Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Amish Say Anything

My English teacher opened up class today by asking us what comes to mind when we think about Amish people. Me being me, I just kept quiet. Other people of course listed off a mass variety of stereotypes, most of which were true, but it still kind of made my brain hurt. It was easy to tell they found it something more to make fun of than anything. After they finished with their list, the teacher then asked what comes to mind when we think of "Amish teenagers." The first thing that came to my mind was "oxymoron," because when you apply what you know of Amish people and what you know of teenagers ... they really do not fit together. After that, she said we were going to watch a sort of documentary movie about the lives of Amish teenagers. The movie is call Devil's Playground. (Catchy, no?) It looks into the point in Amish teenagers' lives, starting at the age of 16, when they enter a stage called rumspringa. During this time they are allowed to go outside the Amish community into the "english" world. Since it is a strong part of the Amish beliefs that only adults are able to choose whether or not to be baptized to the Church, they are giving the children a chance to decide what kind of life they want for them. Honestly, everything I saw made me really sad. Nonstop partying, excessive drinking, smoking (cigarettes, crank, dope, etc.), drug dealing ... it was all there. Someone commented after the video that the children in the video reminded them of what they think of high school dropouts. And really he had some foundation to that since Amish children stop being schooled after what would be 8th grade and go straight into working full-time. I just could not help but think that it must be incredibly difficult for the parents to have to deal with. Obviously they believe what they are doing is the right thing, but there was a sign in the video outside a church that made me question the adults' decision to start this rumspringa. The sign said, "The path to Hell is paved with good intentions." So even though the Amish faith believes allowing their children to go out into the "english" world is supporting their beliefs and is generally a good idea, all they are really doing is putting their youth straight into the sort of uninhibited lifestyle they open themselves to. Is it really that good of an idea? I honestly think it is, but I also think that if they are going to do that, they should educate their children more. Putting an unexperienced teenager with a lower-classmen high school mentality into the "english" culture is just asking for disaster. They will give into every sort of temptation, and succumb to every kind of peer pressure they come across. And it is only because they have been away from it all their lives so they feel they can suddenly do anything. In the end, some teenagers ended up being arrested for drug dealing. Others had to seek psychological help for depression and the like. At one point a guy was paranoid that someone was outside his trailer right after he got done hypothetically (and nonsensically I might add) talking about "fate" and how there could be a guy waiting outside with a shotgun waiting for him right then, and what would happen would happen ... It was just really depressing. You would think children raised through strict discipline would be able to be able to handle themselves a little better than what was seen in the video. The girls seemed to be able to handle themselves better than the guys. One thing often seen was that Amish girls typically still dressed Amish when out in the "english" world, while guys wore modern clothes. Girls were quicker to realize when they were doing something wrong and get away from it, whereas guys were not. It made me wonder what the ratio is - girls to guys - of children who come back and decide to keep with the Amish Church. I found it all very interesting, regardless of how surprised I was. I think it would be interesting to spend time in an Amish community and see how well I, as an "english" outsider, could fit in with the Amish community. There were a few teenagers in the movie who said it would impossible for an "english" person to make the change to Amish, but I think I could probably do it, heh ... Then again, I am not as attached to material things as others are. I bet aside from religious background, I could get along pretty well ... Anyway, I have had Say Anything's album ... Is a Real Boy on my computer for some time from Tony, but never got around to listening to it. So during my two-hour break between my morning and afternoon classes and decided to listen to it. I like it quite a bit. Good rainy day music, and I know that because it is a rainy day. And I think Tori forgot to put up an away message on AIM ... she has not responded all day. Sadness ...

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