Amish Teens

The horrific shootings in the Amish school last week once again have brought the pious, deeply private Anabaptist community into the national spotlight. One little known aspect of Amish life is the unusual way they handle the troublesome teenage years. This Morning Edition piece (5/30/2002 - 8:42) discusses Rumspringa, the unusual Amish practice of of encouraging their teenagers to experiences the ways of the world, to sow their wild oats, so to speak. The report coincided with the release of a documentary entitled, The Devil's Playground. This past June, Tom Shachtman published a book on the topic, Rumspringa: To Be or Not To Be Amish (Talk of the Nation).

Musings

• What are you thoughts on rumspringa? How does it compare to your sense of the "normal" way we deal with teens, how you were dealt with when you were sixteen?
  
• There seems to be some parallels between rumspringa and the New Testament Parable of the Prodigal Son.

We will be publishing 3 new topics this week:
on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.