KALONA

When we step inside Middleburg School, I’m hit with a powerful sense of nostalgia. Those desks filling the one-room schoolhouse – I had one of those, my parents procuring it from a school sale when I was small. The printed and cursive alphabet strung across the front of the classroom, sandwiched between two lines with a dotted one through the center to guide shape and proportion – I learned to write looking at something similar. The shelf of Laura Ingalls Wilder books – I read all of those when I was young.

What feels like the past to me is an Old Order Amish school located in rural Kalona where 11 students are finishing their year. On the surface it may seem I have little in common with those students, given I grew up in a modern metro of 1 million, but perhaps there is something timeless about the process of learning that connects us.

That’s the thing about the Country School Houses tour, a specialty tour offered in May by the Kalona Chamber of Commerce – it evokes memories for everyone involved in it, from driver Daniel Nisly and fellow tourists to our hosts at the schools. No matter our own pasts, as country school students or not, we all end up telling each other stories over the course of the two-hour expedition.

The Middleburg School is our first stop, and it’s here that Perry Hershberger shares with us the history of the oldest school on the tour, originally built in 1865. It became an Amish school in 1972, and the fourth generation of Hershberger’s family attends here.

Our second stop is Meadow Lane School, a New Order Amish school originally built in the 1980s. Although its clear the building is more than 100 years younger than Middleburg’s, the classroom space bears a family resemblance; however, this building contains something Middleburg does not: a Sunday School. We step inside and admire what looks like a condensed sanctuary, with rows of pews laden with hymnals; peeking inside them, we find they are in German.

Sunday Schools are not typical for Amish communities, we learn; however, the Kalona area has three of them. It is here that Amish will attend on alternating weeks for a more educational type of Sunday worship.

Sharon Bethel School is our third stop; about 30 students currently attend here, similar to the number attending Meadow Lane. However, this Beachy Amish School offers additional grade levels; while the other two schools go through 8th grade, Sharon Bethel extends to 12th grade. Students store their belongings in lockers, and a computer is set up in the high school grades classroom. All of the students eat together in the lunchroom alongside their three teachers; multiple microwaves are available for them to heat the food they bring.

There is a lot to learn on the Country School Tour, about the history of education in this area, both Amish and English, and it offers not only a visual feast, but food for thought. The specialty tour is offered on three more dates this May; if you have an interest in history or education, or simply would like to see and understand a different aspect of rural Kalona, consider signing up.

Country School Tours are offered on Saturday, May 24 from 10 a.m. to noon; Tuesday, May 27 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.; and Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to noon. Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 youth, 6 and under free. For reservations, contact the Kalona Chamber at 319-656-2660.