Rites of Passage: A Case Study of the Amish Rumspringa

Barbara Prillaman

Introduction

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

King James Version

Proverbs 22:6

It is inevitable that at the beginning of the New Year and the return to school after the winter break, one hears girls in conversations such as, “Look at mine” as they have their friends and classmates view their phones with photos of elaborate dresses – low-cut in the front and high-cut on the side, satins, bold colors, lace, yards of fabric bunched up at the bottom. The conversations then predictably turn to hairstyles, nail polish color and who’s going with whom. A few months later the conversations are conducted in hushed voices, becoming more secretive as to the plans before and after the highly looked forward to event. The prom is an iconic high school rite of passage – a sacred event in which one “grows up” – passing from one stage to another in a lifetime. It is one in which many films are based as well as memories later in life. As a teacher and chaperone of many years to this event, one sees the same types of behaviors, hears the same comments, witnesses the same drama which takes one back to their own high school years. This example of a rite of passage will tie nicely into our sociology units of culture and socialization that will lend itself to our in-depth study of the Amish culture and their socialization process including the rite of passage – Rumspringa. I believe students will be intrigued by this case study and be able to draw parallels between their lives, the lives of Amish youth, and all youth in general as they all make their way through adolescence to adulthood.

Rationale

Luckily, through my involvement with DTI/YNI, I have produced multiple units to date to use with my dual-enrollment Sociology course – in fact the entire course is built upon these units. I believe this to be a special opportunity for students. It is indeed a college survey course offered at the high school level. Instead of sitting in an auditorium or large classroom venue at the university level and doing their learning mostly from lectures and out-of-class reading of the textbook, students are working at an in-depth level with variety of texts and formats in a small class setting. From the seminar readings, research, and my participation in Culture: A Total Way of Life, I have another unit to use and I have no doubt that my students walk away from the experience knowing more about each of the topics we engage in than university students. My initial thought of what type of unit I would write was more aligned to the title of this seminar – Culture. Since I currently do not do much with the culture chapter of the sociology text that I am mandated to use, I thought that would be a safe bet. Focusing on the Rumspringa years of the Amish culture was more of a self-interest situation. Over the years, I have purchased multiple books about this topic mainly because I have thought the idea was fascinating but have never dedicated time to read them. Now, due to my participation in this seminar, it seemed like I had a perfect avenue for learning more about a subject that I was interested in. However, the more that

I read about the Amish, including the Rumspringa years, I began to believe that this subject is better aligned for a unit on the Socialization process. I could use it as a case study. The sociological process of socialization entails “The social process through which we develop our personalities and human potential and learn about our society and culture.”1 Rumspringa, an Amish rite of passage, is part of the socialization process. Reading the materials it was evident that from birth onwards, the Amish are deliberate in socializing their children into the Amish culture. Their expectations are taught through role modeling, immersing the children into adult behaviors (e.g. attending church services and work) from the toddler years on. Throughout the course of our time together, and from the feedback from our Seminar Leader, Carla Guerron-Montero, I began to gravitate back to my original idea. The Prospectus feedback in which Carla wrote,

“I would like to invite you to consider combining the Socialization

Unit with the Culture unit. I believe our conversations about culture

in the seminar will be helpful in sharing with your students how

cultures operate, and the use of the Amish culture is a fabulous

example. Making a link between these two units might help students

understand how societies construct, reconstruct, abide to, and

transform their own cultures. By using this broader understanding of

culture and socialization, you could discuss Rumspringa as an ever-

changing rite of passage and you could discuss with your students how

the current technological and economic transformations have modified

this ritual in a society that focuses heavily on tradition.”

made me see how the two could be combined to better inform students of the inter-connections of these topics and the complexity of the relationships.

This curriculum unit will be divided into three parts: (1) the idea of a growing up/becoming part of a society and how it relates to the sociological concepts and principles of socialization, (2) a focus on the sociological concept of culture, and (3) a case study of Rumspringa-an Amish rite of passage within the Amish culture with a comparison between students’ “socialization process” including rites of passage and that of the Amish youth. I believe the use of a case study will not only help to meet the Sociology Standards, but to address the History/Social Studies Common Core Standard for Key Ideas and Details: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

School Setting

Conrad Schools of Science (CSS) is a science/biotechnology magnet school serving almost 1300 students in grades 6 – 12. It is considered an urban school, situated on the outskirts of the most populated city in the state of Delaware, Wilmington, which is well known for its’ violence rates. CSS students come from all over our state’s largest county, New Castle. At the high school level, students can choose to focus on a variety of learning “strands” such as biotechnology, physical therapy/athletic healthcare, biomedical science, animal science, and computer science. Our high

school is the only one in the state that is not a vocational-technology school to offer a Delaware Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program.

