Dubs used to brag (and still do, I'm sure) about how the WT's "educational program" was superior to the world's and always point to some brother who only got to the 10th grade but is a superb public speaker with a well developed vocabulary, articulate and knowledgeable when he speaks.
And there are dubs like that, but they are far and few between. For every self-educated dub, there are four or five, maybe more, who eschew education, study, reading, learning of any kind, and are content to go along with whatever the WTS' program is. "What does the Society say?" is the one question in their intellectual arsenal, and it provides them with all necessary answers.
I had a college degree before I became a dub (which raises a questions about how "smart" I really was!), and was always astounded at the double standard regarding education. Because I was well versed in the language and had good study habits, my progress in the organization was rapid. Starting in a very small congo, I was quickly put to work with "responsibilitiles" and was delivering public talks 15 months after baptism, just a month or two after being appointed a MS. At the same time, I was conducting the secnd "school" and holding a class in the afternoon to teach kids to read (remember that old Society reading program in the '70s?).
So clearly my education was key in moving me up the dub ladder. My wife told me later I was considered a prime "catch" by the dubs in her hall (she became a JW first).I heard dubs refer to my situation as "proof" that JWs attracted educated folks, too. However, I also ran into all sorts of resentment, particularly on the part of other elders who viewed my education with suspicion. I vividly remember one conversation in an elder's meeting 25 years ago, when another educated elder and I argued that we ought to use our best speakers (and there were four or five in our congo, not just us) to handle meeting parts that were complex or required research and clarification (as when doctrines were shifting). Despite offering WTS' written support for this policy, one of the elders said this would establish a"a teaching elite" and this phrase then dominated the rest of the conversation. In other words, teaching ability -- which is listed not only by the WTS but the damn Bible as a prime requisite for leadership in the congregation -- became a highly negative quality to possess.
I watched uneducated elders "butcher" public talks because they did not understand what the outline was saying, or misread the citations in various publication, or even misapplied scriptures because their understanding of the language was so limited. I watched a guy get up and give a talk on blood transfusions in about 2002, just aa few years after the WTS had turned the whole policy upside down, and base his entire talk on articles that were printed 20 years earlier. As a result, almost everything he said was "wrong" in terms of what was then "present truth" or current dub doctrine.
I could go for days, but you've all seen it. There is no premium placed on intelligence in dubland, no reward for being studious -- only for the appearance of having studied, i.e., the ability to parrot WTS pet phrases and interpret scripture along approved guidelines.
