All right. [gate opening] All right, so what's going on here, Dennis? So this is an Amish school though? -Okay. -And The horses the lawnmowers? -They're basically the lawnmowers, yeah. -Okay. Can we go inside? -Yeah. -So in Amish country you
have one room schoolhouses or how does this work? And then what grades? Okay. All right. So how does that work when
you have such different age... Age levels and grades? Oh this is interesting, wow. -You basically have to learn everything. -Okay so walk me through. A first grader could be sitting here and a sixth grader could be sitting up there? -Yes. Last term this was my side. We close the curtains up -Oh okay, so you section it off. -Yeah, we section it off. -Yeah, we section it off.
-Gotcha. And my first graders they get the smaller desks. There were three little girls one, two, there's another one somewhere and then I have fourth grade. They were probably
in the little bit bigger ones and seventh and eighth
are the older students. -Okay. Okay, so how does it work? This is outside the federal school system or how does it work? -Everything is... We're completely free from government. We don't receive any funding. Everything is out of our own pockets. -Wow. -I mean we pay a lot to the public schools through real estate taxes but we kind of we wanted to stay separate. -Okay. So you're still paying taxes
to the federal government? -We do. -Okay, but that's by choice? Can we walk over here? -Yes. -So what's different about
the Amish curriculum? I'm sure there's a lot
of religion in it obviously. Are you familiar with the US curriculum? The state curriculum? -Not where it is now. I went four years to public school -Okay. -So there are Amish students
that go to public school. -Okay. But we have the basic math vocabulary, English spelling. We teach some German. But everything is Christian based. -Okay. -We start the day off in the
morning with the Lord's prayer. -Okay. -Then a Bible story. Then we file into the entrance line up and sing three songs. -Can we go over there? -Can we go over there?
-Yep. -No American flag? -No American flag. No pledge of allegiance. -Oh interesting, why is that? -We probably... It's based on God and Christ. -Okay. -And that's our focus what we try to keep it on. -So this is the new section? -Yeah, this is the new section. We have our coat racks cubbies and then we line up in here. -Get your books. -Got our books, song books. -And so you've been a
teacher here for how long? -Six years. -Six years, okay. In let's say the last 10 years and I'm guessing some of those that are in power want to really buckle down and it's... It will cause some problems -How have they drifted? -Probably technology-wise. -Okay. Kids want to get on phones,
devices, social media? -Yeah, mm-hmm. -It will, has it come in now to this point it's starting to trickle in
or it's coming quickly? -And Brian's the most
wonderful guy on the planet but he doesn't want to be on camera so I'm not gonna turn the camera. But Brian brought us in here. So that's interesting. So you're dealing... Though you're in your
own bubble to some degree there's no way you can keep out the force of the way the world is going around you? -Not really. What I've seen in my lifespan is you basically everybody has to decide among themselves. I mean the church is the church. We have our guidelines but everybody has to decide,
"Where am I gonna be?" What I see is my children coming after me. Where do I want them to be in 30 years from now? 20 or 30 years... How will this progress? What am I... They're all following my steps. -Where do you want them to be? That's a good question. I want them to be a follower of Jesus. -Okay. -And that's the most important
thing that I have a concern in. Is them to really be a follower of Jesus and God. Be respectful of building
members of the community. I see dangers with technology and so far I've really
tried to shun away from it. -Okay, okay. So you guys having more kids right now? -We are not. -No, not you personally.
I'm sorry. The Amish people are having more, right? -Right. -So are these schools filling up? You're creating more schools? -Yes. Yes, about every year... An average of five new
school houses are built through all of the community. -In Holmes County? -Holmes, Wayne, and surrounding counties but they are expanding out into other counties too. -And do most of them do it this style? One room style? -Basically, yes. -Why is that? Why do you want to keep
everyone in the same room? -That's a good question. History tells us and
they've tried it already once you get bigger schools you need more parents and more teachers. It's just harder to keep everything peaceable. That's what I'm seeing. -So this is way more manageable just having everyone under one roof and the jurisdiction is not far around here. How far can kids come to this school? -Most of them are a mile away. -Are they walking? -Walking or some use bicycles. -No school bus? -No school bus. -So what's the story with the lights? -That's a natural gas light. -Okay, so all the lights are natural gas? -Yes, we started out as that but last year we put on a solar panel and we have one, two three battery lights in here. -Okay, so through religion it says you can't use any power wired power in but you can use solar power? -Yes. That's the church guideline -Okay, that's a church guideline. -We've always shunned away from the electric from the lines. -Okay, why is that?
Do you know? -Probably started out away from television electric appliances and we believe in really having a home body. Everybody's home. -You're fantastic, this
is probably really boring questions for you but it's... It's interesting for me. Don't look this way, Brian. -No, you're fine. -Oh, Brian's in. Let's go out here is this the playground? -This is the playground. Normally this is all mowed and we have our bases set up out here. This is one of the worst
school playgrounds in the area. A lot of them are flat, open... -You got a basketball hoop court here. -Yep. They do know some... LeBron James that name pops up. It comes in the paper. [chuckles] None of them can jump so high. Swigsets down there. School bell. Classic school bell. -Every morning at 8:00 we ring it a couple times and that's an old tradition. We have this cute little outhouse. Well it's not so cute especially not in the winter time when it's 10 degrees. You have to go. Snowy, we'll just put it very simply It doesn't take long. -Okay, so no one's
holding up the bathroom. What's the... What are the rules behind
this having an outhouse at school? It's an Amish thing obviously. -It is. It's an old thing. They started out years ago with outhouses and the school room. But now the new ones most of them have indoor plumbing and have them in the basement. So these are kind of gradually going out. There are different churches through here and some of them are lower than others and some they all send to the same school. So it's basically we keep them so everybody's happy. -Okay, so you think this
is phasing out in 10 years? This won't be here, there
will be a toilet inside? -There's a good chance. -Okay. But then correct me if I'm wrong here but the very religious Amish some of the old order will say, "No, this is our tradition.
We need to keep it this way."? -There will be some, yes. -Okay. -But they're changing some. I mean every home has them indoor plumbing. So it's just a matter of time
before the schools have. On the outside. The inside, summertimes
it can get a little smelly. -Yeah. -But it does the job. It's not one of our highest points of interest [laughter] -Okay, gotcha. Baseball field. Is that baseball? -Yep, softball. Okay. So you're saying the longer your marriage has gone on the deeper the love gets? Getting relationship advice out here too. Good advice and teeter totters. These are pretty
aggressive teeter totters. You could do damage with these. Cherry bump is when you slam down and the other person flies, right? [laughter] Brian was banned from the playground? -Yeah. Just hanging around
him today can already get that vibe from him. Troublemaker. -There, I let it out. Brian, get away from the camera. Get away, Brian He's getting closer and closer. We work with the government. Every month we have to fill out not attendance forms. Mark everything we have to do safety drills. We have to do fire drills. And we have state guidelines to go by. The feedback that we've gotten from them they have told us don't change anything we're happy with what you're doing. So they're happy, we're happy. So we'll try and be respectful and do what we can. -All right, thank you. -All right. -Do you left-hand shake? Is that a negative thing? Some cultures it is. -Some people say,
"Left handed for crooks." That's a joke. Oh, okay. So there you go guys little insight to what Amish schools are like here in Holmes County Ohio. What are we doing?
Okay. -Left hand. -All right, left hand. Okay, until the next one.
