Pardon my texting. I’m preparing myself for a classroom full of teenagers (I teach at the high school and college level) . . . and I KNOW they’re going to have trouble breaking the “texting addiction.” Phones are one of the many issues we deal with the first week of school.
Students aren’t the only ones who struggle to adjust though. Teachers in my school are not allowed to access email on school computers – OUCH! Now some teachers have email on their phones, but I don’t. So there will be a period of adjustment for all of us.
Which reminds me of my Amish friends. While in Shipshewana we toured
one Amish schoolhouse. Here’s a nice picture of my husband with his tablet. He wrote the word DELL on his. I believe he was a bit homesick after a few nights at a B&B with no tv and no desktop computer.
Schools are, of course, different for the Amish. I found them to be clean and pleasant. Not as backwards as I expected. Teachers often live in a room above the school during the week (usually two teachers per school-always women) and travel home on weekends.
Students arrive at school via a HACK, which is essentially a long buggy. In many areas around Shipshe 
that has now been replaced with bicycles. Though in the winter, I’m sure they go back to the hack or use a driver to transport the students.
There are definitely differences between Amish schools and the one where I teach, more than that the students in Amish schools exit after the 8th grade to enter internships. But I also think we share a lot of things in common.
As we begin this school year some students will be eager, others will be dragging their feet, and quite a few teachers–both in Shipshewana and in Central Texas, will be pulling out their textbooks and wondering how they can make reading, writing and ‘rithmetic fresh and interesting.
Here’s to a good year for all of us–and to your child, students, and families as well.
~V
Vannetta Chapman 