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An Amish tradition called Rumspringa is highlighted in this video below. Intriguing to say the least. I’ve researched a lot about this in years past and have taught about it in college youth culture courses.
At 16 years old the kids go out and do whatever they want, they experience whatever they desire, and this is encouraged by the parents. There are some convictions behind this, of course. The idea behind this is they let the kids “run around” for a while and then at some point ask the kids if they want to join the Amish church. The hope is that once they’ve tasted the emptiness of that world, they’ll realize the beauty of being distant from it. They’ve experienced the “English world” now, so they need to decide.
Interestingly, 85-90% decide to commit to the church and negate the pleasures of the “other world.”
This is fascinating. I’m not saying I totally agree – or disagree – but I’m intrigued.
I guess my question is: is it fair to compare this to the first year of moving away to college? Now, I’m obviously not saying it’s apple’s to apple’s. In fact one might be a fruit and the other a vegetable. But I’m wondering in what ways it does or could compare. Any thoughts?
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Interestingly, I was just talking with someone recently about freshman from my particular denomination who seem to do the Rumspringa thing; they seem to just want to experience what life is like outside the church and/or to take a break from it all for awhile. The difference is that most do not come back, unlike the Amish. It seems to me the reason for this is that, whereas the Amish youth see that their community is essential to their lives, our college-age people find out that the church was really not all that important to their lives to start with – they can live without it. So, it seems to me that being intentional about mentoring youth and including them in the fabric of the church early on is necessary to keeping them in the young adult years.