Amish Schooling

To many Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite children living in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the ringing school bell signals a time to shift attention from field work to school work, a time to drop the hoe and pick up a pencil.
Old Order children attend one-room schools through the eighth grade and are usually taught by a young, unmarried Christian woman. As a result of the County's growing Old Order population, enrollment in their one-room schools is surging. During recent years Old Order leaders have been over-seeing the construction of new one-room school buildings at the rate of about five per year.
A 1972 Supreme Court ruling exempted the Old Order sects from compulsory attendance laws beyond the eighth grade. The one-room schools restrict worldly influences and stress the basics such as reading, writing and arithmetic. The importance of the community and cooperation among its members are also emphasized.