"Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I will remember. Involve me, and I will understand forever." - Confucius

Student travel teaches an understanding of other people and cultures in the global community. Meeting different people and experiencing other places significantly enhance students’ understanding of the world they live in. The advantage we offer is that students can experience a culture different from their own, without having to travel to another country… only to “Amish Country.”

The Amish themselves are a vibrant, changing sub-culture in the American mosaic, yet one that is strikingly different and reflective of the changes and challenges ever-present in contemporary American society. Perhaps most important, here are encapsulated the important lessons of learning to understand and respect our differences.

Of course, the Amish Experience also brings to life lessons that are straight from our history books. The Amish Experience Theater portrays William Penn and the perilous voyage of our forefathers across the Atlantic Ocean to freedom in the New World. The Amish landed on the shores of Philadelphia and then traveled to and settled in Lancaster County, now the oldest Amish settlement in the world.

The realities of the intolerance the Amish experienced through the years, relate to many historical and contemporary global concerns, such as issues of freedom of religion and speech. Since the Amish are real people, their story and documented struggles take on an immediacy impossible to capture in a book or museum, a stepping stone for discussions about respecting our differences while recognizing all that we have in common.

Many of the lessons of the Amish Experience, although certainly more subtle, are perhaps far more powerful. For example, at some point we all come to realize that we need to make important life decisions.

The Amish Experience’s "Jacob's Choice" focuses on the choices one teenage boy must make, exploring the profound ramifications. This is definitely a story to which student and class will relate. The emotional story of Jacob and his family also vividly reveals the importance of learning from our past so that wise decisions may be made about our future.