The Devil’s Playground is a documentary about Amish kids in the midst of rumspringa, the period that begins at their 16th birthday and lasts until they decide whether or not to be baptised and officially join the Amish church.  During rumspringa, or "running around," the kids are permitted to soak up and participate in whatever they find outside of their Amish communities.  Girls are generally steered towards a more conservative path, but many Amish boys adopt the dress, cars, drugs, music, and habits of American pop culture.  Over the last 100 years, the gulf between Amish traditions and American culture has widened, perhaps increasing the danger and the draw the kids on rumspringa find.

I first heard about this documentary from a friend who saw it when it was released, and then was reminded of it by an episode of This American Life called Devil on my Shoulder.  A lot of Americans think of Amish people only as members of idyllic scenes–if we think of them at all.  Having spent a lot of time in near an Amish community in Pennsylvania as a kid, I was always enamored of the trappings of Amish society visible to me: barn raisings, horses and buggies, gorgeous quilts and masterful carpentry.  The concept of simplicity seems appealing from a distance.  Like most Americans, I have little knowledge of life in an Amish community, I don’t actually know any Amish people, and I think Witness was the only mass-media representation of Amish life I’ve run across.  Over the last several years, allegations of sexual and physical abuse have plagued a few Amish communities in the Eastern US, forcing communities who would prefer to keep themselves apart from the masses to submit to examination by local law enforcement and national media.  The truth, as usual, probably lies between the idyll and the dungeon.  This film allows us to peer into a small part of a real community to see both its strengths and weaknesses.

It is jarring, to say the least, to see Amish girls in their traditional modest dress and bonnets swigging beer and dancing at a huge farm-party, and hear Amish kids discussing crystal-meth deals, narcs, death threats, and "bed courting."  It was hard to watch a few of the kids go so wild.  Faron, the center of many of the scenes, seems stuck in clearly self-destructive patterns.  All the while, he seems to hunger to return to the fold.  But at the same time, we see Joann, an woman in her early 20s who is preparing for Baptism.  She ran wild–wilder than most Amish girls ever do–and decided to join the church.  Her smile is beatific.  Her faith does not seem to be a prison but a great solace.

For me, the most disturbing aspect of the film was the fact that these kids are pulled out of school at 13.  I appreciate the concept of allowing people to choose or refuse church membership when they reach maturity.  But knowing that they are considered ready to make that decision with only an 8th grade education, it seems like the house is monkeying with the cards.  Throughout, I was wishing that the Amish kids who were hungry to leave their community would find a way to finish school and approach their adult lives better prepared, whether they decide to choose their parents’ path or not.

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