a week, there
was no substitute standing ready
to fill her place, so I was asked
to fill the breach. Why? I
strongly suspeot it was because
the men knew that by now 1
have a wide acquaintance
among the families in the dis-
trict, and in a school where 42
pupils all answer to the name
of Better or Fischer, this is not
only fortunate, but practically
requisite.
Even so, it would have been
hard for rile to keep names
straight if I had not had Hilda
Zaugg beside me to help un-
tangle some of the more com-
plicated duplications of names.
About a dozen Henners(Henrys)
and as many Sarahs, made it
expedient at times to refer to
"Elam's Henry" and "Johnny's
Sarah," and so on down the list.
But in spite of these compli-
cations, to look across teet-
scher's desk each morning at a
roomful of well-behaved child-
ren was a joy indeed. There
were no problems in discipline;
there never is with Amish child-
ren. After a long summer of
unending work on the farms
broken only by church every
other Sunday and visiting and
being visited on "off Sundays",
the children are happy as larks
to be back to school where they
see their friends five days a
week.
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On one side of a central
aisle sat the girls; on the other
the boys, just as their eldersdo
in church. Normally the ages
range from six to fourteen yearn
but just now, with farm work
at its peak, the older boys and
some of the older girls are be. .
ing kept at home to work.
The smallest "scholar" was
a dark-haired boy withbangs
who wore bright -blue shirts of
his Mother's own dyeing, and
just across the aisle from hint a
tiny girl with flaxen hair re-
sembled a costumed doll in
ankle -length dress and white
cap.
DRESSED ALIKE
Except for the different
colors in materials, every girl
in the room was dressed alike,
from the smallest in front to
the largest in the back rows.
And each girl, regardless of
age, had her braided hair pin-
ned in a fiat circular bun at the
back.
Many Amish children can-
not speak English when they
start school because their par-
ents speak only Pennsylvania
Dutch, and all religious ser-
vices are conducted in either
Dutch or German. Parents,
however, are eager for the
children to learn English, and
several of the small fry inform-
ed me gravely that they meant
to "study hard."
Knowing their beliefs, it
was easy for me to avoid many
of the pitfalls that might have
caused trouble for another
"Englisch" teacher. We did not
salute the flag because their
religion forbids it, We refused
o pose for a group picture
when a traveling photographer
ame by the schoolhouse one
day, because only unbaptized
persons may have their pictures
aken. And we entered into no
• iscussions as to whether the
arth is round or flat. To the
wish it is flat.
But in spite of their quaint
beliefs, I found the children to
be unusually bright and quick
to learn. When they wrote
their sums on the blackboard,
no English school could find
brighter pupils.
Lunch recess, which the
children called "middawg,"
was the high point of the day
for everyone. At 11.30 the
bobbed -haired boys grabbed
their flat, black hats, which
they doff only for classes, dash-
ed through the one door and
gathered on the porch to eat
their sandwiches of smokehouse
meat and homebaked bread as
soon as possible. Then it was
time to play ball, the period
toward which they had been
yearning all morning.
The girls remained sedately
inside and ate at their desks,
swapping sandwiches and items
of interest from the neighbor-
hood, "Eighty loaves of brown
bread for Market Momma bak-
ed this morning in the kessel-
hops. " "It's nutting corn the
Men -folks are at our house to-
day," Always the farm and the
farm work, never a word about
beaus and pretty clothes,
But these are mainly the
young "m.aedels," and perhaps
they will speak of other things
among themselves when they
are older, Yet one may be
sure that the work will always
occupy a big part of their think-
ing even then. It is ingrained
to there, this respect for and
love of work. Accomplishment
in their eyes is measured in
terms of manual labor.
DON'T RIDE BUSES
Consolidated schools are in
this region; the big yellow
school bus passes twice daily
along the state highway, but no
Amishchildren are passengers
on it. The children themselves
might explain this very simply
by saying that the Amish do not
ride buses, but there are other
less obvious reasons. Amish
boys are raised for farming; so
the church leaders feel that the
worldliness of the consolidated
schools with their electric
lights, central heating, and
modern plumbing, puts an un-
necessary strain on suggestible
youngsters. "That is their way;
this is ours."
Friday, the last school day
of the week, was rainy, so
many of the older pupils who
had been kept at home on fair
days to work came, and it was
all very nice and cozy inside.
At lunch recess the older girls
introduced me to toasted cheese
sandwiches made their way,
toasted over the stove grate,
using a long iron toaster. The
fire had been necessary to dry
out the damp building; now it
served a double purpose.
I had worried a little about
the boys, wondering what could
possibly take the place of their
beloved ball game. But I need
not have fretted. They were
as resourceful as their sisters.
A great commotion and the
sound of brisk claps led us to
the sheltered part of the long
porch where the boys were play-
ing "Clap Hands". It is play-
ed in pairs, the two partici-
pants sitting face to face with
knees touching. Simple pat-
terns of smacking their own
knees with the palms of their
hands, then the hands of their
partners, progress until the
game is rapid-fire and exciting
to watch. And in some cases
it gets very rough and tumble.
Eli came driving up at four
in the light spring wagon, with
a big tarp for cover, and as
many of us as were going Ms
way crowded into the wagon
for a ride home. Driving on
the grassy shoulder of the high-
way, we watched the school
bus go by, with the eager faces
of laughing children pressed
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V-61
New Magazine
In January
Mid'January is publishing
date for a new Canadian maga-
zine for boys. Called Canadi-
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be circulated to some300,000
boys across Canada between
the ages of eight and eighteen.
Canadian Boy is a newpubli-
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Four years have been spent
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The January issue of Can-
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departments on stamp collect-
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self projects.
close to the windows to see ns
better, And who is to say
which group is happier or more
contented with their lot?
"That is their way; this is ours"
was plainly mirrored in the
eyes of my delighted group,
and they wouldn't have traded
places for the world.
1
Winghatn Advance -Times, Thursday, Nov. 28, 1963 Page B
Also there will be a drama..
tie fiction story from Scott
Young's new book, "Bey at the
Leaf's Camp". There will be
a special eornic section, car-
toons and jokes.
For the first time, Canada
will have a boys' magazine
covering the whole range of
boys' interests. Canadian Boy
will be filled with color, dra-
ma and valuable information,
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an's View of,..
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