Additionally, a variety of Advanced Placement (AP) courses are offered as well as multiple courses that are in conjunction with our local community college and university. I am the teacher of one of these courses, Sociology. This is the seventh year that I am teaching this dual-enrollment course in which students (usually seniors) are enrolled at the local community college and receive credit from that institution upon successful completion of the course with me on the high school campus. Moreover, it is a distance-learning course in that some of my students are at my school while others are at two sister schools in our district. The course happens real-time – at the three different locations – same teacher (me!), curriculum, activities, etc.

Learning Objectives

There are a number of Delaware Technical Community College Wide Core Course (CCC) Measureable Performance Objectives that I am mandated to follow as I plan my units of instruction. In this unit I will be using two of them: (1) 6.1 Define socialization,

(2) 6.2 Provide three examples of socialization throughout an individual’s lifetime, (3) 6.3 Illustrate how socialization affects societies, and (4) 4.2 Provide examples of cultural diversity. In doing so students will explain how rites of passage are related to sociological concepts such as culture, illustrate the connection of the socialization process, assess their own understandings and reactions to the meaning and significance of socialization including rites of passage, and relate their own examples to what they have learned about the Amish way of life. Enduring Understandings are the big ideas of this curriculum unit. (These are taken from the Core Concepts of our textbook’s chapter on Socialization). Students will understand that in the broadest sense of the word, socialization is the process by which people develop a sense of self and learn the ways of the society in which they live. Socialization depends on meaningful interactions and experiences with others, agents of socialization. These significant others, primary groups, and institutions shape our sense of self, thought patterns, and responses to the social and physical environment and how all of this is embedded in culture.

These understandings lead to Essential Questions that guide students through this unit within each of our sessions. These enable students to focus on what on we are learning – with a purpose. These include: What is the socialization process? How does it relate to my life? The Amish way of life? What are some examples of meaningful interaction experiences from my life? From the life of the Amish? How do these relate to the socialization process? How is an agent of socialization defined? Who/what is an agent of socialization that has deeply impacted you and how? Who/what is an agent of socialization that affects the Amish people? How? What is culture and how is it reflective of the socialization process? What is a rite of passage and how is this related to socialization? To culture?

Content Objectives

Rites of Passage

I want students to first think about the traditions that their families may have so that they can ease into the idea of rites of passage. I will tell them about my family cutting down a Christmas tree – the year it fell on my mother as she was holding the top part and my father was sawing the trunk and the communal decorating that we participated in afterwards. I will mention how I have built upon this tradition, baking sugar cookies to eat along with the hot chocolate we make as we now do the decorating – showing photos over the years of the tradition as it has evolved yet maintained its fidelity. I could also mention my mother’s stuffing that she only served at Thanksgiving and Christmas and how we all make it now – including her siblings and many of my friends – in remembrance of her. These traditions, the customs and beliefs, that are transmitted from generation to generation, are an important combination of one’s culture as well as their socialization process. Students will reflect on things that their families do and share those with each other. Afterwards, we will delve into the “more important” or sacred subject of rites of passage. Most likely, students will be able to indicate something they have taken part in such as a baptism, confirmation, bar mitzvah, amongst others when explained that it is a ceremony or event that marks a major life change.

Throughout people’s life times there are multiple major life changes we go through – birth, puberty (coming of age), education, religion, marriage, and death. According to Arnold van Gennep, every culture has certain rites (procedures or protocol) to celebrate these transitions from one stage to another. These are known as rites of passage. These denote the difference between two very important concepts – the sacred and the profane. The sacred meaning holy or is part of the importance of the rite of passage concept. This celebration, ceremony, or ritual gives meaning to the stage – providing an order to the process allowing for it to be different from the ordinary. And although they may be diverse throughout cultures across our world, they serve the purpose of preparing them for their new role or phase in life. Gennep stated there were three phases to this process: separation, liminality, and incorporation2.

