What are the similarities between Amish culture and American culture?

The Amish aren’t completely cut off from the larger American society. Often they run businesses with English (their word for non-Amish) employees and customers, so many people are in daily contact with broader society. So transferrence of culture is inevitable. Perhaps one of the most surprising similarities between Amish and English society is the teenage years. The Amish are anabaptists, which means that they are not full members of the church until they choose baptism as an adult. So they have a “wilding” period in their teenage years where they are encouraged to go out and experience the English world so they can then decide if they want to be baptized into the church. So there’s sex, drugs, barn parties, trucks—a sort of typical teenage experience. Check out the documentary “The Devil’s Playground” for more.

The chief difference is that the Amish got it right. They value free enterprise as well as supporting the larger community.

They don’t encourage their children to sex, drugs, ..., but they don’t prohibit them from experiencing the English world at an age that the English are exploring their own parental independence.

Neither can control their teenagers. Watch The Devil’s Playground.