Conformity In A Lesson From The Amish

Individualism and conformity seem to be the exact opposites of each other, but what if being individual meant conforming to the way of everyone else, and what if conformity was the key to being apart of a community? In the essay by Andrea Fishman “Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish” the author looks at the conformity in the Amish culture in regards to education. However, in the essay by Stuart Ewen “Chosen People” Ewen discusses how mainstream America prides itself on individualism. Both essays explore the complexity of being an individual in societies that thrive on conformity. Ewen describes mainstream America as “a society in which mass-produced, stylized goods were functioning as an intricate system of personal certification,

In essence, the education of Amish children is done in such a way that encourages conformity rather than individuality. When Eli Jr. heads off to school he will most likely be taught in the same way as his older siblings, parents and teacher, which involved him and Mary doing “seatwork like all the other children” (243). That is to say, that all the students in the school Eli Jr. attends receive similar lessons by the same teacher which does not allow students to think of other ways to approach subjects and solve problems, and that leads to conformity within the community, perhaps without the Amish even realizing

Both are a way of conformity, but the two handle it in different ways. For the Amish conformity is just the way things are done, and have always been done so people do not feel the need to change it, because they may lose the respect they have within their community. The Amish have been doing the same things for centuries with little changes so the conformity is just their way of living and their use of literacy is one part of that. Eli Jr.’s parents carefully check what books they bring into the house and most of the houses in the Amish community contain the same books so that their children will not read something that goes against Amish virtues. Instead they read bible verses and sing songs that everyone in the family has been singing for their entire lives. However, in mainstream America objects like cars, clothes, and phones are symbols of status, but not class which allows for people to have a higher status while being in a lower class. While people can customize their status symbols they are still conforming to what society has laid out, and unlike in the Amish communities, there will be people who do not conform to mainstream America. For example, I would refuse to wear name brand clothes because that is what everyone else wore. While