Amish Plant Scientist
I recently heard again about John Kempf, a young Amish man from Geauga County in NE Ohio, who has become well-known as a plant science consultant. This time I wondered idly again whether he is a distant relative of mine. My great grandmother was a Kempf.
News of Kempf's successes have been touted in the mainstream media, in The Atlantic, for example, in October of 2014.
Of greater interest to me is the process by which Kempf became who he is now. To most of the world he is an enigma because of the deep knowledge he has of soils and natural plant processes, having acquired that knowledge with no more than an eighth grade formal education. In the company in which Kempf is listed as the founder and vision builder, sixteen people from a variety of locations and backgrounds work together to connect John Kempf's insights and products with the people who need them. The chairman of the company lives in Manhattan (New York). A number of the people on staff have advanced degrees.
Hiromi heard me yesterday when I was puzzling out loud over the Kempf enigma. I talked long enough to convince myself that the matter wasn't so very mysterious after all. Here's how I see it:
1. Kempf is obviously very intelligent--as are other Amish people I know.
2. Kempf had a good basic education--as is true of many who learn in one or two-room Amish schools.
3. Kempf learned how to learn and learned to take responsibility for his own learning. I know other people like that--a few of whom have survived traditional education systems.
4. Kempf was thoroughly immersed at a young age in the real world of making a living. In his case, the family did produce farming.
5. Kempf is an astute observer. Careful observation in his father's fields, followed by asking questions and looking for answers launched him on the journey that brought him eventually to having extensive influence in far away places.
6. Kempf is a voracious reader. From a catalog he fished out of his uncle's trash bin, he began to order books on plants and soils. From them he acquired the vocabulary of professionals in the field of plant science, and learned details about many of the processes involved in plant growth.
7. In the ultimate test of the value of learning, Kempf began to apply what he learned to growing the crops in his family's fields. Success there prompted queries from others who had the same problems and needed the same successes.
8. In explaining to friends and neighbors what he was learning, Kempf honed his communication skills, making complex concepts accessible to people with little education. In trying to help those who needed it, he tested his ideas further and expanded his frame of reference, establishing a reputation for trustworthiness with each success.
9. Kempf eventually was spending so much time helping others that his father told him he either needs to quit doing it or start charging for it. He started charging for his services. I can't think of a more sure way to know that a business idea is viable than to have great demand for one's services, even when there must be a charge for those services.
10. I know almost nothing of the story of how Kempf's business came to include the cast of characters who are present now. I know that he opted to maintain the simple lifestyle of his Amish people, and suspect that he allowed others who were not Amish to develop and distribute his ideas and products. I hope he is being fairly compensated.
*****************
I can't help evaluating Kempf's route to productivity alongside the traditional academic route. Kempf may still have no idea how many pitfalls he avoided and how many opportunities he maximized by pursuing knowledge along lines of his own choosing, at his own pace.
If he had pursued a course of study in an academic institution, he would almost certainly have been burdened with courses offering information he had no need of, either because he already knew what was being taught, or because it was not relevant to his goal of solving plant problems. At home with his books, he could go back and forth constantly between reading about things and trying them out. That process pushed him into traveling mostly productive paths, rather than wasting time on irrelevant detours.
If his mind was orderly, he could keep track mentally of what worked and what didn't work as he went along, saving himself a great deal of time in creating a paper trail as would have been required in the academic world.
No one hovered over him with withering academic superiority, warning him away from novel ideas. Some of those novel ideas turned out to be groundbreaking and very sound in practice.
He could race along the lines his thought and experience opened up, without waiting until the day a class lecture might touch on the subject he needed to learn about "right now."
He didn't have to wait on a corporate or government body or individual to approve his projects and provide funding. He pursued whatever he chose and found a way to pay for what he needed.
*****************
One of the unique services Kempf's company offers is analysis of plant sap. The testing is performed by a company in The Netherlands. Kempf can make recommendations for correcting nutritional imbalances based on these test results. Usually the remedy is found in adding specific minerals in the right quantity, in a readily bio-available form. Doing this removes barriers that might otherwise inhibit natural processes in the soil and in the plant.
If these natural processes are unhindered, especially at "critical points of influence," a plant has the ability to reach its highest potential. The farmer who sees himself as a "remover of barriers" is almost sure to have a more humble, respectful-of-the-process stance than the farmer who sees himself as a "booster of production" by the methods, tools, and substances he uses.
****************
Last week Lowell, Dad, and Melvin H. N. heard Kempf speak in a meeting in Scott City. He wore a homemade shirt and a hooks-and-eyes vest. I've been listening to him on youtube and reading on his website and blog. Online images of Kempf are scarce, as anyone who knows something of Amish values will understand.
****************
Kempf is the product of an education process that gets almost no favorable press--very limited class time, lots of "down and dirty" work, working for years for his parents without pay. curriculum of the student's choice, learning accomplished at the student's chosen pace, being Amish, accepting the disciplines of a simple lifestyle, etc. I'll leave it to others to promote the products Kempf's company sells. I'd like to honor Kempf himself, and applaud the "system" of education that made his success possible. I hope homeschoolers and "simple-schoolers" and the self-taught everywhere feel affirmed for their choices.
