Were any of you ever... (page 2)

freetosee

As a child I hated Christmas and Easter time I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Not that I was harassed for not participating, but it gradually made me an outsider. My teachers and classmates showed understanding for my (parents) faith. When all children got a piece of Christmas chocolate on there desk my teachers would put a regular candy bar on my table. It was actually the pity my teachers, the other children and there parents had for me which I found most uneasy about. And my mixes feeling of guilt about the atmosphere, thinking “wow, this is so nice and warm – but Jehovah is angry and Satan is happy about Christmas”. There were always some kids in school picking on me so I was kind of used to that –children can be very cruel. I cant explain it, there was always this heavy unbearable weight to carry, a feeling I did not understand.

I haven’t remembered this for a while, we often stayed home from school when we had our birthdays and it was ok with my mother. Today I think this is one of the things why I was an extremely shy and insecure child and youngster.

My fathers police was “children should be seen and not heard” so we never dared to question anything regarding ‘the truth’.

unclebruce

Oh god yes. ; I was teased, harrassed and tormented on a regular basis from Grade 1 on. ; I felt humiliated when I had to stand outside the classroom for "God Save the Queen, O Canada and the Lords Prayer" every morning and I would cry (in private) when I couldn't participate in any of the fun stuff. ; No birthdays, no Christmas, Hallowwe'en, Thanksgiving, ;Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day----nothing! ; What made it really bad is that I was the only Witness at my school, so I couldn't have any worldly friends and there were no Witness kids there either. ; The entire thing had a severe impact on my emotional well being and, in my opinion, was the root cause of me never having any self-esteem growing up.

Mary, I was a lone JW with most of the same issues as you and a few different ones. The Lords Prayer? Was that in a State School? If so, what of the doctrine of the separation of Church and State? Not that here in Australia the Church didn't interfere through the enforced singing of Christmas carols and the like.

Rather than being made to stand outside the classroom, every Monday morning for three years I was made to stand under the Australian flag in the quadrangle facing the whole school of about 700 while they sang "Song of Australia" and "God Save the Queen." After a while I made jokes about me being the Queen. A funny thing is that I have no problem remmembering those songs while most of those who sang would have trouble with the words now. I've had no problems with self esteem but have had problems automatically respecting authority.

GermanXJW

I remember one incident at primary school. If a certain day was a kid's birthday the kid had one wish and usually it was no homework for the class. One day, the birthday chils would wish that the whole class should have no homework - except for me. I was about six or seven years old... :-(

Dr Jekyll

I took 15 years of turning the other cheek and giving a good witness. I was made to feel a freak because I couldn't take part in the birthday's and Halloween stuff at school and felt completely left out at Christmas when all the other kids were getting excited about what they were getting and I'd have to admit that I wasn't getting a thing.

A secondary school I stood out like a sore thumb because I was the only kid in my class that was excused R.E. All the other kids had to sit there learning about the baby Jesus and the travels or Paul while I did my homework. Kids hated me for that, because I got out of a really boring lesson. Then there was the Sex, the smoking, the fighting and the masturbation stuff. Dumb dub kid here couldn't do any of that but the rest of my school could and so that made me even more of a freak amongst my peers. I took 15 years of it, 15 yrs of abuse and bullying and then my mother decided she wasn't going to the meetings anymore and I was free. I can remember the look on the face of the first kid that called me "holy Joe" that first week of my freedom. That look of shock and horror on his face when 15 years of anger was delivered to his face via my fist.

"Numb Nuts" struck back.

(Wow that made me feel really angry writing about that)

Dr Jekyll

I remember getting beat up in the playground because I wouldn't join in with someones birthday celebrations in the class

OpenFireGlass

not in elementery school... but in middle/junior high, I had class mates who would take advantage of the fact that I wouldn't FIGHT back (cause even if i felt i could whoop their ass; I would still have to go home to have my ass beat by my father....)...

By the time I got to high school, it was cool not to pledge the flag.The group I hung with were(anarchist punk skateboarders, etc...)

Nowman

I went to 13 different schools so until I got to 6th grade, no one knew before this time. In 6th grade, I started at a new school, kept my JW secret until I had to go out in service in my own neighborhood, and knocked on the door of these 2 twin boys, Ricky and Nicky. They were nice to my face at the door but when I got to school on Monday, it was turmoil for me...horrible. This lasted through 8th grade. Things changed my freshmen year, the twins were not so popular anymore, and they left me alone. I just had to deal with the JW kids that went to my school.

looking_glass

Nowman - now that you mention the fellow jw school chums, they were the ones that caused the most problems. Because my mom was not the black and white, do or die kind of JW, those kids would go back to their parents and tattle all the time. So it was more persecution in the hall (not even that so much but the gossip behind our backs) that was maddening. I loved the fact that those same kids were the ones that lived a double life, but I never told. I always knew it would catch up with them and it did. At least I lived my life open for all to see, imperfections and all.

damselfly

We would get pulled out of school if the class was having a party. Otherwise we had to leave the room for everything fun and instead got extra homework. The kids were good about though, I don't remember ever being teased or picked on for being JW. I think because I wasn't happy being one and they picked up on that and felt sorry for me.

The students I did have problems with were a couple of JW kids. They reported everything I did and said to their parents who in turn would phone my parents. If the phone rang at 4 pm I knew I was in trouble. I beleive their tattling played a big part in me being homeschooled for high school

Dams

serendipity

I got some harrassment for being a JW, mainly by the boys. Later on, those same boys wanted to date me and I'd say: "why would you want to go out with me? I'm a weirdo JW, remember."

Were any of you ever...

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