Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish

I knew nothing about the Amish, but I'm interested in adolescence so I picked up a copy of this book and was very quickly absorbed in this story of the fascinating custom rumspringa - the time when Amish teenagers are expected to go out into the world and spend time among non-Amish people before they decide if they want to be baptised into the church and thereby join the Amish community permanently. Shachtman has his psychological theories right and his extensive interviews with Amish teenagers are very engaging. I highly recommend this book.

Rumspringa by Tom Shachtman is a fascinating and intriguing look into the life of the Amish. Shachtman uses rumspringa as a springboard to delve deeply into the Amish culture and history, as well as their role in society today. Rumspringa is a Pennsylvania Dutch (their language) term loosely translating into runabout, which is what the Amish youth do after their 16th birthdays before they decide whether to join the church. The Amish are Anabaptists, which means that they don't baptize until the decision is made by a mature adult (or youth) who makes the decision on their own to come to the Lord. Anabaptists were persecuted in Germany and Austria by the Catholic church until William Penn invited them in the 17th century to come to Pennsylvania with the promise of religious freedom. The Amish were followers of Jacob Amman. All of this information seems superfluous until you see how their history still affects them today. They believe in separating themselves from the world and not encouraging selfish pride, which is why they dress plainly and don't use most modern conveniences. All of these traditions are thrown aside upon rumspringa when Amish youth can cut their hair, smoke, drink, drive cars, and live outside of their communities to experience the outside world. Rumspringa tells the story of several youth who fight with the families and the desires for the world. A few stay outside in mainstream society, but most, 90%, return to the Amish way of life. It's hard for them to get white collar jobs with only an eighth grade education, and their ties to family are so strong, that they return, often happily, to join the church, marry, and live the life of the plain folk. Shachtman does an excellent job of portraying the pros and cons of the Amish way of life with empathy. The closing essay of the book has some powerful points about the value of the kind of life the Amish live: care for the elderly and sick, strong community and family ties, humility, belief in the importance of the group over the individual

When they turn 16, children who have been raised among the Old Order Amish experience a curious coming-of-age ritual, the rumspringa--or "running around"--a period during which they are given license to experience the conveniences and temptations, previously forbidden them, of mainstream, "English" society. Amish youth in rumspringa can dress like their mainstream contemporaries, and they can drink and smoke and date and party, and some of them engage in such behaviors with dangerous abandon. Some of the rumspringa parties attended by Amish youth differ little from those thrown by non-Amish teenagers: sex and drugs and rock and rap, vomiting and sleeping in, unplanned pregnancies. The Amish, that is--and this is something I would never have dreamt I could say prior to reading this book--are, some of them, too wild for this reviewer. Other Amish youth, perhaps most, are more restrained in their rumspringa explorations, confining their wild behavior to attendance at parent-approved events. The rumspringa period is intended to give the young Amish some experience of mainstream culture so that they can make informed decisions, when the time comes, about whether or not to join the Amish church as adults. The period ends, ideally, when a young adult in rumspringa decides to be baptized into the church, which implies refraining thenceforth from the illicit behaviors they were allowed briefly to experience. Some 80% of Amish youth do, in fact, return to the fold. Tom Shachtman's Rumspringa is the product of more than 400 hours of interviews conducted between 1999 and 2004. Shachtman focuses on the period of rumspringa, but in fact his book serves as an introduction to Amish life as a whole. Each of the author's 11 chapters centers on some aspect of Amish life--education (most Amish aren't educated beyond the 8th grade), farming, punishment by shunning, the role of women in Amish society. Shachtman profiles a great number of individual Amish of varying ages, returning to his subjects' stories throughout the book as anecdotes from their lives become pertinent to his current theme. Shachtman seamlessly integrates direct quotes and information gleaned from the interviews into his narrative. And in fact Shachtman writes very well throughout the book. His prose is clear and admirably precise. Shachtman's book is also fascinating, at least to this reader, who was previously largely unfamiliar with the particulars of Amish culture. I cannot know how a reader raised in the Amish faith would respond to the book, but Shachtman's study seemed to me a very thoughtful and fair-minded exploration of the society. The author finds value in much of what Amish culture has to offer--the Amish work ethic, for example, dependable community support, their care of the elderly and infirm--while finding fault with other aspects, for example, their abbreviated educational system. Shachtman concludes with a chapter considering why so high a percentage of youths in rumspringa eve

People, if you are interested in teh Amish or religion in general or the clash between the religious and secular lifestyles (in my opinion one of the most important issues of the day), this is the book for you. With the custom of rumspringa, the ultra-religious Amish teens run headlong into the trappings of our societya nd Schactman delves into the resulting clash with depth and panache. One of the best non-fiction books I have ever read.

When we think of the Amish we think of conservative Christian people who eschew the trappings of our material world. They live simple lives. They keep to themselves. They work hard. Then there is Rumspringa. This amazing practice allows Amish youth the opportunity if they choose at age 16 to experience the outside world in all it's sinful fullness. About half of the youths choose to explore the forbidden world of partying, drinking, driving, drugging and consumerism. It seems to work. 90% of them choose to join the church at adulthood by being baptized and adhering to the traditions and rules of their faith. As an outsider, an "English" person, I was enchanted by the practice of Rumspringa and this informative book. We can learn a lot from the Amish. We need to simplify our lives and they can show us the way. We don't have to be like them to appreciate the peace and joy they experience every day by keeping away from the profusion of tempting gluttonies this world has to offer. A worthwhile book!