Devil's Playground
... and join the Amish church. Boys usually join the Amish church at age 21 when he decides to worship God and when he wants to marry an Amish girl. Girls usually join the Amish church at age 18. An Amish person is not baptized as a child, but as a young adult, when they are called upon to make one of the most important decisions of their lives—either continue living in the “English” world or get baptized and join the Amish church and return to the Amish way of living. In the film, Velda was shunned by her family when she left the church after joining it, but describes the shunning as "their last way of showing that they love you." 3. Amish schooling is extremely different from the U.S. schooling. Formal school for Amish adolescent ends at the eighth grade. According to Wisconsin vs. Yoder case, the Amish culture object to the high school, and higher education generally, because the values they teach are in marked variance with Amish values and the Amish way of life; they view secondary school education as an impermissible exposure of their children to a "worldly" influence in conflict with their beliefs. During this period, the children must acquire Amish attitudes favoring manual work and self-reliance and the specific skills needed to perform the adult role of an Amish farmer or housewife. They must learn to enjoy physical labor—the Amish way of life. In the United States, mandatory schooling for students ends at the twelfth grade and many students advance on their education by entering college or vocational training school. Amish adolescents are forced to enter the school-to-work transition at an early age in life whereas in the U.S. the school-to-work transition discontinued. 4. When I was age 16, I was not allowed to have bedship courting on the very first date with ...