I am excited to use the Rumspringa case study with my students as it so nicely depicts each of these stages. It will be easy for students to better understand the process. In the separation stage, individuals withdraw from the group begin moving from one status to another. One can see this in our own high school as seniors begin to do this with talk of the college admissions process, the senior prom, graduation, and the infamous senior speeches. There’s a separation of groups – all other grade levels from the seniors. One sees it in how they ignore dress codes, slack at working inside and outside of school, and talk about “getting out” of high school. The second stage, liminal, is the middle stage in which individuals are sort of in limbo – a period of transition – not yet in the new place or achieved a new status but yet not part of their old one – one’s sense of identity is in transformation. I see this with my seniors as they struggle to separate themselves while wanting to hang on. The last stage, incorporation, is the re-entry in which the individual has completed the rite and now has a new status, a place in society. “The life of an individual in any society is a series of passages from one age to another and from one occupation to another. Wherever there are fine distinctions among age or occupational groups, progression from one group to the next is accompanied by special acts…”3 The graduation ceremony depicts a moment such as this. As tears well up in their eyes, as they hug each other and the adults who helped them get to that moment, as they exchange last minute information about beach week. It

signifies the last time they will all be together in that context – they go from being considered children in the eyes of the education system to adults responsible for themselves and their lives.

In sociology, we look at rites of passage as a way of socializing people. This process allows for “humans to (1) acquire a sense of self or social identity, (2) learn about the social groups to which they belong and do not belong, (3) develop their human capacities, and (4) learn to negotiate the social and physical environment they have inherited.”4

There are a variety of agents of socialization – all of which assist and/or influence individuals in the above. Family, peers, religious leaders, and mass media all play a role. The family is an extremely important agent of socialization since this is the one with the “deepest and earliest experience s with relationships and their first exposure to the rules of life.”5

Culture

Culture is “the way of life of a people; more specifically, the human-created strategies for adjusting to their surroundings and to those creatures (including humans) that are part of those surroundings.”6 Culture is divided into material and non-material components. When students explain what is culture – even at the high school level, they refer mostly to the material aspects. They can say food, clothing; sometimes they mention language as part of a person’s culture when questioned. They do not always state the non-material components such as beliefs, values, norms, and symbols. Yet, these are essential to the understanding of people’s way of life – and, in this case, the Amish way of life – specifically, our case study of the Rumspringa rite of passage. National Geographic released a short video entitled, Tapestry of Life, which does a wonderful job depicting the multiple aspects of culture through a series of photographs of people around the world. In those photographs, one sees aspects such as birth, child rearing, music, dress, beauty, religious activities, war, amongst others.

Culture is learned. It is transmitted from one generation to another where young people learn customs, habits, and attitudes informally through their primary agents – interactions with parents, friends, and the media as well as formally through schools, workplaces, and community organizations. Culture is shared which helps to create a sense of belonging. It is also adaptive and changes over time. Our textbook uses such examples as attitudes regarding premarital sex and how we record information from the typewriter to the I Pad or laptop today.7 For sociologists, there are three conceptual challenges when it comes to culture: describing it, determining who belongs to a particular cultural group, and identifying distinguishing characteristics to indicate how cultures are set apart from one another.

Obviously, we will be learning about material versus non-material culture. However, in this case we will focus more on the nonmaterial culture that is more connected to the socialization process. It is the non-physical creations that cannot be seen or held (not physical objects) that include shared sets of meanings which people in the society interpret and understand the world. These include: beliefs, values, norms, symbols, and language. Beliefs are “conceptions that people accept as true regarding how the world operates and where the individual fits in relationship to others.”8 Values are widely shared standards by which those in the society

determine what is bad and good, proper or improper, just or unjust. These indicate general guidelines for the population. Examples include: freedom and equality, achievement and success, amongst others. Norms are divided into two categories: folkways and mores. Folkways are the type of norms that apply to the mundane of the everyday life – and, if broken, it is not so much a critical issue. Examples include: waiting for all people at a table to be served before eating, waiting in line, taking turns at a four-way stop sign. Mores are considered extremely important and vital to the functioning of a society because they help to ensure moral and ethical behavior that in turn maintains order. Examples include being sexually faithful to one’s spouse, not committing murder, not being nude in public. Symbols are also a part of nonmaterial culture. A symbol is anything that stands for something else based on a shared meaning for people of a culture. These could include a handshake to symbolize friendship or courtesy, a wedding ring to show that the partners are “off the market”, and a red rose indicating love. These can change over time as well as unify or divide a culture such as with the American flag versus the confederate flag. The most powerful of all symbols is language. It is a shared set of symbols that allow for individuals within a culture to communicate with one another. It helps them to influence one another, allow us to understand each other, directs our thinking, shapes our emotions, and promotes a sense of belonging.9

