I grew up in a plain hybrid Amish/Mennonite community in Michigan that was part of a larger church in Pennsylvania called Charity Christian Fellowship. People did not date in these plain religious communities. Instead, they did something called courtship or courting. My first personal interaction with this process was when my favorite big brother decided to marry when I was seven years old. The first thing he did was go to our Father and ask what he thought about the young lady from the church he’d been praying about getting to know better. Our father gave his blessing and went to go visit the young lady’s father to inquire if he was open to marrying his daughter to my brother. Her father gave his blessing and said he’d ask her if she was open to entering a courtship with my brother with the goal of marriage within 6 months. She said YES when her father asked and their courtship officially began. My brother and now dear sister-in-law were made fo...
Children in Amish and plain religious communities like the Mennonites or Charity receive a very different education compared to children growing up in mainstream society. It is common for children in Amish and Mennonite communities to either be homeschooled or attend a 1st - 8th-grade religious school run within the local church community.
In my case, we didn’t have enough congregants to have a school and we were homeschooled. Students in these communities are only taught a few subjects: reading/English and math. There is no history, science, geography, music, or art education.
Children are taught to read and do basic math i.e enough to do the basic measuring for building or cooking. No writing beyond the 1st-grade level while learning your letters. No critical thinking or analysis. No creativity or divergence, only replication.
Growing up "school” was at most only two or three hours a day between the morning and afternoon chores. Once I got to the 4th/5th grade, I was no longer checked in about doing my “school”. It was my responsibility. If I wanted to (as I was supposed to), the books were available and my mother would ask about them yet never verify or review.
Everything within this isolated plain religious community was separated from mainstream society. The curriculum taught came from an old-order Amish publishing house called Pathway Publishers. Everything depicted people in similar isolated religious communities with women wearing veils and no discussion of further academic learning. Instead, these “textbooks” promoted learning to silence your voice and marry the man of your father’s choosing upon adulthood.
What are your questions on what school was like growing up in a plain religious community?
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