It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to this blog. I am currently enrolled in a local college, so most of my time is taken up by work and study. I love college, and I wish I had enrolled years ago. Better late than never, I guess. Many of you readers have encouraged me to enroll, and that’s largely why I finally took the leap. Thank you! You are amazing!
Of all the ex-Amish people I know (hundreds), less than a handful have gone to college. Why don’t more of them seek a higher education? I believe there are several reasons:
- Many of them don’t think it’s necessary. Many of them believe they can make a decent living and enjoy life without going to college. In a way they’re right. The Amish are taught to be hardworking and entrepreneurial. Many Amish and ex-Amish start businesses, and whether it’s a furniture shop or a construction company, they often succeed fantastically. It is not uncommon to find college-educated people working for an Amish employer that has no more than an eighth-grade education.
- Another reason for not going to college, I suspect, is that the ex-Amish don’t set set their dreams very high relative to the general population. For them, just being out among the “English” is so much of an adventure that going to college and doing even greater things doesn’t seem that much of a step up.
- For many ex-Amish, college sounds like an intellectual hardship. Many of them didn’t enjoy Amish parochial school, and most have been away from the world of study and exams for so long that they shudder at the idea of returning.
- As for myself, I’ve always planned on going to college some day. The only thing holding me back was time and money. I thought that if I could only put in a few more years of work in my entrepreneurial pursuits, I would have both the time and the money I would need. If I could only make a bit of money at an ‘okay’ job, then I could move on to pursuing my dreams.
While college does take a lot of time and money, I’m happy to report that it doesn’t take nearly as much as I had anticipated it would. If you lack time, you don’t have to enroll full-time. You can take one or two courses at a time, if you like. As for the money, if you go to an instate community college where tuition is a lot lower, financial aid may cover most of it.
Then, of course, there are the scholarships. There’s actually a scholarship specifically for the ex-Amish seeking a higher education. The Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund was started by two ex-Amish women, Emma Miller (featured in Devil’s Playground 2002) and Naomi Kramer. This year they’re giving out several hefty scholarships (from $1,000 to $5,000) to ex-Amish students.
I think what they’re doing is amazing. If you’re an ex-Amish person thinking about going to college, be sure to head over to their website www.amishscholarship.com and apply. Don’t think that you won’t have a chance. If you’re ex-Amish and want a higher education, you’ve already distinguished yourself from the pack. If you qualify, I think you’ll have a very good chance of getting a scholarship. If perchance, the scholarship is $5000, that will cover the tuition and fees at some community colleges for a whole year.
If you’re not an ex-Amish student, consider donating to the cause or publicizing the scholarship by ‘Liking’ their Facebook page and sharing posts.
College is much more than just a crapload of exams and then a stressful job. In college you can learn so many interesting things. In college you can direct your education, to some extent. You can choose many of your own courses, and study what interests you. In college you will broaden your horizons and begin to understand so much more about our society, our history, and where we’re going. With a college education, you won’t be limited to mindless, back-breaking, labor–you can follow your dreams.
Note: I am not receiving anything other than satisfaction for promoting this scholarship. I promote it only because I think what they’re doing is amazing.
X Amish Atheist 
Thank you very much for this post. Very well stated and my sentiments exactly.
I’m happy for you!
Dear X-Amish Atheist. I can feel your excitement through the words you write about going to college. I am happy for you and love to see you are still around as it’s been a while since you have posted. The world is your oyster as they say, so take it for all it’s worth. I’ve been following you for while now and each time my phone alerts me to a new e-mail I check to see if it’s you with a new post. Anyway, good to hear from you again and I can’t wait to see how college goes for you. Well god day sir and look forward to hearing more of your adventure we call life. To you and your family peace and prosperity
Thank you!
Nice to see/hear/read you again! And happy to see you promoting education to other ex Amish. I’ve been watching Season 2 of Breaking Amish (yes, I am admitting to it, it’s like a train wreck that I just can’t stop looking at no matter how much I know the reality is fake) and thought how sad that Abe’s mother didn’t even know who the POTUS is. Of course I don’t know if that was true or not, but knowing that education isn’t high on the Amish priorities list, I thought it could be true.
PS, I’ve been reading some of the ex Amish stories on the facebook page of ADSFund, truly inspiring.
I also am glad to hear from you again, and missed reading your blogs. As someone with Amish roots and having a college degree and now a retired educator, I also encourage you in your college studies,- though college is not for everyone and does not guarantee success in life, but most certainly does broaden ones world view. College can be done on line, or one can simply study, explore knowledge by just reading on their own via internet or local libraries. I am fascinated with my own personal study (during retirement) of the origins of religions and the related religious texts and the impact such information has on realizing how parochial and limiting one’s “religion” can be on how one interprets and experiences life. I wish I had started this study much sooner in life. In fact, at age 19 I wanted to go to college and study Bible and Philosophy and was accepted at a Mennonite College for such; but then “believed” that “God” called me into a teaching career instead in which I began teaching at a Parochial school before attending college. Though my teaching career was very successful, I am now enjoying my earlier dream, though others are quite disappointed with my exploration and questioning of religion. Thus I hope your comments about Amish and higher education will help others to not hesitate to explore their educational dreams, either formally or informally on their own. And I wish you also the very best as you explore the world of academia.
