The Amish Community

I have loved baseball for years, but by the time I was a freshman at Laurel High School, I had precious little experience. The chances of me playing baseball in most high schools were slim, but this was Laurel. America’s favorite pastime was treated there as a vestige of years long forgotten. The athletic director ignored us, the students didn’t support us, and the school funded us just enough to say that they had a baseball program. Tucked away in a forgotten corner of the campus in the gloomy shadows of the tower from which football games were announced, the baseball diamond was the school’s disgrace. The dugouts were dismal cinder block bunkers with peeling paint and a propensity to flood. Grass was scarce where it was supposed to be and

The Amish are people who believe in Christ but have strict rules in their style of living, which is quite different from the modern society today. They live in a city in Philadelphia called Lancaster County, it is a very country style due to the acres of land each house has, the barn houses, and the animals. The uniqueness of their lifestyle to me is how they live in the world where technology is practically taking over every aspect, but they continue to stick to their beliefs and not change anything. To me it’s difficult to comprehend due to the fact that you can’t live like that in a majority of the cities today since technology is widely known. This is part of the reason why they live in their city far away in the middle of Philadelphia and have kept all their traditional ways. Part of the Amish belief is their separation from electricity since electricity is part of the “outside” world. They are not able to watch tv, have any public utility line running to their houses, or operate automobiles. It just blew my mind sitting there listening to how they live and how they follow all these guidelines in their life. For me it was different, but it intrigued me for some odd reason, just the fact that they have family time with no interruption, and dinner time with no distractions. Those two aspects alone bring families much closer and to me all the families in the world have become detached from true family time. Seeing their lifestyle and hearing all the guidelines they follow make me think of life without technology and how it would change our

They generally are very strict culture filled with many customs and traditions. They have their own norms, beliefs, traditions that are different from modern society. Kids living in such restrictive society tend to go more wild when opportunity is given. It is an interesting, compare to “English life” where our parents tend to intervene to our life because there are so many options for young people to go bad whereas, in Amish culture, they let their kids do whatever decision they make to do outside of the world. It is surprising how a culture that is so restrictive has this much freedom and open options for young people. And the fact that, according to the documentary, "over 90%" of Amish youth decide to join the church, returning to their communities and families.” In some ways, the Amish culture open-minded than other conservative

Modern America is a very individualistic culture that, that puts the priorities of the individual person before society as a whole. Amish, on the other hand, are very group oriented. They have their own congregation in which they sustain themselves. Their church helps with finical burdens, and provides assistance to those in need. The group’s need comes before the individual. There is also the conflict of education. America values education very highly, government regulated standards and mandatory participation. The amish do not value formal education as highly. They tend to rely on an elementary or middle school education, with the rest being learned through life experience (Amish, 2015). They learn by working hard in their jobs, and apprenticing the older generations. Family size and obligations also differ between the Amish and American values. Americans usually have relatively small families, with two or three children being the national average. Amish families usually have an upwards of eight children per household (Amish, 2015). This surplus of children provide a labor force for the farm or family business, and ensures that the number of Amish people continues to rise. The Amish population tends to double every twenty-three years (Amish, 2015). These core values help to separate them from the ugliness that lies in modern society, of which they strive to be

The family care for their own and the Amish community gives assistance as needed. Therefore, the way how mainstream American life is driven by technology, I don’t think many Americans will take on the Amish culture.The Amish culture believes in the idea that everything has a reason in life. Their philosophy comes from their deep-rooted Christian faith from the church. They follow the basic tenets of the Christian religion by emphasizing on adult baptism, simplicity, community, separation from popular culture and the division of the church. In 1693, the Amish people formed their own branch of Anabaptism in Switzerland and eastern France under the leadership of their founder Jakob Ammann.All of the Amish communities today are from that group. We already know that within the Amish culture they do everything with hands, but there is some selective technology they do use by permit for agriculture. They use the tractor to help with the farming and time management. For the American society, farmers use computers, cell phones, cars and other technology, but for the Amish, they reject this technology because they believe it will do harm in their

A powerful sense of community and others before self is expressed by the Amish, according to the Encyclopedia of American Religious History.

