Amish And Hutterites On TV Part 1 Education

On the National Geographic Channel, they are running two series about the Amish and the Hutterites.  The Amish, mostly known as the Old Order Amish are the ones who drive the horse and buggys, don't use electricity or telephones and speak a Pennsylvania Dutch language.  The are other orders of Amish, including the Beechy Amish and other off shoots of the Amish religion.  Most Amish work as farmers or woods craftsman.
The Hutterites live in colonies and the women dress conservatively and they mostly farm and ranch.  Their colonies are self sufficient, food wise but they also believe in using electricity and have some of the finest farm equipment.
When I lived in Wisconsin, Montana and North Dakota, I was fascinated with the Amish and Hutterites and got to know several Amish families and communities and 1 Hutterite Colony outside of Havre, MT.
In the show, Amish: Out of Order, they follow a man, Moses, who is ex-Amish, goes around talking to ex-Amish and Amish alike and tries to help the ex-Amish in their new way of life.  Based on the show, you really don't get an idea of who the Amish really are.
When I lived in Wisconsin Rapids and taught in Westfield, I lived close to several Amish communities.  I reached out to a Amish community located near Coloma, WI. and got to know several Amish families quite well, but not quite good enough to be considered to be close friends.
I got to observe their 1 room school house in which about 15 kids attended school from kindergarten to 8th grade and I helped out in the classroom several times.  The Amish view of education is that they believe in functional academics- learning lessons that will help them in real life situations.  The teachers are graduates of the 8th grade and then they apprentice for a year or two and then they become teachers.  Teachers can move from to town to town and they get paid about $3000 a school year.  After the school year, the teachers go back home or they may stay with a family (the teacher usually stays with a family for the school  year.  Or, as the case of the mostly female teaching corp, they may get married to a local Amish farmer and move into their house.  The TV show, Little House on the Prairie is actually a pretty good example of an Amish school. 
The Amish use hard cover books from years gone by and they also use your standard pencils and pens, lined paper and other non-electrical school materials.  They do not use calculators but you can use an old fashioned abacuses to help in your math subjects.
The school are usually located in a corner of a family's field and the schools are run by a small school board   There is usually a small playground at the school with a teeter totter and swings.  There is also no plumbing, so there is an outhouse or two at the school, so, if you live in Wisconsin, going #2 can be quite cold.  The teacher, when she arrives in the morning, during the winter time, starts the pot belly stove burning.  (Obviously, there are no teacher unions in Amish schools)
They start the day off in a prayer and song and they have religious pictures throughout the 1 room school.  The families send cold lunches with the kids and sometimes they also send some baked goods for everyone.
The only time the Amish ask the outside world for assistance is with severely disabled children and this is fairly new to the Amish.  It used to be that the Amish would send a severely disabled to the 1 room school house or keep them at home.  But I have seen and saw several severely disabled kids go to school in a regular public school.  It is also possible that some Amish communities may send some students beyond 8th grade and have them go to school in the medical field.
The Hutterites also have a small school in their colony but is more centrally located within the Colony.  The Hutterites also will associate with the regular public schools.  A couple of years ago, the Hutterites in Havre tried to get a public school in their Colony and and have the Havre School Board pay for a teacher.  The downfall was that the Colony school had to admit non-colony students, which the Hutterites did not want to do.  After months of negotiations and a law suit, the Hutterites dropped their public school idea and still have their own private school on the grounds.  However, they do send their special education students to a regular education school and they will also send some women onto college to help with their medical problems the colonies may find.  They may also send some male students to a mechanics school so they can work on tractors and trucks the colony own.
In following articles, if anyone is interested, I'll write about the different aspects of the Amish and Hutterites, and hopefully dispel some myths out there.  Hopefully, the posts will be interesting to someone and they may learn something.  Otherwise, if it is boring, let me know.