I just finished...
I literally just finished a fascinating book called "Rumspringa, To be or Not to Be Amish". Truly fascinating. It is a follow-up tome to the documentary "Devil's Playground", by Tom Schactman. In essence, it studies the period in Amish Adolescent growth and discovery, where they are released from being children (at 16) and before they accept the baptism of the Anabaptist Amish Faith.
I went into this book with some preconceived notions about the Amish religious lifestyle, based in part by my visits to one of their enclaves in Shipshewana, Indiana, and based in part by my study of their life for a paper that I wrote my Freshman year in college. These preconceived notions, as they often are, were wrong (although the study that I did for the paper did give me some understanding of their beliefs, etc.).
The book provides an interesting dissertation on how Amish Youth are faced with many Amish and "English" challenges during their Rumspringa ("Running Around Period"). This Rumspringa period is looked upon by the Amish Community as a period in which the teens can investigate and explore the "outside world" and literally get it out of their system, before becoming full members of the church with all of its requisite tenets.
From the usual "what do I want to be when I grow up" challenges that all adolescents face, to facing challenges with Drugs, Alcohol, and peer pressures from both sides of the English and Amish aisle, these kids really put themselves and the reader through the wringer. (DUI in an amish buggy?! It can and does happen!). Having been sheltered their entire lives and bound, as children, by the restrictions of their religion, this sudden and overwhelming freedom that they face, along with the sudden and overwhelming intrusion of choices in live (choices that our children are better prepared to deal with as we "English" bombard them with these types of choices and dilemmas from very early on - "milk or juice", "Elmo or Boobahs", "don't do drugs", "Spanish or German"...) creates a sense of "Wow..I have been missing out on Life"...but also creates a sense of "what have I gotten myself into". During this Rumspringa period, Old Order Amish parents, neighbors, ministers and bishops, tend to "look the other way" when the teens act in behaviors that aren't acceptable to the Amish Norm. Again, assuming that the exposure and "getting it out of their system" will allow the free choice of baptism in the faith. (Baptism doesn't occur until it can be made freely of one's own choice). While some Amish sects denounce the Rumspringa period (Beachy Amish for one) as being counter to the biblical precepts of the religion as well as the rules of the order (Ordnung), this period seems to work well for the Old Order Amish, as they face an 80-90% retention rate, and in some church districts, even higher. Pretty incredible, when you realize that these kids are given total freedom (cell phones, cars, drug/alcohol parties where the police generally look the other way, free reign to have the mixing of the sexes including allowing boys to "sleep over", etc.) and choose to relinquish this freedom and become baptized in the faith.
This book is, by no means exploitive, and in fact, many of the Old Order Amish in Lancaster County, as well as in Lagrange/Steuben/Elkhart Counties (Indiana) and Southern Ohio, spoke freely to the Author and his crew. It is simply an account of the communities, and how they deal with Teenagers during this period. This period ends in one of three ways for each Amish adolescent 1. Accepting the baptism, and going on to lead a productive Amish life, 2. Choosing to leave the faith (but not facing shunning, as they haven't fully accepted the religion, so therefore are not subject to the bann/shun), or 3. Choosing to accept the baptisms, then denouncing it and facing the bann/shunning process where they lose accepted contact with the only support system they have ever known.
"Book Report" aside, I have to tell you that as a Mother of a teenager (who will most likely, during his period at Military School, encounter several Amish Youth in their Rumspringa Period..since many that the author detailed were in the surrounding area in which his military school resides!) there is much that I learned from this book, given its more factual (rather than explosive) slant. Further, there is much that I learned about the Amish Culture that I hope to take away and use in my own life...for example:
I went into this book with some preconceived notions about the Amish religious lifestyle, based in part by my visits to one of their enclaves in Shipshewana, Indiana, and based in part by my study of their life for a paper that I wrote my Freshman year in college. These preconceived notions, as they often are, were wrong (although the study that I did for the paper did give me some understanding of their beliefs, etc.).
The book provides an interesting dissertation on how Amish Youth are faced with many Amish and "English" challenges during their Rumspringa ("Running Around Period"). This Rumspringa period is looked upon by the Amish Community as a period in which the teens can investigate and explore the "outside world" and literally get it out of their system, before becoming full members of the church with all of its requisite tenets.
