Saturday Blogroll: Amish and Autism, Inside a School, and Homemade Bread

SCHOOLS: I ran across this neat photo of the inside of an Amish school house posted on Granny Miller's blog.  I've been inside several Amish schools over the years.  Each one is distinctive in its own way, with its own quirks and characteristics.  The school-room in Granny Miller's blog is smaller than many I've been to, no partitioning of grades I suppose. But otherwise this looks pretty standard: the stove in the back, the desks, your basic school.  I do love the crisp, clean blue tint of the room.  Would love to know where the school is.  Just for comparison's sake, this is the inside of Teacher Mahlon's school.  Seems like the one posted on Granny Miller's blog has a lot less "stuff".  Any other differences you can spot?

AUTISM AND THE AMISH:  Some people who are against vaccines have latched onto the idea that the Amish don't vaccinate their children and that the Amish don't suffer from autism as much.  The problem with that theory is that the Amish do generally vaccinate their children.  Or at least it's a mixed bag, there's no widespread movement among the Amish that I've ever seen rejecting vaccinations.  I'm sure some Amish don't, but plenty do.  If the prevalence of autism is less among the Amish I'd be more apt to study environmental factors that might be at play or the role of genetics.  Here's an interesting piece on the topic.

HOMEMADE BREAD:  This is a staple among Amish cooks.  If nothing else is available, there's almost always enough flour and yeast around to make some homemade bread.  And that, in turn, can be used to make bread pudding, bread soup, coffee coup, cheese sandwiches, all the basics. A bread blogger recently featured a recipe for Amish bread on her blog.  There are many variations of homemade white bread among the Amish.  The recipe she presents is a very basic recipe, but interesting.  Click here to see.  You can compare the recipe to the Amish Cook's here.