Has anybody ever heard any Witnesses utter that old saying "Reading The Magazines™ for 10 years [or whatever] is equivalent to getting a college education?" A couple of things are amusing about this. One is its utter and complete falsehood--what a crock! It amazes me that anybody could say that with a straight face.
The second amusing thing is that this is NOT something the Society says (unless I missed it in my research.) It's something that the rank & file says. The sentiment expressed is: "Don't worry about missing out on college. You will get the same personal development and learning from reading the magazines." This betrays a feeling on the part of the person saying it: that college is something to be missed, that putting it aside is a regret to be assuaged. It's interesting that people in the R&F have the good sense to realize this even though they're told in the Publications™ over and over again how meaningless and pointless college is.
Reading WT & Awake for X years = College Education
by under_believer 31 Replies latest jw friends
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under_believer
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elliej
Yes, I heard this from the man (a relative) that my husband studied with. I was attending a 4 year university at the time and I questioned everything he said (interestingly, I still got sucked in) and he would explain to me that I might think that I am highly educated, but he is too because reading every Awake! and Watchtower for 4 years is the equivalent of a college education. Yes, only four years. And his education was superior because it came from the Slave and was not the philosophies of men. It seemed to me at the time that he had a chip on his shoulder about not having gone to college and was looking to make himself feel better about it.
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limbogirl
Yep, I've heard this many times....mainly uttered by people who have never set foot in a college or university. If only my college text books had been written for a 3rd to 4th grade reading level...things would have been so much easier. lol. I guess the dubs think that college consists of coursework about stuff like "the amazing life of the aardvark" or "young people ask: can I list college education on my resume since I've been reading the WT and Awake for the past ten years?"
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blondie
Does anyone have a quote from the WT publications approximating this statement?
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under_believer
I searched a lot and didn't find anything. I have heard it from Witnesses in informal conversation and also mentioned by speakers from the platform, but I don't believe it's something the Society says themselves.
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LDH
I don't have the link cause I threw that crap out, however the quote is pretty accurate. A seach on this forum of College threads (holy moly there will be a lot!) should reveal this one.
Blondie, it specifically mentioned Awake if I'm correct.
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RubaDub
I've heard this too when the issue of higher education is raised.
I always asked the question, "If it's equivalent to a college education, what would be the Major?"
But then, I guess the argument could be made that if a person read and retained the infomation from a good major newspaper, the person could be considered highly educated (and do very well playing Jeopardy).
What's missing in the Watchtower/Awake magazines (and many opinionated magazines for that matter) is the teaching of any sort of thought process to gather and analyze information in an objective way. The term "facts" becomes somewhat distorted. In Dubdom, the "facts" are what is presented in the literature, not necessarily what the imperical evidence suggests. Their use of "facts" are to support the teaching, not necessarily arriving at a teaching based upon the actual facts.
Rub a Dub
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Gamaliel
A circuit overseer, [I forget his first name] "Brother" Harper, repeated it once every 6 months during his visits to our congregation in 1972,3,4. His version was:
"If you read every issue of the Awake! for 10 years you have the equivalent of a college education."
Now with the Awake coming out only once a month, I guess it would take 20 years.
My mother re-used the quote many times to keep us kids from taking advantage of scholarships. (I was the class of '75)
30 years later, she (my mother) just finished her own bachelor's degree to become a licensed teacher. My father always stayed pretty silent on this subject during what should have been our college preparation years, but always told us that Bethel was a more spiritual choice. He might have come across as hypocritical since he was accepted in 1964 as a "professor" at the university (with an "honorary degree" based on expertise and inventions). He kept his job at the University Laboratories until the 1980's. In our university town, 4 of the elders worked at the University, 3 as professors, 2 with full PhD's, which they both earned before becoming JWs. In the 1970's and 1980's the JWs were so proud of their PhD-holders that they fawned over them at circuit and disctrict assemblies for their experience. If a student got a teacher to become a JW they both became celebrities for the International Assemblies. (My wife was asked to repeat her experience 4 times from assembly platforms one summer in '79.) Yet, somehow, getting a degree AFTER becoming a JW was tantamount to a sin. -
unique1
I think it comes from this: Watchtower 6/15/1983
An
Excellent EducationIT HAS been said that by reading the Watchtower and Awake! magazines, along with other publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a person will receive, over a period of years, a considerable and broad education. To illustrate, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses wrote the following letter:
"I quit school in the 9th grade about twenty-five years ago. I have had no secular schooling since then. I should have, by all rights, stagnated mentally. Due to economic circumstances—I had to go to work full time to support my family—I found it necessary to go back to school for a high school diploma. I began school two days ago and the teacher decided to give me a test like the one I will have to pass to get my diploma. The test covered such subjects as science, law, social studies and reading comprehension. I told the teacher I didn’t want to take it because I knew I wouldn’t do well. But she insisted.
"The result was that I scored one of the highest grades. The test grade needed to obtain the diploma is 35, which is the average score. I scored in the 55 range, or 4th year college level. Why am I telling this? Because the main source of my reading in the last eight years has been the publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I am an avid reader of them and do quite a bit of research.
"In the test that I took, I recognized that many of the answers were found in recent issues of our publications. For example, on science there were questions about fluorocarbons, a subject that had been discussed in Awake! It was similar with questions regarding physics, law and other subjects, including recent news events. Such events had been covered in the ‘Watching the World’ section of Awake! Also, my reading comprehension was exceptionally good. This is due to the fact that I read so much, which is necessary in order to keep up with the large volume of publications of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
"The credit goes to Jehovah God for educating his people in every way. I still can’t believe the results of the test, and so I had to share this experience with you. You should know just how valuable our magazines and books really are, and the work that you do in providing them is really benefiting us in every way. I thank both you and Jehovah for giving me an education I never realized I even had until it was put to the test. It has given me quite a bit of confidence in myself, which is something I needed at a time when the financial burden is going to fall on my shoulders."
Would you like to grow in knowledge, obtaining an education of even much greater value than can be received in any college? You can do so by reading regularly this magazine and its companion, Awake! Not only will these journals help you to keep up with world events but they will also help you to see how these events fulfill the Bible prophecies regarding the time of the end of this entire system of things. Yes, regularly reading these publications not only will improve your knowledge of secular matters but will also provide you with knowledge that will put you in line to live forever in God’s righteous new system.—John 17:3; 2 Peter 3:13.
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limbogirl
Perhaps the marketing people in Brooklyn should start a new campaign -- instead of free bible study they could advertise FREE College Education!!