Tom Shachtman: The Choice to Be Amish

by Donna Freitas, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 3/15/2006

In Rumspringa: To Be Or Not to Be Amish (North Point/FSG, June) Shachtman writes that rumspringa "is a Pennsylvania Dutch term, usually translated as "running around.  During rumspringa, Amish youth—a large percentage of them for the first time in their lives—go on their own in the outside world."

RBL: What made you interested in the Amish and rumspringa?

Shachtman: I am fascinated by the anti-modernism of the Amish, and some years ago I asked the producers of The Devil's Playground if I could watch their documentary. I found out there were reams of supporting material no one had tapped into. A biographer looks for a treasure-trove of resources, and in this case I discovered an incredible mass of material about kids who were in rumspringa.

RBL: How did you gain access to such a closed community?

Shachtman: During rumspringa kids are operating outside the community. Also, I went in with only a pad and pencil. This allows you to penetrate a community better than with a camera, especially among people who do not want to be photographed like the Amish.

RBL: Is rumspringa a kind of college experience but without the academics?

Shachtman: It's certainly a college of hard knocks. During rumspringa there is an absence of the direction provided in college. One major question is: how ready are these children to encounter mainstream society? We gradually socialize our kids to the world, yet for Amish youth, they suddenly have to deal with motorized vehicles, the Internet, and the vast array of media that defines our culture. Rumspringa is much more of a sink or swim experience than college.

RBL: Why do you think Amish youth choose to return to the community following rumspringa?

Tom Shachtman Credit: Mark Connolly

Shachtman: A simpler way of life is very appealing, and rightly so. There is a lot of modern life that's noise, that's distracting. It's very appealing to people to know they are on the right path.

RBL: You are a parent yourself. How has this project affected your idea of raising teens in mainstream culture?

Shachtman: Well, I think we need to be very aware that when our kids go out into the world we have to provide instruction and a sense of the long term. So much goes on in rumspringa; it's such a cauldron. But we have to understand we have cauldrons for our children too. Nobody sails through adolescence.

RBL: Are you still in touch with people you interviewed?

Shachtman: Some of them. Once they go back into the community it is difficult to be in touch.

RBL: Is there any one teen whose story has really stayed with you?

Shachtman: The story of the girl whose father bribes her to become baptized into the community by buying her a spectacular buggy. That was just extraordinary. But there were so many wonderful people, it's hard to choose.

RBL: Will anyone in the Amish community read this book?

Shachtman: Probably not.