Amish Culture

In our Sociology class we are to learn about subcultures and countercultures which are both embedded in our culture chapter/unit. Our textbook’s author, Ferrante describes a subculture as, “groups that share in certain part of the mainstream culture but have distinctive values and norms that set them apart in some way.”10 Because many of my students have seen the Amish in our local area, I believe it is going to be easy for them to understand that the Amish would be considered a subculture of the American culture. Although the Amish are different in many of their beliefs including the use of technology amongst others, they are able to live within the mainstream culture. The Amish subculture has many important beliefs and norms that guide the people within the culture of simple living. Socialization agents such as religion, education, and family are all important in regard to conveying the Amish culture from generation to generation.

The Amish are separated into two orders – the old and the new. The Old Order is the most traditional and who is referred to as the Amish. They distinguish themselves in many ways including their dress, language, and lack of technology use. This is considered part of their faith of humility and modesty. The Ordnung is the code of conduct they are expected to live by. This German word means “order”, “discipline”, “rule”, “arrangement” or “system”.11 This set of rules is based on biblical teachings that all Amish should live by. Every single aspect of their life reflects back to the Ordnung – “beards, marriage, divorce, shunning, pacifism, dressing plainly, avoiding modern technology – matters large and small, subtle and obvious”.12 One thing I found very interesting about this fact was that the local bishop in each community decides “how the Ordnung applies to the issues of his congregation”13 meaning that interpretations of the Ordnung can be moderately different from community to community.

Formal education for the Amish includes eight years of schooling in Amish schools, for which they won the right to separately educate their children granted from the US Supreme Court in

1972. This means that they are not exposed to unwanted academics and provided with just enough knowledge of math and English to manage a household or run a small business. Schooling is used to uphold the Ordnung. A 1981 handbook for a new teacher, Daisy Spangler, stated, “The Goal of the Old Order Amish Parochial Schools is to prepare for Usefulness, by Preparing for Eternity.”

Parenting is considered a serious calling from God in the Amish culture. The overarching goal is to ensure that the Amish culture continues – that it is passed down from generation to generation. This is a serious responsibility and one that causes parents quite a bit of angst since the constant fear of losing their children to the world constantly on their mind. During the time of Rumspringa, parents are specifically concerned with the fact that since their children are not familiar with the ways of the world – since they are naïve they may make poor decisions. Parents are also concerned that their children will disgrace the family if they choose poorly.

Rumspringa Rite of Passage

“Rumspringa is a Pennsylvania Dutch term, usually translated as ‘running around’ and derived in part from the German word Raum, which means ‘space’ in the sense of outside or outdoors space, room to roam.”14 It usually begins for Amish youth at 16 years of age and lasts until they choose to be baptized in the Amish church. Most will be baptized to be able to marry. During this time the young people are not subject to the church’s rules. Depending on the community in which they live – these young men and women participate in activities that are deemed not appropriate in regard to the Ordnung. These activities include but are not limited to driving a car, smoking, drinking alcohol, engaging in sexual acts, wearing different clothing, and using cell phones, amongst other things. Most of them live with their families and engage in these activities at night – after the workday or on the weekend. Most of them do not always engage in the mentioned activities but will instead participate in activities such as Sunday singings that are organized by the church elders.15

Adolescence is a trying time for all those involved – physical and mental. During this time in one’s life span, young people are trying to figure out who they are, what they are to do, striving for independence.

