Amish Education and Schooling

Some time ago I was asked about the famous photo of Amish schoolchildren running away from officials in Iowa.  You can see the photo below, taken during an incident in 1965.  It was a turbulent time for Amish which ended with the 1972 Wisconsin v. Yoder Supreme Court decision enabling Amish schooling as we know it […]

Continue Reading Wisconsin v. Yoder & The Fleeing Amish Children Photo

The six-year-old son of Amish friends just started attending school a little over a month ago.  I’ve known them since he was in a cradle, and have watched him grow up incrementally (seeing them roughly every six months for the past five+ years). When I last saw them I remarked that this would probably be […]

Continue Reading The Connection: School Days

We have a guest post today from Emma Miller.  Though most people raised Amish end up joining an Amish church, a certain percentage for one reason or another do not.  Here’s Emma writing about a new organization she’s started for former Amish: I grew up Amish in a small town in Missouri, the 6th child […]

Continue Reading Emma Miller on the Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund

Continuing our look at relics of the past, the one-room schoolhouse. I think the country schoolhouse definitely fits the category of cultural items that have come and gone in North America (but for a few pockets here and there).  The Amish are probably the most obvious example of a group maintaining the small rural school […]

Continue Reading Old schoolhouses

News from yet another Kentucky Amish SMV case: defendants will have a PA Dutch interpreter (story no longer online) following difficulties understanding court proceedings. In this latest case (the third this year in KY, in Logan County), four Amish, including one woman, have been cited for not displaying the orange triangle. Even though Amish speak English […]

Continue Reading Interpreting for Amish in court

We got a lot of interesting guesses on the Allen County mystery shack.  Everything from a portable toilet to a shepherd shelter to an Amish buggy camper. Now, I will preface this by saying that being Sunday, I did not have a chance to confirm.  But I’m pretty sure this: has to do with this: […]

Continue Reading Mystery shack explained?

A little while back I gave an interview for a newspaper column on Amish frugality. One example which I think captures the mindset (and which I wish I’d shared) was what happens at Amish schools in the summer time.  What happens?  Well, this: All that green stuff you see, that’s normally the schoolyard 8-9 months […]

Continue Reading What happens at Amish schools in the summer…

I just read an article by Donald Kraybill which examines Amish and obedience (http://goo.gl/Sb7e7).  In the piece, Kraybill explains why Amish use physical punishment to discipline children, citing an Amish mother named Hannah: Hannah explained that, when children are about two years old, their wills need to be broken. If it’s not done at that stage, […]

Continue Reading Amish children and spanking

Wisconsin is North America’s #4 Amish state, after the “big three” of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio. Amish first began settling in Wisconsin in the early 20th century. America’s “Dairy State” has been a popular destination for Amish–today, there are nearly 4 dozen Amish communities in Wisconsin. Amish in Wisconsin facts: The largest Wisconsin Amish settlement […]

Continue Reading Amish in Wisconsin

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Nickel Mines Amish school shootings.  I’d like to share two items with you. The recently-released paperback version of Amish Grace features a Q-and-A with Charles Roberts’ mother Terri, whom Donald Kraybill interviewed earlier this year. In it, she discusses her feelings on learning of the shooting, the Amish […]

Continue Reading Healing on both sides of the Nickel Mines tragedy, four years on