News of Kempf's successes have been touted in the mainstream media, in The Atlantic, for example, in October of 2014.
Of greater interest to me is the process by which Kempf became who he is now. To most of the world he is an enigma because of the deep knowledge he has of soils and natural plant processes, having acquired that knowledge with no more than an eighth grade formal education. In the company in which Kempf is listed as the founder and vision builder, sixteen people from a variety of locations and backgrounds work together to connect John Kempf's insights and products with the people who need them. The chairman of the company lives in Manhattan (New York). A number of the people on staff have advanced degrees.
Hiromi heard me yesterday when I was puzzling out loud over the Kempf enigma. I talked long enough to convince myself that the matter wasn't so very mysterious after all. Here's how I see it:
1. Kempf is obviously very intelligent--as are other Amish people I know.
2. Kempf had a good basic education--as is true of many who learn in one or two-room Amish schools.
3. Kempf learned how to learn and learned to take responsibility for his own learning. I know other people like that--a few of whom have survived traditional education systems.
4. Kempf was thoroughly immersed at a young age in the real world of making a living. In his case, the family did produce farming.
5. Kempf is an astute observer. Careful observation in his father's fields, followed by asking questions and looking for answers launched him on the journey that brought him eventually to having extensive influence in far away places.
6. Kempf is a voracious reader. From a catalog he fished out of his uncle's trash bin, he began to order books on plants and soils. From them he acquired the vocabulary of professionals in the field of plant science, and learned details about many of the processes involved in plant growth.
7. In the ultimate test of the value of learning, Kempf began to apply what he learned to growing the crops in his family's fields. Success there prompted queries from others who had the same problems and needed the same successes.
8. In explaining to friends and neighbors what he was learning, Kempf honed his communication skills, making complex concepts accessible to people with little education. In trying to help those who needed it, he tested his ideas further and expanded his frame of reference, establishing a reputation for trustworthiness with each success.
9. Kempf eventually was spending so much time helping others that his father told him he either needs to quit doing it or start charging for it. He started charging for his services. I can't think of a more sure way to know that a business idea is viable than to have great demand for one's services, even when there must be a charge for those services.
10. I know almost nothing of the story of how Kempf's business came to include the cast of characters who are present now. I know that he opted to maintain the simple lifestyle of his Amish people, and suspect that he allowed others who were not Amish to develop and distribute his ideas and products. I hope he is being fairly compensated.
*****************
I can't help evaluating Kempf's route to productivity alongside the traditional academic route. Kempf may still have no idea how many pitfalls he avoided and how many opportunities he maximized by pursuing knowledge along lines of his own choosing, at his own pace.
If he had pursued a course of study in an academic institution, he would almost certainly have been burdened with courses offering information he had no need of, either because he already knew what was being taught, or because it was not relevant to his goal of solving plant problems. At home with his books, he could go back and forth constantly between reading about things and trying them out. That process pushed him into traveling mostly productive paths, rather than wasting time on irrelevant detours.
If his mind was orderly, he could keep track mentally of what worked and what didn't work as he went along, saving himself a great deal of time in creating a paper trail as would have been required in the academic world.
No one hovered over him with withering academic superiority, warning him away from novel ideas. Some of those novel ideas turned out to be groundbreaking and very sound in practice.
He could race along the lines his thought and experience opened up, without waiting until the day a class lecture might touch on the subject he needed to learn about "right now."
He didn't have to wait on a corporate or government body or individual to approve his projects and provide funding. He pursued whatever he chose and found a way to pay for what he needed.
*****************
One of the unique services Kempf's company offers is analysis of plant sap. The testing is performed by a company in The Netherlands. Kempf can make recommendations for correcting nutritional imbalances based on these test results. Usually the remedy is found in adding specific minerals in the right quantity, in a readily bio-available form. Doing this removes barriers that might otherwise inhibit natural processes in the soil and in the plant.
If these natural processes are unhindered, especially at "critical points of influence," a plant has the ability to reach its highest potential. The farmer who sees himself as a "remover of barriers" is almost sure to have a more humble, respectful-of-the-process stance than the farmer who sees himself as a "booster of production" by the methods, tools, and substances he uses.
****************
Last week Lowell, Dad, and Melvin H. N. heard Kempf speak in a meeting in Scott City. He wore a homemade shirt and a hooks-and-eyes vest. I've been listening to him on youtube and reading on his website and blog. Online images of Kempf are scarce, as anyone who knows something of Amish values will understand.
****************
Kempf is the product of an education process that gets almost no favorable press--very limited class time, lots of "down and dirty" work, working for years for his parents without pay. curriculum of the student's choice, learning accomplished at the student's chosen pace, being Amish, accepting the disciplines of a simple lifestyle, etc. I'll leave it to others to promote the products Kempf's company sells. I'd like to honor Kempf himself, and applaud the "system" of education that made his success possible. I hope homeschoolers and "simple-schoolers" and the self-taught everywhere feel affirmed for their choices.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
9:12 PM
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