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"The Amish stance on corporal punishment of children is well-known" I live in the Amish community referenced in this article and I have never seen nor heard of
by jhonovich 11y ago
"The Amish stance on corporal punishment of children is well-known"
I live in the Amish community referenced in this article and I have never seen nor heard of any corporal punishment nor child abuse. Indeed, I have never heard any Amish person even yell, scold or argue with anyone. Because of that, I am pretty sure such issues are rare in this area.
"People like to think that Amish teenagers have a choice about leaving the community, but what choice do they have when their prospects in modern life are so limited by their lack of education?"
Most Americans, Amish or not, do not become software developers, bankers, accountants, etc. Lots of Amish leave. For example, two doors down from my house there is an elderly Amish couple. All of their children are non-Amish but still support, visit, help, interact with their parents. Not surprisingly, most ex-Amish do not pursue fields requiring advanced education but tend to do very well in more blue core businesses where their work ethic, integrity and significant youth experience working at home can be turned into a solid career.
- icebraining 11y agoI live in the Amish community referenced in this article and I have never seen nor heard of any corporal punishment nor child abuse. Indeed, I have never heard any Amish person even yell, scold or argue with anyone. Because of that, I am pretty sure such issues are rare in this area. Are you part of the community, or just live in the area? Because if the latter, it's hardly surprising; socially conservative people rarely handle their family matters in public.
- jhonovich 11y agoOur neighbors are Amish and Mennonite. We know and interact with many of them including people who left being Amish. And even the ones who left and have issues with the Amish, I have never heard or seen any incidents of child abuse. Do you have some evidence of systematic Amish child abuse beyond your stereotype of "socially conservative people rarely handle their family matters in public"? Child abuse exists in the world, among tech founders, politicians, Amish, atheists, etc. I am simply saying, based on direct interaction and knowledge that it is most certainly uncommon in Lancaster Amish.
- icebraining 11y agoThe person you originally replied to did cite some evidence of Amish child abuse beyond the stereotype.
- jhonovich 11y agoThe evidence provided was - an anecdote from a "very rural part of Ohio" where the Amish "lived in grinding poverty". I have no experience with Ohio Amish so I cannot comment but what they describe is nothing like Lancaster Amish (the article referenced here and my comments on). - an entry from Amish America talks about spankings, which is a practice statistics show most American parents do https://www.google.com/search?q=percentage+americans+spank+child&oq=percentage+americans+spank+child https://www.google.com/search?q=percentage+americans+spank+c... From what I have seen of the Amish, I think it is significantly less than the average American. If you think it is child abuse to not let your children go to high school or to deprive them of the 'real' world, that is a different story.