Back to Basics...cont. from previous page
of meetings with the Department of
Public Instruction, but this time it
included representatives of Amish
parochial schools from across the
state. All accounts of those meetings
reflect a very positive attitude toward
the Amish State School Board that had
been formed. A landmark agreement
was reached and signed by the Amish
and the Superintendent of Public Instruction on August 22, 1967.
One of the greatest challenges
facing the first Amish schools was developing a curriculum and finding textbooks. In the early days all they had
were out of print, out of date castoffs
from the public schools. In the 1960s,
Pathway Publishers out of Aylmer,
Ontario (Canada), began printing a
reading series. In 1964, Levi Lambright
in LaGrange County became their US
distributor. Today his grandson Lewis
runs Pathway and is producing some
of the material locally. The company is
shipping skids of reading books to Oregon, Washington, all across Canada as
well as to the Bahamas. Homeschoolers
alone purchase several hundred thousand books a year from Pathway. Lewis
says, “This seems like a little place…
and it is. But people don’t see all the
trucks coming in and out of here.”
Math books were another story.
Delbert Farmwald who was a teacher
at North Side School said that was an
area of frustration. Finally out of necessity they polled the teachers and the
The original Grade 3 Study Time
Arithmetic books were type-set by
Aurora Services
but there has arisen another phenomenon among some Amish children,
returning to school when they reach
Zimmerly, some but not many Amish
age sixteen. However, that is a small
students will attend Kindergarten in
the Westview system, possibly to learn percentage and pretty hard to track
because the students that do come
the English language, and then the
following year they will continue their back are no longer dressing Amish and
it is hard to distinguish them from the
education at their parochial school. If
other non-Amish students.
the Amish student does continue past
Some facts in regard to state and
Kindergarten in the public school,
federal income that are received by
some of them will continue through
public schools has sometimes been
fourth grade and then leave before
transitioning to Westview Elementary confusing for some of the Westview
school district population. Zimmerly
for fifth and sixth grade. The third
period in Amish students transitioning emphasized, “We do not get money
from public school to parochial school from the state of Indiana for Amish
school kids. Our enrollment money
is after the sixth grade year; before
making the move to Westview Junior/ from the state is based only on those
that attend public school.” He continSenior High School.
ued by saying, “Some federal funding
According to Dr. Zimmerly, apis based on the demographics of our
proximately ninety-nine percent of
community. Parochial schools do have
Amish students don’t attend school
after eighth grade. That percentage has some bearing on federal funding. The
remained pretty stable for many years, bulk of our money received from the
state is only dependent on the enroll-
Responsibility... cont. from 26
pg 28 · The Hometown Treasure · September ‘12
ment in public schools not on the
demographic information from our
community. State funds are used to pay
for such things as the teachers’ salaries and the utilities, whereas federal
funds are used for programs such as
Title One, At Risk Students and Special
Education. Some training, support and
special equipment has been used to
assist the Amish schools in the Special
Education field with funds gleaned
from federal funds.” However, Zimmerly reiterated that the Amish schools
are very hesitant to ask for this type of
assistance, but Westview is very glad to
provide it to them when needed.
Dr. Zimmerly concluded by saying,
“We don’t see the Amish schools or the
home schools as an enemy to the public
school.” He went on to say, “I don’t have
that sense at all. When the responsibilities of educating the community’s
children are shared by others, it does
lessen that overwhelming responsibility on the public schools.”