Back to Basics...cont. from previous page
the Pleasant Ridge School was built
on 1150 West just one half mile into
LaGrange County. According to Delbert
Farmwald it was the first schoolhouse
built in Indiana by the Amish themselves. The doors opened that fall to
twenty-nine students. Pleasant Ridge
was in use for fifty and one-half terms
until it was destroyed in an early morning fire, due to a faulty chimney on
Febrary 12, 2008. However, with the
excellent cooperation from the County
Building Department and with the
help of many, many volunteers, from
the community, classes resumed at
Pleasant Ridge in a brand new schoolhouse on March 12, 2008, exactly one
month after the fire.
Between 1948 and 1964, five
Amish parochial schools were built
in the area. But in 1967, seven were
built and the following year there were
four more. Why the sudden growth?
Westview Jr. Sr. High! What followed
was a new round
continued on page 28
have things dictated to them.”
The Westview school district has
the highest number of Amish schools
students that are accommodated [by
located in their district in the area.
the Amish schools].” If all the current
Amish school children would suddenly One of the frustrations for the Westview School Corporation is not being
leave their respective Amish schools
able to accommodate some of their
and start attending the Westview
needs. Transportation is a service
schools, there would be a tremendous
impact on the Westview school system, provided by some of the other school
as Dr. Zimmerly emphasized, “I have a districts in the area, but many of those
school districts have only a handful of
great deal of respect for our parochial
Amish schools. As Dr. Zimmerly stated,
schools and the job they do, as well
“One of the regrets that I have, being a
as many of our people that choose
superintendent ... I look at neighborto home school.” He went on to say,
ing districts and their ability to pro“There are tremendous advantages to
vide potentially more support than we
having the support of the parochial
provide, but it’s just the sheer volume
school system and the Amish schools
of our parochial school system here
in our community. I don’t think that
that prevents us from providing these
that should be minimized at all, and
services.” On the other side of the coin,
in many ways it should be celebrated.
Zimmerly continued, “With the volume
To the extent that we can, we want to
of Amish schools in the Westview
partner and support those parochial
schools while respecting their need and district, the responsibility to educate
all of these students is shared. That is
strong desire to stay separate and not
one thing that helps us to continue to
Responsibility... cont. from 24
pg 26 · The Hometown Treasure · September ‘12
do well [scholastically] as compared to
other school districts.”
There are very few downsides that
the Amish parochial schools present to
the Westview community. In fact, as
Dr. Zimmerly said, “There are some difficulties in being predictable on enrollment. Sometimes there is some doubt
whether the Amish students will be
attending Westview or attending their
local parochial school, but for the most
part that hasn’t been a huge problem
with us; especially the last number of
years.” According to Zimmerly, many
of the Amish families that send their
children to the public school usually
continue to do so, and those that send
their children to parochial school tend
to keep them in parochial school.
There does seem to be three major
transitional periods, among the Amish,
when their children may switch to
their local parochial school. The first
of these periods is after Kindergarten. According to
continued on page 28