I only have anecdotal support for my answer, but overall, in the school system I worked in, I’d say the Amish kids probably left 8th grade with at least grade-level competencies. In many cases, I would guess that their abilities, vocabularies, etc, were higher than grade level.
Disclaimer: This is just MY experience, personally, working with Amish kids and non-Amish kids, in a small high school. Not ALL Amish kids fit the above description, but I’d bet a higher-than-average percentage did.
A lot of these kids were checking out 2 books per DAY from the library–and actually READING them. Not having tv, radio, etc, they focused a lot more energy on reading than a lot of my other students.
Exactly. I think that it’s easy for us (because a lot of us–me included–have bought into the idea that school=education=intelligence) to assume that because they leave school, they quit being educated. For the most part, for the men at least, they continue to learn, through apprenticeships or other work training.
The girls, unfortunately, don’t have the choices that the boys do, I feel. In my area, they tended to be homemakers or perhaps to work in one of the Amish restaurants or bulk stores.
Whew. I just keep coming back to this thread, don’t I? I’ll shut up now.
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