Teaching the Amish: Reflections
By Lisa Podolsky
Writer
Earlier this semester, The Bucknellian covered the Teaching in Diverse Environments class, in which students went to teach at six Amish schools. At the end of the experience, students have found they learned at least as much as they taught.
“Teaching in the Amish classroom was as much of a learning experience for me as it was for the students who learned about honey bees,” Margaret Hartman ’09 said.
Students prepared lesson plans during the first weeks of the semester and then visited the Amish schools for two hours each week. The students adjusted their lessons after each school day to incorporate the feedback they received about their activities.
“After going to a few schools, we realized that the students were sitting too long and that their attention spans were waning,” Justine Daggett ’09 said. “We decided to incorporate a movement activity where after we created our bees and colored our flowers, we would select a student to hide his or her flowers around the room … [this student then] led the students all around the room to the flowers.”
Daggett said this exercise eventually became the Amish students’ favorite activity.
“The first leader bee was always a bit apprehensive, but after we went through the activity, once almost everyone wanted to be the leader bee. My partner and I would often have to do the exercise four or five times,” Daggett said.
This year, the student-teachers taught at two schools University students had never visited before. Katharyn Nottis, associate professor of education, said limited space and divided classroom arrangements of the new schools were a challenge to the University students because their lessons were designed to teach large groups in one room.
“The students I work with have been so flexible and have adapted, but it’s always been at the last minute because you don’t get the information ahead of time,” Nottis said.
The University students were surprised to find many of their conceptions about Amish culture were inaccurate.
“I had thought they wouldn’t have any technology at all,” said Daggett, who instead found that each school had an emergency telephone and some had microwaves.
“They are not against technology; they just have to see a justifiable use for it,” Daggett said.
Even Nottis said she learned a lot about the Amish schools from the weekly trips.
“In a couple of [the new] schools, they were teaching children sign language,” Nottis said. “In one school there were a number of students that were hearing impaired and when the [University] students went out they had to wear the microphones for amplification.”
The class will not be offered next year since Nottis will be on sabbatical, but it will be offered the following year.
Nottis plans to add an extra school visit once the class resumes.
The teaching experience allowed students to reflect on their own perceptions of the Amish.
“While I consider myself to be nonjudgmental and accepting and respectful of all students and their individual voices, this experience really opened my eyes to a new way of thinking and learning that is neither right nor wrong—simply different from what I am accustomed to,” Hartman said.