“Adolescents seem to serve as a repository for the conflicts of

the culture and as a bearer of its mythic projects. The more

complex society becomes, the more perplexing, troubling, and

problematic their role appears to be,” writes S.C. Feinstein,

editor of a scholarly journal on the subject. Adolescence is a

journey from childhood to adulthood, and Amish adolescents, as

do most Americans of that age, experience joys, ills, temptations,

and challenges during their journeys, and face dangers that are far

from trivial – addictions, sexually transmitted diseases, criminality,

and the failures that may stem from inadequately preparing for

assumption of the responsibilities of adult life.”16

For the Amish youth, adolescence is complicated – Rumspringa time – being very sheltered from the mainstream culture and its ways as well as the weight of the complexity of their religion. Elders agree – in their eyes – that the purpose of Rumspringa is for adolescents to find a partner to marry so that they will “return” to the church, be baptized and be able to marry. Although some elders are concerned that the exposure to ways of the outside may alter the young people’s thought processes which “may eventually compromise the church’s ability to sustain itself.”17 Parents fear this process because some young people do not return. Instead, they choose not to become part of the Amish church. However, “according to studies done by Thomas J. Meyers, a sociology professor at Goshen College, more than 80 percent of Amish youth do eventually become Amish church members. In some areas, the ‘retention rate’ exceeds 90 percent."18

Strategies

Google Docs/Chat

Technology is an essential part of classrooms today, especially at the university level. I see part of my role, obviously in this Distance Learning Laboratory with thousands of dollars of technological equipment, to use it with the students so that they become proficient in this new language of technology. Google Docs is one of the ways we have to provide students with a collaborative opportunity to participate in a joint writing process. Students will work with their peers to complete a piece of writing in response to a film, summarizing the key points to a lecture or reading, amongst others. I tell students that this skill they are perfecting in the classroom today will be beneficial to them at the university level in which they can work with their classmates across campus in completing group assignments without even meeting once! As an instructor, you can create and assign a Google Doc to group members. Also, feedback can be easily given even while a student (or students) is working on an assignment. Additionally, it is easily monitored through the Revision History, so that an instructor can keep track of who has completed what. Furthermore, for my teaching situation it helps to build partnerships between the students in three different schools. Students will be grouped together – individuals from all three schools – to collaborate on understanding, summarizing, and synthesizing multiple sources. Educators can consider their purpose and place as to which documents may best suit their students’ needs. Being able to “jump into” the document while students are collaboratively working and give immediate feedback is beneficial to their learning process – it also keeps myself more on track!

Discussion Boards

Another technological feature used in this unit is the blog known as a Discussion on Edline (the on-line system that our district chooses to use). A blog is an interactive site in which posts occur usually on a daily basis. Using a question or statement, I can preview what will be discussed and/or looked at that day or review or clarify something from the previous day’s lesson. For an instructor and the students, this is an invaluable tool. For the instructor, it enables you to see what students understand and may have misconceived in addition to what they think. I like to have them write about the why of what they think, helping me to better understand their viewpoints. This also enables them to think before they speak as we use their blog posts as a

means of conversation as well. For students, they are able to see their written conversations and leave multiple comments as well as questions for each other. This is a great pre- and post- activity for the day’s lesson. I can use the same question or statement at the beginning and end of the day’s lesson helps all parties to see individual and group progress in regard to comprehending a point or concept.

I continue to take this strategy further. Many college courses are now using this feature. Students post on-line outside of class and are scored/graded on the quality of their posts. I am working with the students to establish a rubric that will be used for them to be graded for their posts. With them, I have noticed that they need to cite the evidence within their work as compared to the rubric. They need to identify this evidence so that they can truly “see” it to understand why or why not they receive credit. As much as possible, I want to emulate what they will experience next or the following year at college. So, we will work to create a general rubric together to use in class for grading these posts. We will do this in a scaffolding process by creating the rubric and then looking at some of the prior posts to determine what grade might have been received and why. Then, we will have students write a post and we will use the rubric to compare their answers to it to determine their grades. I will highlight the “good” and the “bad” of responses getting students to see and understand what it takes to produce a full and responsive discussion post. This will help me to see if students are keeping up with outside reading, are able to comprehend the content, and synthesize the texts to produce coherent and comprehensive answers to the questions.

