Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

As a response to industrialization and commercialization in the 20th century, parents of the Amish tradition established parochial schools to perpetuate their life of faith apart from an increasingly secular world. The Supreme Court in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) codified the right for Amish schools to exist and for parents to withdraw children from compulsory attendance after eighth grade with a unique religious exemption. Limited research has been conducted to explore why some Amish parents still choose to send children to public schools which conflict with their world view and have at times been hostile. The aim of this ethnography is to ascertain what factors contribute to Amish families choosing to attend public schools, what changes have occurred within Amish culture to make this choice viable for families, and what areas of public schooling continue to be resisted. To explore these issues, the researcher, who is the superintendent of the district where the school is located, conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 parents of the Old Order Amish tradition randomly selected from one middle–elementary school in Elkhart County, Indiana. Coding of themes emerging from interviews revealed institutional, instructional, and social factors for families choosing public schools. Parents trust the school as a true community institution because it practices discretion, models democratic principles in engaging parents, and provides services like transportation that families appreciate. Instructionally, parents favor the quality of trained teachers with advanced Education, a hands-on and inquiry emphasis for learning, and the ways teachers challenge students with content while helping them develop as independent thinkers. One of the primary reasons Amish parents select public schools is the social aspect of students interacting with non-Amish adults and peers as well as children outside their local church affiliations. Interviews revealed Amish parents do compromise some in their attitudes regarding prayer and religious songs, modern music and dance, technology, and exposure to outside influences by attending public school. However, on balance, the utility of learning skills and dispositions for the future the students will encounter makes pragmatic negotiations with the public Education system worthwhile. Respondents indicated a receptivity to more modern Education due to the changing economics in Elkhart County, population density impacting farm land prices, and the general decline in agriculture as their main way of life. Ultimately, Amish parents in this ethnography expressed that if they fulfill their roles as parents who instill values consistent with their faith, their children will learn to think for themselves, will learn to navigate the modern world after controlled exposure to it, and will ultimately select to remain in their faith community dually equipped with reason and skill sets for a changing world.

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