The Amish

The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons.

Today, the most traditional descendants of the Amish continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch. The Amish believe that having a lot of children are blessing from god. So the Amish have large families A person is more of a member of the family, rather than an individual. Each member has a job, a position, a responsibility, and a status. Chores within the home are normally divided by gender. The Amish traditional family provides much of the education for the child. Although the formal education ends after they finish eighth grade, the boy or girl is trained for their adult tasks, such as farming and tending the house.

To a large extent, there are many advantages to Amish life, the lives of the Amish will be more carefree than modern life and they are environmentally friendly. However, to a certain extent, there are disadvantages to Amish life because Amish life is not sustainable.

Amish life is good as their lives are more carefree than modern life. They do not have to worry about many things that we worry about such as stock prices. It makes them more happy. They also do not pollute the environment as they do not use cars. Instead, they use horse carts.

Of course there are disadvantages to Amish life. Many young Amish children are leaving the older generation because they want to live in the modern world too. Thus, the older generation will be left alone. Soon, there will be no more Amish people left. So the Amish life is hard to sustain.

In my opinion, I feel that Amish life is okay, but I definitely not be able to adapt if I were to become an Amish. This is probably because I am very used to technology all around me and I will probably not be able to leave my favourite stuff behind (eg. computer). Thus I would probably not want to become one of the Amish people.