Multiple Sources/Text Sets

“Text sets are collections of texts tightly focused on a specific topic. They may include varied genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and so forth) and media (such as blogs, maps, photographs, art, primary-source documents, and audio recordings).”19 It is vital that students have opportunities to read a variety of texts, not only to meet the Common Core Standards; but for the practical purposes of what life brings them in regard to what they will need to read, process, and comprehend during their lifetimes. Text sets geared towards having students acquire academic content knowledge; help to achieve this goal. As I was thinking about my unit, I wanted to set it up much like our seminar, with a few common readings and, choice texts – ones they will choose to read for themselves. For each text set, students will synthesize their increasing more complex texts by answering a few overarching questions in that students must find textual evidence to support the points in their synthesis. In this case, our common text will be the academic text, The Rites of Passage by Arnold Van Gennep. Then, students will be grouped (by teacher decision) and re-grouped (by interest) to read chapters from Richard A. Stevick’s book, Growing Up Amish.

Socratic Seminar

I have noticed that my students tend to talk before thinking and are more interested in hearing themselves than their fellow classmates. Being able to think critically about a text before discussing it and then listening to others are important skills necessary for academic success and the life-long ability to understand better another person’s viewpoint. The weight of the

conversation is left to the participants – in this case the students. They must critically look at and read the texts before coming to class and be prepared with questions and comments they would like to focus on. This is vital to the conversation’s success. I want them to experience what it is to be in college in a small seminar-type atmosphere. Additionally, I believe if they are made responsible for this it will help them to better comprehend the content of the text that they are expected to master. While students are well armed with evidence from the texts that they have read or viewed, it is also important at this point, that they begin to employ the active listening strategies as well.

Activities

The Nacirema (Culture)

We will start off with this reading to begin our studies of culture. This reading (America spelled backwards) by anthropologist Horace Miner delves into the rituals of our North American body care such as showering, shaving, and brushing teeth. He describes shrines that people have at their homes that are really our bathrooms. He continues by explaining the extreme rituals that Medicine Men, Holy Mouth Men, and Witch Doctors perform on individuals. The Medicine Men are those who determine what your needs may be when sick – determining what is wrong and then going to a pharmacist to pick up the “potions” necessary to make you well. The Holy Mouth Men are dentists who specialize in cleaning and preparing teeth. The Witch Doctors are psychiatrists’ people go to; explaining what is happening in one’s mind. After all this time, I find it difficult to believe that I never once read this before for any sociology or anthropology course I had in college! However, how fortunate was I now to be able to experience it and later to be able to share it with my students! I believe most of my students will not pick up on the real message of the piece. I was not aware until I went to seminar what it was really about! Once a reader is aware that this is America and these are our “normal” body care rituals, it is easy to identify who is a part of what profession and what each of the rituals are. Through the process of reading this piece, it is evident that even familiar things – e.g. what we do to ready ourselves before leaving our homes – seem foreign when it is explained differently. This is how it is when we learn about other cultures. We may believe what others do, what they think, what they believe as different from ourselves. I think that this reading is a perfect way for students to think deeply about what may seem different is really more alike than they realize. For example, we all eat but we just eat different things – from cheeseburgers to guinea pigs.

Rites of Passage Excerpts from Van Gennep Reading and Rites/Ceremonies Around the World – Picking Out the Three-Step Process

The Gennep reading is iconic and one in which students will read to better understand the rites of passage to include the three phases to this process: separation, liminality, and incorporation. To begin, students will read the piece that we did in our seminar. As these students are all seniors, it might be a bit of a challenge; however, it is something which they will be responsible for the following year – and then, they will need to do this alone. This will be a multi-step process in which students will individually read and annotate the piece asking questions about it prior to coming to class. While in class we will list their questions and go through it to ensure that

everyone has had their questions answered, understands the content, and has notes on the piece. This will enable them to use this information for when they are going to analyze a rite of passage. A few rites of passage might be of interest to them. At first I will explain about three with which they might be more familiar: Quinceañera (Latin Americans), Kinaalda (Navajo), and Bat Mitzvah (Jewish People). Two of these will be highlighted in a few videos we watch in our religion unit so this will make a nice connection for them. Afterwards, they will review The Science Reporter link that describes five outrageous rituals experienced by young people. Students will be divided up into small groups and be assigned one of the rituals. They will read the description and research a bit more about it to describe it to their other classmates as well as identify each stage – separation, liminality, and incorporation

