school board members. The result was
the formation of Study Time Publishers in1995. One man initially pledged
to fund the project with an interest
free loan. Farmwald says that when
the man backed out of the loan it really
was a blessing in disguise because “our
cost estimates were six times too low”.
Funds were found and the publishing
process was underway.
Since Alta Hoover, an Old Order
Mennonite from Pennsylvania had
already developed math curriculum
for grades One and Two, Study Time
focused on Grades three through eight.
The hope was to develop material for
two grades a year over three years.
Instead, Grade Three actually took
two years. Following that they were
able to produce a grade per year. Miller
School Books near Topeka now handles
seventy percent of Study Times’ book
sales. Millers fill a vital role in the distribution of a variety of Amish school
material. Schools are able to place their
total book order, of all subjects, at one
time and Millers ships it out.
One question has hung like a
cloud in the minds of many people.
How are the Amish students doing
academically? Are they getting a quality education that will prepare them
to be an asset to the community, in
this day and age, as well as satisfy the
state’s requirement. To the credit of
the Amish Parochial Schools, testing
has had a high priority. For a number
of years they have been using the Iowa
Basic Skills Test. While the composite
scores are ahead of the national average, Amish students have not done as
well with the math concepts portion.
Farmwald says that those lower math
scores were a determining factor when
compiling the Study Time math series.
Some have complained that Study
Times’ math program is too hard, but
Farmwald only smiles and says, “The
scores are inching up”.
Today, even by conservative estimates there are over 3,000 students
i n the seventy-nine Amish Parochial
Schools across Elkhart, LaGrange, and
Noble counties. More schools are being
planned and vision of the Amish community remains strong.
The Hometown Treasure · September ‘12 · pg 29