Horse-and-buggy Amish now number over 200,000, with communities in 25 states plus Ontario. As the Amish continue their high rate of growth–doubling about once every 20 years–traffic safety will become an even greater issue. The Amish generally try to make themselves visible on the road–by installing orange signs, reflectors, as well as electrically-powered lights and blinker systems on their carriages. Some of this can get…
Members of Amish and other Plain groups rallied today to show support for midwife Diane Goslin, reports Lancaster Online (no longer online). The Amish, though generally choosing to avoid public attention, have had to take stances on things important to them in the past–issues such as schooling, military exemption, and Social Security. Since many Amish women have midwife-assisted home births, the issue is seen as…
Another midwife case is in the news. Many Amish women prefer bearing their children at home or in specially-constructed birthing centers. Reasons include the comfort of being in familiar surroundings as opposed to the foreign environment of the hospital, as well as cost. It’s usually a lot cheaper to have a child at home than in a hospital. The Amish have 6-8 children on average,…
Cows have to be milked twice a day. This inconvenient fact is just part of life for the typical Amish dairy farmer. Milking is usually done at 12-hour intervals. Popular times are at around 4 or 5 in the morning and the same hours in the afternoon. It takes an hour or two, depending on the number of cows and hands. Because of the early…
Work is well underway on a new Amish schoolhouse to replace the one demolished after the Nickel Mines shootings. As with most things Amish it has been a group effort, with many from the community pitching in. The school should be ready for classes by March. Thoughts and prayers for the community as they heal.
“The only treasure we can take with us to heaven is our children.” This came from a mother of five in Holmes county, Ohio, but it could have been just about any Amish parent. For the Amish, children are a blessing, not a burden.  Large Amish families are common. America has gone from being an agrarian to an industrial and now a post-industrial nation. We…
The Amish, according to Julia Erickson of Temple University, are among the fastest-growing communities in the world. Â Amish average seven children per family. Must be something in the water.
Richard Easterlin, USC economics professor, writes in his “Building a Better Theory of Well-Being”: (deep breath) ‘…adaptation and social comparison affect utility more in pecuniary than nonpecuniary domains. The failure of individuals to anticipate that these influences disproportionately undermine utility in the pecuniary domain leads to an excessive allocation of time to pecuniary goals at the expense of nonpecuniary goals, such as family life and…
Most Amish look alike to the man on the street. In reality the group is surprisingly diverse. Though tied by a set of core beliefs, the Amish have no national governing body, no pope nor patriarch. The individual congregation, guided by its bishop, decides its own rules and customs. This decentralized approach, along with a widely varying tolerance for progressive ideas, creates many different ‘flavors’…