![]() Their parents generally accept the practice, believing that youth will willingly embrace the Amish life only after tasting what they'll be giving up. Readers may be surprised to read of gatherings in which hundreds of Amish teens meet in rural fields and barns for weekend-long drinking and drug parties. This in-depth, generally fascinating account presents the hardships and rewards of that lifestyle, focusing on young Amish who must make a choice about it. Surprisingly, perhaps, studies show that nearly 80 percent of Amish youngsters in the rural enclaves of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio eventually settle down to a way of life in which they do without such modern staples as electricity, television and automobiles. Shachtman ( Terrors and Marvels, 2001, etc.) describes the rite of passage called rumspringa, which allows these kids to sample their “English” counterparts’ vices-drinking, drug use, casual sex-before deciding whether to accept the Amish way of life and renounce those excesses for good. ![]() Even Amish teenagers need to blow off steam. ![]()
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