polymathwannabe comments on Open thread, Sep. 28 - Oct. 4, 2015 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MrMind 28 September 2015 07:13AM

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Comment author: polymathwannabe 29 September 2015 12:58:40AM -1 points [-]

From Wikipedia:

... average of seven children per family.

Amish rules allow marrying only between members of the Amish Church.

They typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education at grade eight, at age 13/14.

Almost no Amish go to high school and college.

the educational authorities allow the Amish to educate their children in their own ways.

Desertion from the Amish community is not a long-term trend, and was more of a problem in the early colonial years.

Rumspringa notwithstanding, the Amish way of life has several built-in features that repel modern influences without needing physical fences to do so.

Comment author: Lumifer 29 September 2015 01:30:32AM 4 points [-]

the Amish way of life has several built-in features that repel modern influences

Well, of course. That's how a culture survives without being melted down in a pot. In a certain sense, that's what makes it "conservative".