In the previous two posts, SUNY Potsdam Professor Karen Johnson-Weiner answered questions on the Swartzentruber Amish and Amish settlements in New York state. Today she shares her knowledge of Old Order schools. Amish America: Your book Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools examines parochial schooling among these related groups. In a recent interview for NPR you highlight the diversity within Amish…
“It is very definitely a gray area, in fact it is nearly black.” An anonymous Amish friend from Lancaster County has offered candid answers to some questions on Amish life. In this first of two parts, he comments on topics such as the Amish presence in the media, Amish internet usage, friendships with non-Amish people, and the benefits and challenges of living life as an…
The Amish-produced periodical Family Life has a feature known as ‘The Problem Corner’. Readers send in questions for other readers to offer answers on. One problem, sent in by an Amish mother in 1990, goes as follows: “…We send our children to a public school, and I venture to guess 98% of the Amish children that attend there have their yearly picture taken. We know…
Though I can’t say that all the info it contains is factually correct, just read an entertaining article on the potential for Amish voting in the 2008 election from the Daily Beast. Some may recall that George Bush made efforts to attract Amish voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2004. The writer in this piece is asking if McCain shouldn’t be making the same efforts this…
Today is the first day of school for the Lancaster County Amish kids. Despite the rise of small-enterprise in the settlement, the Lancaster County Amish are still highly ag-oriented and the school schedule reflects that. Today commences a week of half-days for all children. Next week will be full-schedule for everyone except the seventh and eighth graders, who will remain on the half-day schedule til…
photo: Stanisław Ciok Flipping through a recent issue of the Polish news magazine ‘Polityka’, I had a chance to read an article about the Roma people, perhaps better known Stateside by the more colloquial ‘Gypsies’. Entitled ‘Romofobia’, the piece describes the challenging situation of the 8 million-strong Roma minority living within Europe. Poland, where I live for a good chunk of the year, has a…
Amish school gets the job done. At the same time, the kids have a blast. After hearing about some of the stuff they get to do, I think I’m ready to re-enroll in fifth grade. On Friday Daniel and Mary’s kids had a spelling quiz (not fun), and made gingerbread houses (fun and tasty). An excited Lizzie described an unfortunate scooter collision on the way…
I quite liked this story on a Sugarcreek, Ohio man who was raised Amish and is now planning to attend medical school at Ohio State (no longer online). Obviously, it’s not typical for someone who only went through eight grades to have such high educational goals. In fact, Andy Yoder completed his GED and is now finishing his final semester at Goshen College in Indiana….
One of my favorite pieces on the Amish is a Donald Kraybill examination of the four main affiliations of Holmes County, Ohio. This work does a great job of describing the cultural variety found within the Amish world. Reading it one is reminded of the difficulty of making broad generalizations about Amish society. The Amish in Holmes County follow a conservative-to-progressive arc that starts with…
Driving the backroads of Amish America you find yourself passing the horse-and-buggy in miniature, with little Amish pilots egging on their diminutive yet sturdy ponies, whipping across front yards or up the shoulder and down to the neighbor’s, perhaps to collect a missing ingredient for the casserole mom is working on back at home. Photo: Randall Persing The pony cart serves a useful function in…