Myth runs rampant in our community and I had a desire to expose my students to the power of an objective approach to a social enigma—which was how the locals viewed the Hutterian Colony members. Whenever people discussed the Hutterites, there were always unanswered questions. And because the Montana Heritage Project approach to community investigation and research is based upon the asking of questions in search of verifiable answers, we had a perfect match with the Colonies: we had many questions (e.g., social customs including matters of dress, communal life, and marrying age). The students came quickly to realize the young men and women at the Colonies were also curious about life at the High School (e.g., social customs including matters of dress, independence, and marrying age).

Asking questions, and knowing which questions to ask, is the first step of the ALERT research process as defined by Michael Umphrey, Director of the Montana Heritage Project. Asking, Listening, Exploring, Reflecting, and Transforming are all part of this particular process of community investigation.

Project teachers use Mike’s rubric as a frame to approach local and area history—but the definition of history largely depends on the student’s definitions of what is truly interesting and compelling in their world. What do they want to know? What do they observe as they view their world? What is of interest to them? My job as a Project teacher is simply to facilitate student learning—to select an area which has strong possibilities for depth of information and which, hopefully, will capture the imagination of the students so they take quick and powerful ownership of their research areas. Many subjects appear glamorous, mysterious, and intriguing: however, there is often a dearth of credible sources for adequate documentation. The ultimate research project is when the subject pairs the intriguing with the confirmable.

Before we began the Project, I spent many hours searching for credible sources and visiting with the elders of the Colonies to insure the sources were acceptable. Such discussions are core to the Listening part of the ALERT Process. Finding the information, making the connections between what is read and what is real, and comprehending the relationship of the text and the subject provide links between what is thought about a subject and what is known.

My students read John S. Hostetler’s Hutterite Life as their main text; the text had been reviewed by the Ministers of the Colonies for accuracy. I find this step, using rich and verifiable texts, an important teaching tool for the students. After reading the text and assimilating the information about a people, place or time, students form a powerful basic understanding of a subject. In this case, the students understood the history, much of the mindset, and many of the social aspects of the Hutterian people.

Consequently, the Colony members knew there was an understanding of their culture which lent to early confidence and trust between interviewers and interviewees. The students began their Exploration into the world of the Hutterites by making day-long visits to each of the three colonies. They shared noon-time meals and some family time. They visited schoolrooms, pig barns, chicken houses, woodshops, and churches; they interviewed public school teachers, German teachers, First Ministers, Farm bosses, and kindergartners; they ate unbelievable numbers of fresh loaves of bread and sampled home grown vegetables and canned pickles; they watched furniture for dowries being hand crafted, cows being milked and petted piglets.

The students admired the perfect calligraphy of a twelve-year-old Hutterite girl who wrote a page in Old German text. They found out that Hutterite women never cut their hair and wear hair coverings which include an inner white bonnet called a Mutze and an outer polka dotted kerchief (which doesn’t have to be starched anymore!). They had a cup of coffee in the Waldner’s painfully clean front room as Tom and Martha shared their home and family customs, including how many pairs of workpants Martha had made last month for her sons and husband (14).

They understood thrift as they had never understood it before. And they Reflected on what they had seen, heard, felt, and come to understand.

Nancy Widdicombe's students return to her somewhat chaotic classroom after a full day in the field to discuss and write about their experiences.

The Hutterites, known for their cappella singing, challenging the Harlowton girls to a "sing-off." Obviously, the Harlo girls were in--this went on for about twenty minutes!

Students join the Hutterites for lunch as guests at a noontime meal during one of their fieldwork expeditions.

 

The result of that reflection by the students appears in the last step of the ALERT process—Transforming the research into a physical format. This included students' organizing an Open House for the community, which featured a Power Point presentation about the students' research; writing and publishing a seventy-page book titled The Hutterian Way: Hutterite Colonies in the Upper Musselshell Valley; and writing reflective essays gauging their experience: as one student wrote, “The Hutterites are very, very interesting people who are misunderstood and under-praised.”

The ALERT process, combined with the creative, technical, and literary talents of my students, and with the cooperation of community members, had provided, for all parties concerned, a bright and shining learning experience. The students learned that Hutterites are loving, caring, hard-working people with strong morals and convictions. The Hutterites learned that the students were dedicated, enthused, and committed to learning. The community sharing at the Open House opened up the Hutterian culture to townspeople, who also appreciated the careful scholarship the students had successfully undertaken.

It is impossible to underestimate the feeling of pride and ownership students feel when they produce a true academic piece of work which will withstand the test of time. The Montana Heritage Project offers community members, students, and teachers alike a time of creating, learning, and, certainly, sharing in their often diverse and distant worlds.