From the usual "what do I want to be when I grow up" challenges that all adolescents face, to facing challenges with Drugs, Alcohol, and peer pressures from both sides of the English and Amish aisle, these kids really put themselves and the reader through the wringer. (DUI in an amish buggy?! It can and does happen!). Having been sheltered their entire lives and bound, as children, by the restrictions of their religion, this sudden and overwhelming freedom that they face, along with the sudden and overwhelming intrusion of choices in live (choices that our children are better prepared to deal with as we "English" bombard them with these types of choices and dilemmas from very early on - "milk or juice", "Elmo or Boobahs", "don't do drugs", "Spanish or German"...) creates a sense of "Wow..I have been missing out on Life"...but also creates a sense of "what have I gotten myself into". During this Rumspringa period, Old Order Amish parents, neighbors, ministers and bishops, tend to "look the other way" when the teens act in behaviors that aren't acceptable to the Amish Norm. Again, assuming that the exposure and "getting it out of their system" will allow the free choice of baptism in the faith. (Baptism doesn't occur until it can be made freely of one's own choice). While some Amish sects denounce the Rumspringa period (Beachy Amish for one) as being counter to the biblical precepts of the religion as well as the rules of the order (Ordnung), this period seems to work well for the Old Order Amish, as they face an 80-90% retention rate, and in some church districts, even higher. Pretty incredible, when you realize that these kids are given total freedom (cell phones, cars, drug/alcohol parties where the police generally look the other way, free reign to have the mixing of the sexes including allowing boys to "sleep over", etc.) and choose to relinquish this freedom and become baptized in the faith.
This book is, by no means exploitive, and in fact, many of the Old Order Amish in Lancaster County, as well as in Lagrange/Steuben/Elkhart Counties (Indiana) and Southern Ohio, spoke freely to the Author and his crew. It is simply an account of the communities, and how they deal with Teenagers during this period. This period ends in one of three ways for each Amish adolescent 1. Accepting the baptism, and going on to lead a productive Amish life, 2. Choosing to leave the faith (but not facing shunning, as they haven't fully accepted the religion, so therefore are not subject to the bann/shun), or 3. Choosing to accept the baptisms, then denouncing it and facing the bann/shunning process where they lose accepted contact with the only support system they have ever known.
"Book Report" aside, I have to tell you that as a Mother of a teenager (who will most likely, during his period at Military School, encounter several Amish Youth in their Rumspringa Period..since many that the author detailed were in the surrounding area in which his military school resides!) there is much that I learned from this book, given its more factual (rather than explosive) slant. Further, there is much that I learned about the Amish Culture that I hope to take away and use in my own life...for example:
- Many Amish teens choose to end their Rumspringa as they realize that the pressures of the "English" world are overwhelming and insurmountable for them. They choose the faith for the simplicity (and specifically detail the end of car payments, the end of insurance costs, the end of having to bow to fashion pressures, utility bills, and other things that "eat their money" with little to no value). Simplicity without bills, and turning their backs on keeping up with the Joneses.... Some would argue that the Amish way of life negates the "joneses"..and they are right (in dress, buggies, etc.), but all who have been through rumspringa (from 18-80) have said that the removal of this pressure brought peace. Interesting. Keeping your faith and values, and ignoring those who "seem" to have more.
- Amish families and church districts are a strong force to be reckoned with. Would that our children have a support network that is accepting of them (not judgmental), and that outlines acceptable behaviors and life paths, rather than the many shades of grey that are available to my children. Amish families aren't devoid of the "feelings" side of things, they are simply structured so that the children do not wish to risk disappointment to the parents, so therefore ensure their actions appropriately to bring true honor to the family; both internal and church district-wide. Further, kids don't want their actions to place either themselves or their parents (who are responsible for bringing the child up correctly) in the societal bann/shunn...so structure their actions appropriately.
- Because of work ethic, Amish workers (farm or factory) are the employees of choice, without question. - The Amish are constitutionally unable to "take time for me"...and as such are the employees of choice. They punch a clock in a factory, and give every moment of their work time to their employer. Ingrained in them is the ethic that no one gives you anything, ever, without you having earned it. Therefore, when on the clock (and some of these workers are 14), there are no unscheduled coffee breaks, no unscheduled potty breaks, no "I need Columbus day off", no "I want to turn this into a 4 day weekend", no "I don't feel good and am going home" etc.. They often don't take vacations, because that is accepting pay for work that they didn't do. Wow. If my employer gives me a dollar, I must in return give him a dollars worth of work. What a difference from the 1.5 hour lunches I often see occuring in my office. ("I work hard, I am entitled).
These are just three of the items I have picked up on and am trying to determine how to implement in my life. They are great values...and important (I will detail several more over the course of the next week, as I re-review). Perhaps it is because I am "examining my life" as I approach 40 (which is WHOLLY a mainstream idea), or perhaps this book affected me profoundly...that remains to be seen. But...as the author said in his closing
"The challenge for the mainstream is how to move toward the Amish. The Amish sit lightly upon the earth and upon American society in ways that we could readily adopt: their reverence for life, for the land, for neighborliness, for family matters, for hard work, for caring for the elderly and the infirm, and their judicious disdain for conspicuous consumption, and for not stopping to smell the roses. We in the mainstream need to find ways to incorporate these behaviors and attitudes into the goals and actions of the larger society, to help us raise our culture to higher standards of appreciation of what we have and of the pursuit of purposes larger than our appetites"
And I say..Amen.
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