Amish culture nurtures a subdued self, gentle handshakes, lower voices, slower strides, a life etched with modesty and reserve. As the cornerstone of Amish culture, Gelassenheit collides with the bold, assertive individualism of modern life that seeks and rewards personal achievement, self-fulfillment, and individual recognition at every turn (Igou, B., 2010). The Amish would align with the Collectivistic cultural dimension because they are very community-oriented and close-knit (Hofstede, G., 2011). A few examples of such loyalty to others would be the barn raising which is done by all the men of the community to help one another, church services held by different families in their own homes, and sharing their goods produced from farming

The Amish have a amazing history, with a hard working life, and lots of myths to be debunked, they

All members of the OGMS baseball team are congratulated on their accomplishment, and the coaching staff looks forward to continuing the tradition of OGMS baseball. Along with being a member of the baseball team there are social and academic requirements expected of all players, parents, support personnel, and coaches. Some of these expectations are above minimum academic standards required to be eligible. As a player, parent (guardian), and coaching staff, we agree to fully support the team and school in this endeavor by agreeing to follow the rules below:

The Amish live a more simple, family oriented, and work driven society. They run a society that is far more balanced than today’s crazy tech filled world. The Amish are careful to any new technology whereas the United States embraces change with open arms without looking at the repercussions of doing such. The Amish are very inclusive and very open to people outside of their group.

The Amish were taught to live simple lives for many reasons. They were a persecuted religious group which forced them to meet and have church services in the basements of their homes and other secret places such as caves. When they came to America they wanted

Two important but different conceptions of society are gemeinschafts and gesellschafts. An example of a gemeinschaft would be the amish. In order for a part of society to be placed under this category, it must incorporate a community, or a group of people, that have strong personal relationships with one another as well as social ties with the entire community. Located primarily in Pennsylvania and other northern states the amish fit the definition of gemeinschaft based off the their unique type of lifestyle. The amish separate themselves from modern society as they pursue a more traditional way of life. Based around their religion, the amish consist of large families that primarily stay locally with their family. Other than their religion,

The Amish are a small group of people that live in a secluded area of the eastern United States of America. The cultural group known as the Amish has constituted themselves as a unique entity in America's diverse landscape. Amish life is centered on religion, agriculture, and the family. For most people who live outside of the Amish culture, this group seems out of touch with the present time; a culture of another era. This belief is primarily attributable to the Amish belief in simplicity and their rejection of modern technologies (The Amish 2011). One of the most important aspects of Amish life and livelihood is agriculture; the Amish focus much of their life on the growth and harvest of food and other crops. The various factors that affect the culture are based upon agriculture; including the Amish beliefs and values, economic organization, gender relations, kinship, political organization, sickness, social change, and social organization.

The Amish live a different life style than we do. A lot of people misunderstand the way they live their life in rural communities. They think that the Amish live an old fashioned life and fear the real world. All they want to do is help their community every way they can. Each fellowship is broken down into districts where they live independently by rules their community agrees on. The rules consist of clothing requirements, color of buggies, household items, etc. There are around 200,000 members of the Amish in which come from more than 20 states. In fact, the Amish community has been growing. Every 20 years the population doubles.

Based on this definition it is interesting to note that the Old Order Amish Mennoite community satisfies the requirements of place, interests and communion. Aside from being a perfect example of a community the Amish people exemplify what it means to be a part of a community that it is their source of identity, strength, and sustainability. Each individual exists for the community but as a whole the community nurtures each member and therefore it is unthinkable for an Amish man or woman to leave their community behind. On the other hand many Americans feel they must “get involved.” In public life as well as in private, we can discern the habits that sustain individualism and commitment as well as what makes them problematic. (Bellah, p.74)