Rumspringa Essay
In the amish culture, primarily from eastern United states, it is customary for children growing older to be given the choice to partake in a coming of age period known as Rumspringa. This period is given to enable the teens to make a choice to stay amish or not. For those who chose to partake it usually involves the younger amish females being picked up by slightly older males and driven to a big party. They usually go from party to party the entire weekend, drinking lots of alcohol and some engage in sexual activities and drugs. However the way this tradition is presented to the teenagers today practically ensures their decisions to partake in these actions not accepted in their society. Instead of concealing these tempting activities of
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the outside world, the young adults should be able to observe and possibly partake in some of these activities earlier on in life to teach them responsibility of making their own choices.
Weaning the young amish into these choices made regularly by teens out in the world would teach them the responsibility of making these life decisions.
During Rumspringa, the amish kids are presented with more freedom than they have ever had in their lifetime and because this freedom is simply switched on, the amish who choose to partake abuse these freedoms. In the passage from Tom Shachtman’s Rumspringa, he tells about young amish girls being picked up and taken to these crazy parties where drugs and alcohol are easily available and accepted. However, he also tells of growing up amish and how the children aren’t permitted to do a lot of “running around”. This is partially the issue with rumspringa today. The children aren’t allowed to make many choices growing up or do many things on their own so when they are given their first taste of freedom they use it as a chance to do everything they've never been able to do. Incidentally, the other side of this argument again comes back to the parents. Dennis L, an amish grandfather in shipshewana says “What we give them is a little space so they can be with people their own age and find a partner”. The amish society thinks of rumspringa as a “safe activity” for their children to partake in in order to find a suitable partner for their
ami sh lifestyle. This misconceptions leads to the parents to and elders in the community to have a false sense of their children's amish beliefs. If Children were weaned into these decisions and activities, not only would it allow the parents to know exactly where their child is in their beliefs and ability to make these decisions. It would teach these kids how to make important decisions regarding drugs and alcohol and sexual activities. Then when they are of age for rumspringa, the teens would use the tradition for what it is intended. To spend time with people your age and find a suitable marriage partner.
How can amish learn responsibility if they're out doing drugs and drinking alcohol? If the amish kids are given freedom earlier on won't they abuse it then just as if it were given to them at 16? No, because they wouldn't be given the opportunities of complete rumspringa until they were of age for the tradition. If they are weaned into this lifestyle of responsibility for themselves they would already know what will happen when they do those things. However one thought on this topic , if he teens go out and drink and become addicted to drugs and possibly get pregnant they will return to their amish community seeking societal acceptance and refuge from those activities. Either way this tradition would fill its purpose of letting the amish youth find their way in life and make their choice to come back to the amish community. The success of amish youth in this tradition would greatly increase if it wasn’t switched on instead being slowly added to their plate when they can handle those responsibilities.
the outside world, the young adults should be able to observe and possibly partake in some of these activities earlier on in life to teach them responsibility of making their own choices.
Weaning the young amish into these choices made regularly by teens out in the world would teach them the responsibility of making these life decisions.
During Rumspringa, the amish kids are presented with more freedom than they have ever had in their lifetime and because this freedom is simply switched on, the amish who choose to partake abuse these freedoms. In the passage from Tom Shachtman’s Rumspringa, he tells about young amish girls being picked up and taken to these crazy parties where drugs and alcohol are easily available and accepted. However, he also tells of growing up amish and how the children aren’t permitted to do a lot of “running around”. This is partially the issue with rumspringa today. The children aren’t allowed to make many choices growing up or do many things on their own so when they are given their first taste of freedom they use it as a chance to do everything they've never been able to do. Incidentally, the other side of this argument again comes back to the parents. Dennis L, an amish grandfather in shipshewana says “What we give them is a little space so they can be with people their own age and find a partner”. The amish society thinks of rumspringa as a “safe activity” for their children to partake in in order to find a suitable partner for their
ami sh lifestyle. This misconceptions leads to the parents to and elders in the community to have a false sense of their children's amish beliefs. If Children were weaned into these decisions and activities, not only would it allow the parents to know exactly where their child is in their beliefs and ability to make these decisions. It would teach these kids how to make important decisions regarding drugs and alcohol and sexual activities. Then when they are of age for rumspringa, the teens would use the tradition for what it is intended. To spend time with people your age and find a suitable marriage partner.
How can amish learn responsibility if they're out doing drugs and drinking alcohol? If the amish kids are given freedom earlier on won't they abuse it then just as if it were given to them at 16? No, because they wouldn't be given the opportunities of complete rumspringa until they were of age for the tradition. If they are weaned into this lifestyle of responsibility for themselves they would already know what will happen when they do those things. However one thought on this topic , if he teens go out and drink and become addicted to drugs and possibly get pregnant they will return to their amish community seeking societal acceptance and refuge from those activities. Either way this tradition would fill its purpose of letting the amish youth find their way in life and make their choice to come back to the amish community. The success of amish youth in this tradition would greatly increase if it wasn’t switched on instead being slowly added to their plate when they can handle those responsibilities.