Amish Life

Podcast #6 in Donald Kraybill’s series “What I Learned From The Amish” covers the idea of “smallness”. Via the show notes: “Professor Kraybill explains why the Amish think bigness ruins things and shows how small-scale life, including small schools, preserve the dignity of individuals.” In the podcast he explains that “smallness” is seen across Amish […]

Continue Reading The Amish & “Smallness” (Podcast)

Some years ago I did posts on Amish children & spanking, as well as discipline in general (including in Amish schools), both of which, not unexpectedly, got a lot of comments. It’s a topic which elicits strong responses and I doubt much has changed since then. In her recent column, Amish Cook Gloria Yoder takes […]

Continue Reading Amish Cook: Raising Well-behaved Children

This is another one of those Amish “novelty” videos that pops up from time to time, like those showing Amish buggy skiing or time-lapse barn-raising. This one is a bit different in that it had a pretty good chance of ending badly. Someone was apparently driving through Lancaster County late at night when a buggy […]

Continue Reading Amish Buggy “Drifting” – Don’t try this at home (Video)

Here’s episode number 5 of Donald Kraybill’s “What I Learned From The Amish” podcast. This week he focuses on “Amish hackers” – Amish who “work around certain church regulations without breaking them”. These workarounds represent a form of progress but still respect church rules. Their hacking “boost[s] efficiency, production, and convenience in certain areas of […]

Continue Reading Amish Hackers (Podcast)

This is a neat video showing volunteers putting together pre-built homes right in the heart of Holmes County, Ohio – Charm, to be precise – but destined for families struck by disaster hours away, in West Virginia and Dayton, Ohio. Amish have traveled to the sites of disasters to help clean up and reconstruct for […]

Continue Reading Amish Disaster Relief…At A Distance

Don Shenk is an award-winning photographer and Lancaster County resident (not to be confused with frequently-seen-here photo contributor Don Burke). Don has been photographing Amish scenes for decades, and has kindly shared some Amish-theme photos which I’d like to pass on to you. He also adds some comments to several of these below (along with […]

Continue Reading Amish Images by Don Shenk (10 Photos & Video)

Do Amish women have freedom in their marriages? Are they dominated by their husbands? What does “head of household” mean? In this new video I take a look at this question, and give an example from my time selling books to the Amish. Runtime: 3:05.

Continue Reading Do Amish men control their wives? (Video)

Donald Kraybill’s new podcast is called “What I Learned from the Amish”. Following up last week’s podcast on community, we have the next in the series, on technology. A snippet from this episode: “For starters, let’s just cancel the big fat myth that the Amish reject modern technology. It’s just not true! What is true, […]

Continue Reading “What I Learned from the Amish with Donald Kraybill”: Technology

In a culture that emphasizes marriage, how do single Amish people fit into the community? I take a brief look at that topic in this new video. Runtime: 3:15.

Continue Reading Unmarried & Amish? (Video)

“This is not a sales pitch for the Amish team, but an invite to tap some of their communal wisdom.” I’m happy to share that Donald Kraybill has a new book coming out soon, called What The Amish Teach Us: Plain Living in a Busy World. It’s a bit different in its approach than his […]

Continue Reading “What I Learned from the Amish with Donald Kraybill”: Community