As a community college employee, I am delighted to hear that you’ve found a community college to be economically accessible and to be meeting your educational expectations–that’s what we at the colleges all hope for! I wish you the absolute best in your studies and success wherever they take you. I do hope you will have enough free time so you can comment on the upcoming Breaking Amish–LA. I am wondering if it will be more authentic than the NY one that is winding down this summer (got to admit I enjoy watching Mary, though; she looks like she’d be fun to talk to).
Dear X, I enjoy your posts and love to read the words of a person who is fairly young in their transition from religion to atheism, or non belief, or humanist or whatever the masses see fit to call it. Their seems to be butting of heads regarding which term to use. Anyhow, that is not the topic of subject tonight. Though I am only 38 “yikes” I want to communicate some things to you regarding attending school. First of all.”, Just do it. Period end of story. Since I attained my GED from the Job Corps Civilian Conservation program in Frenchburg Kentucky, the Schenck Job Corps in Brevard North Carolina, and finally finishing advanced training for pre- apprenticeship carpentry in Indiahoma Oklahoma, I always wanted to attend college. I was a seventh grade drop out that lived in central Florida and when I heard about Job corps, I knew I still had a chance if I could just complete the program and I did. However I “fell in
Love” and passed up on a chance to attend Alabama A&M tuition free through the US FOREST SERVICE which is who runs the job corps program. Well ever since I made the decision not to attend Alabama A&M I have carried around a yoke of regret for lack of a better term. There’s just something about structured teaching from a university that I don’t believe one can get from studying at home, that discipline, the organization and commitment. I longed for that structure, but kept telling myself that I would eventually go, after doing this, or doing that, once we bought a house, or after we had children etc. that time never came, simply because I viewed it like some entity that would present it self when
The time was right. WRONG. So through my early and mid twentys I studied geology, paleontology/archaeology at home when I had time. Eventually I worked longer hours and chased bigger earnings in my late twentys and began driving a truck. What a life style change. From a union carpenter to a truck driver. Well any free time was spent sleeping. The long hours and working seven days a week was became addicting to me. The money was the best I had ever earned. So, the long short of it is I drove truck from 2002 till 2010 when I was injured and disabled. Now just turning 38 and so far from a time when I studied I feel as if I failed myself somehow. That I procrastinated far too long. I am now going to see if I can follow up on that dream of attending college to study properly those subjects that love and adore “except math” please, don’t let anything stop you. Hell even if you need me to send you a hundred bucks here and there to help just go. We are our own worst enemy at times, but it really stinks to wake up everyday and think how different life would have been. Not that I had a bad life, I have two great kids, an awesome fiancé and two hound dogs that wouldn’t bite a hot biscuit and our home is paid for no
Matter how modest and 4 acres in the country. Bit that hollow spot, that void is there, and hopefully this long winded account of a commoners life will help in any way, then it’s worth sharing with you and the rest of the X-Amish viewers. So I thank you for your time and if you need that hundred bucks every now and then just holler.
James, thank you for your encouragement! Like you said, “Just do it.” Looking back, now that I’m in school, I think the biggest mistake I made in the last 10 years was to put my dreams off until the perfect time. I kept putting it off thinking that somewhere down the line I would have the time and money that I thought I needed. Well, that perfect time never came. I finally ‘just did it’ and my only regret at this point is that I didn’t do it sooner.
Its too bad Breaking Amish turned out this way.
xamishatheist,
Do you remember my first post? You might not remember it quite as fondly as I do:)
I’ve been chatting for a couple of weeks with jd about your post on killing babies, and have been reading and catching up on your other posts.
I’m going away for a little while, but I wanted to say this:
I am so happy for you! I feel like I have gotten to know you through your blog, and am very glad that I found your blog.
I can tell how exited you are about college. I remember how happy I was when I was accepted. I also enjoy knowing the fact that even though you are so excited, I can tell you still have your head. You know exactly what your getting into. I admire that. When I went to college (Still in it, actually.) I wasn’t really prepared. I thought I could just go with the flow like I had in high school. Boy was I wrong!!:D
Anyway, Best of luck to you!! Enjoy college!!
Hi Elizabeth,
Yes, I remember your first post. I’m glad that you stuck around despite my snippy attitude in my first response to you! You and JD have been having quite the conversation–I love it.
I’m glad you’ve been reading my blog and participating. The greatest thing, in my opinion, that a blog such as mine can accomplish is to initiate and facilitate a meaningful dialogue between opposing points of view, so it makes me feel good when I see that happen.
Yes, I am quite excited about college even though it has virtually eliminated the free time required to write new content on here. I’m currently in my second year at a local community college–completing my A.A. If all goes well, I’ll be transferring to a university next year to complete a B.S. in physics.
Congratulations on the twins! I bet that’ll be a lot of work, but very rewarding work!
Good to see you are in your second year. Look forward to hearing from you more, and getting all the details of how things have been going for you. I have been immersed in atheist pages on Facebook, and reading comments and learning from different points of view. I’m afraid however, the conclusion I tend to lean towards, is that, religion as a whole must be taken out of all political arenas, and any law making, or influencing realms. The more I read, the more I realize, that it is a destructive, discriminating, enslaving tool of division that restricts science, confuses children in schools that are permitted to teach “creationism,” and treats gay students in some states terribly. Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and so on.
I used to enjoy reading your blog, and have read most of the posts. I hope you’ll consider someday writing again.