TouristTrap

Your neighbors should have called out CPS!!

TouristTrap

A grammar program that homeschoolers of all shades use (secular, Catholic, Christian, whatever) use is a Mennonite program which is pretty intensive. In fact, most middle schoolers starting on it usually go back a couple of years because it is that good.

paddingtongreen

It's ironic, but you're correct, the people who live the simplest lives are exotic; does that say anything about us?

Sally

Somehow all the more shocking that the modern world intervened in theirs so brutally.

Leslie

It seems like everybody has lost the plot. The point I was making is that we are glamorizing and putting this community up on a pedestal when they are no better or worse than any other human beings. I value ALL human life equally.

As far as my criticisms of the Amish - I stand by everything I've said. I would say the same thing about any extremely religious community.

There are different factions within the Amish community and they live by laws of differing severity. As far as my other comments go - these are my personal opinions and we are all entitled to our own. I do not judge them - I just don't think their lifestyle is that great and woo-hoo fantastic. I defy the people that "defend" (which there is no need to) their lifestyles to convert and actually live the Amish way.

Manc

agreed,

we've moved on as a civilisation.

Leslie

Right, my great-great grandparents had 14 kids so that they'd be assured to have an unlimited supply of free labor for their farm. What would we make of somebody (other than the Amish because the sun shines out of their butts, allegedly) if somebody had 14 kids today and put them all to work at the age of 7 or 8?

anotherlimey

Walmart would probably give you an award

Elvira

I confess my knowledge of the Amish is limited, but from what I do know I have formed a very ambivalent view. On the one hand I admire their simplicity and focus on what - to them - is the centre of their lives, i.e. their faith, on the other hand I cannot see how this way of living is compatible with the 21st century. Surely, they, especially the younger Amish, will experience frequent clashes and conflicts as a result of the stark differences between their lives and the world around them.

paddingtongreen

Surely you jest
This is not the board for a knock down, drag 'em out fight, but I'll bet that for each item of progress, there will be an item of regress, leaving a zero balance, it's just different now.

Leslie

So, how old were your kids when you put them to work for your farm?

Elvira

Once again, it is not clear-cut. We can do so much more now than in the past, both good and bad. There may be a zero balance now, but I worry that in years to come, the balance may become negative. The thought of what this world may be like in 50 years' time scares me. My kids will still be alive then.

anotherlimey

Someone mentioned earlier, Amish teenagers do have the chance to leave at a certain age when they are released from the rules of Amish society, it's called Rumspringa.

I read a long time ago of one kid who went into drug dealing during this period, but still went back to the Amish.

From what I've heard, the "return rate" is quite high.

In fact, there's a movie documentary on it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293088/

ironporer

Having grown up in a farming community (which coincidentally was surrounded by Amish) in NE Indiana, I must say that it certainly is not only the Amish children who work on their parent's farms- most all farm kids know how to drive a tractor by age 10, as well as all other aspects of farming. I'd say most farm kids have begun assisting their parents by age 4-5 with age appropiate chores, progressing to more difficult tasks as their age allows.

paddingtongreen

That's unfair and uncharacteristic, Leslie. I meant that things are different, there have been improvements, but there has also been damage. With medical improvements we can save more lives, but there have been "improvements" in weaponry.
Have we saved more lives, or perhaps, years of productive life, with better medicine than we have lost because of better weapons? I don't know, and that is frightening.

With Elvira, I worry about what the nutters will do with the progress, my daughters are probably going to try for children of their own soon, and I worry for those children.