I hope everyone will read this and write their congressman! thanks!
running head: Amish Schools
Amish Schools: Deny Innocent Children the Right to Education
Rosemary Bell
ENG116-0901A-13
Colorado Technical University Online
Holly Callender
January 20, 2008
Abstract
Amish schools have been in use since the early 70s after the Supreme Court ruling regarding schools for their children. They instruct their children throughout eight grades in a one room school house, without running water. In a public school all children receive abuse awareness classes and sex education, not so in Amish schools. Once they graduate 8th grade the children then work either in the family business, sawmills or other occupations. The purpose of this paper is: raising awareness of the inadequacy of Amish schools to the public. I propose these children be allowed the right to education without discrimination.
Amish Schools: Deny Innocent Children the Right to Education
Amish schools have been a subject of controversy with authorities over decades because they only contain grades one through eight. The only requirement of a teacher is to be considered a good member of the church. (Byler, 2009) They are unsanitary without running water and use outhouses. All Amish children should be required to receive a High School Education to increase their knowledge of commonly known facts and allow them the rights they should be receiving as American Citizens.
Amish Schools are located all over the United States and in Canada. Not all of them are the same but most of them are smaller schools containing only about thirty to forty students at a maximum capacity. (Schrock, 2009)This creates a better learning atmosphere for the child.
In nineteen seventy one three Amish families refused to send their children to High School, the city fined them and they appealed to Supreme Court and won the appeal. In the opinion of David Yoder (a former Amish abuse survivor) the 1972 United States Supreme Court ruling Wisconsin versus Yoder is in violation of the Federal Civil Rights act section 42usc.1983 and 42usc 1985 Amendments. (Yoder, 2009) The ruling that denies innocent children the right to a High School Diploma occurred in the spring of nineteen seventy two. It allows parents to take a child out of school at the age of fourteen and than they are working fulltime often in dangerous situations without adequate training.
Today's Amish schools are a one room school house; most have outhouses and many without running water. (Yoder, 2009) The waste from the outhouse is put on fields: sometimes its the same place where they will grow vegetables the next summer. They are unsanitary and if this was a public school they would be shut down for these facts alone.
The requirements to be an Amish schoolteacher are simple: belong to the church and be in its good graces. In any other school they would be closed for having uneducated and uncertified teachers. This is part of the reason that the children are in need of better education: because they are being taught by someone who can barely read and do math.
Many Amish are afraid if their children receive a better education they will leave the community and receive a ticket to hell. They frown upon change by shutting it down without giving it a chance because our forefathers did or didnt do this or that. Therefore they still use corporal punishment in their school system. (Schrock, 2009) A public school would receive changes whether they wanted to or not if they were still using corporal punishment.
The community would benefit from allowing their children to have a better education by causing them to become better business merchants and allowing them to be more familiar with the risks of operating dangerous equipment at age fourteen. (Schrock, 2009) However they believe that since their forefathers didnt receive a higher education it would be wrong for them to do so and their children would leave the community because knowledge is power. Having a better education would not necessarily cause the children to leave it would make them better individuals. (Schrock, 2009)
The Amish school system could maximize its abilities by requiring their teachers to pass an examination, by teaching the children abuse classes and sex education instead of telling their daughters when you get married you are your husbands and you have to do whatever he wants. (Yoder, 2009) They could easily grant their children the ability to achieve a High School Diploma in their own school system by requiring Certified Teachers and increasing the education quality and adding more content. (Yoder, 2009) This could solve a lot of problems within the community by reducing abuse by approximately fifty per cent (with abuse classes and sex education classes) and it would protect the children's rights instead of denying them the right to education.
Amish Schools are well structured in the method of learning but lack the depths of knowledge needed to survive in today's world. (Byler, 2009) "If any other school system was as inadequate as this one they would be shut down immediately. (Yoder, 2009) By addressing the public and asking for help in raising awareness we are working together to create more awareness of all these issues. Once it gets to Capitol Hill realizes the conditions these schools are in I firmly believe we will get lawmakers who will look at this closely and create better laws or make amendments that will be enforced. If one out of every ten people who reads this paper writes their congressman, we will achieve our goal of protecting the rights of Amish Children.
References
Byler, M. (2009, 1 11). Former Amish. (R. Bell, Interviewer)
Justia, Oyez,. (1972). Wisconsin vs Yoder. Retrieved 01 18, 2009, from US Supreme Court Center:
http://supreme.justia.com/us/406/205/
Schrock, D. (2009, January 11). Former Amish. (R. Bell, Interviewer)
Yoder, D. (2009, January 11). Former Amish, Advocate for Children,. (R. Bell, Interviewer)
Sincerely,
Mary Byler
www.marybyler.com
e-mail me at mary@marybyler.com