Rumspringa Case Study

For this lesson we will begin with accessing their prior knowledge – asking them what do they know about the Amish. I imagine some of them will speak out about a local market in which their families may have gone to buy baked goods or perhaps they may have traveled to Lancaster County just a short drive from where we live. Others may talk about a reality show they may have seen on television about Rumspringa. In class, we will view the documentary, The American Experience: The Amish. It will give an overview of the Amish culture for my students that might be a bit more realistic than the reality show! We will discuss what we discover from what we have seen. In doing so, I would like to have students to relate this back to what we learned about in culture – the categories that comprise it such as education, religion, etc. After this, students will be responsible for reading two chapters – one from each book – Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish and Growing Up Amish. This will be completed in a jigsaw fashion – two times – once for the first text and then again for the second text. Students will be assigned chapters from the Growing Up Amish text while they will be able to choose their chapter of choice from the other text, Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish. The Growing Up Amish text has a variety of topics including: religion, adolescence, schooling, parenting, amongst others. The Rumspringa text is more specific to this rite of passage.

Resources

Ferrante-Wallace, Joan. Sociology: A Global Perspective. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2015.

Our course textbook. Our focus will be on chapters Three/Culture and Four/Socialization.

Gennep, Arnold Van. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge, 2010.

Anthropological information about various rites of passage.

Kraybill, Donald B. The Riddle of Amish Culture. Baltimore, MD.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Pollack, Randy Beth. Culture Change in an Amish Community. MS, Wright State University.

Shackhtman, Tom. Rumspringa To Be or Not to Be Amish. Paw Prints, 2010.

Sociological information about the practice of Rumspringa.

Stevick, Richard A. Growing up Amish: The Rumspringa Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins

University Press, 2014.

Personal account of the Rumspringa years

Stoltzfus, Levi, and Ellis Henican. Amish Confidential: Looking for Trouble on Heavens Back

Roads. New York: Gallery Books, 2015.

Candid account of his Amish background.

The American Experience: The Amish. USA: PBS, 2012. Television Series.

This is one episode of the series of The American Experience. It focuses on the Amish and their culture.

The American Experience: The Amish Shunned. USA: PBS, 2014. Television Series.

This episode delves into the Amish’s shunning practices. It has interviews from seven people who have experienced this practice.

The Devils Playground. USA: 2002. Documentary Film.

This documentary film highlights the difficult process of Rumspringa in which Amish young people determine if they will continue with the Amish church and culture.

The Science Explorer, 2015. 5 of the World’s Most Outrageous Coming of Age Rituals.

http://thescienceexplorer.com/humanity/5-world-s-most-outrageous-coming-age-rituals

This website has an article that students will read to have them better understand the three stages of a rite of passage/ritual. Students will then use this information as a springboard to select one of these or a few other rituals and search for additional information about it.

Turner, Victor. Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure. S.l.: ROUTLEDGE, 2017.

Umble, Diane Zimmerman., and David Weaver-Zercher. The Amish and the Media. Baltimore:

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

This book contains essays about the Amish and the media. The one particular chapter applicable to this unit is the one about the reality show, Hollywood Rumspringa: Amish in the City.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/15/amish-ten-things-you-need-to-know/14111249/ (accessed on January 5, 2019).

This quick article gives a general overview of the Amish culture.

Appendix

Content Objectives and Standards Addressed in this Unit are a combination of those mandated (Delaware Technical Community College) and Common Core Standards.

In this unit I will be using the four of the Delaware Technical Community College Wide Core Course (CCC) Measureable Performance Objectives: (1) 6.1 Define socialization, 2) 6.2 Provide three examples of socialization throughout an individual’s lifetime, (3) 6.3 Illustrate how socialization affects societies, and (4) 4.2 Provide examples of cultural diversity. In doing so students will explain how rites of passage are related to sociological concepts such as culture, illustrate the connection of the socialization process, assess their own understandings and reactions to the meaning and significance of socialization including rites of passage, and relate their own examples to what they have learned about the Amish way of life.

Common Core Standards will also be addressed in this unit. Students will read for meaning and interpret multiple sources (written and visual texts) to help them gain a deeper understanding of the sociological concepts of socialization and culture. Students will also closely read a number of texts including personal accounts of people who have participated in rites of passage. Finally, students will analyze and synthesize all of these texts while engaging in conversations that will also assist them in practicing their active listening skills as well as developing their personal reactions/responses to important topics.