Were you ever counseled in your talks by the school overseer for something stupid?

by life is to short 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  life is to short

  When I was a teenager I was always counseled because I have a speech impediment. I have a real hard time with R's. It was a nightmare giving talks. The school overseer was always giving me a W and telling me to tape record myself and listen to where I was pronouncing words wrong. He did this from the stage. As a teenager I just wanted to die.

  As I became an adult no one really said anything about my speech to me, most people just thought it was an accent and never said much, in fact some people think the way I speak is neat.

  I was raised on the West Coast and when we went to Bethel I fit right in with the East Coasters. Now when people ask where my accent is from I just tell them I lived in Brooklyn for a while and they say 'oh that explains it or some think I am from London.

  The whole thing really affected my self esteem though as a teenager, I was in speech class at school, I knew the tape recording thing already the looking in a mirror, etc I did not need to told it from the platform at the KH. The kids at school especially when I was in grade school were unmerciful in taunting me over it but they were kids being kids. But come on adult men doing the same thing from the stage. What were they thinking?

  Now fast forward there is a new DO and guess what he cannot say his R's. He has the same impediment I have. He gave his life experience and he was a CO when I was born. So while the elders were making me feel horrible this CO with the same impediment was giving public talks.

  You got to love this religion.

  LITS
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  Think About It

  I bet many JW kids suffered severe childhood trama from idiot TMS Overseers. In one cong. I was in, the TMSO was a young, oddball, theocratic elder and former Bethelite. This guy would give the most offensive & embarrassing counsel you could imagine. Didn't matter if it was to kids or adults. To see this guy slam that dinger bell as fast and as hard as he could was unbelieveable.

  Think About It
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  moshe

  I can't remember any of my talks from 1972 to around 1982- I was an elder in charge of the theocraptic school for one year and I have blanked all that out, too. A few Happy Thoughts, that is what have left from that decade.
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  aSphereisnotaCircle

  I remember one young sister that had a problem with saying "and uh, and uh, and uh", she would get nervous and just could not stop saying it. In normal conversation she did not have that problem, it was just when she got on stage.

  She would literally get up on stage and say "and uh" for three minutes straight, it was painful to watch. And of course everyone was so embarressed that the entire hall would go completely silent except for this poor teenager saying and uh and uh and uh and uh and uh and uh and uh and uh into a microphone until the brother told her her time was up.

  That brother would sit there and count how many times she said it and then tell her if it was more or less then her last talk, this was back when they counseled you in front of everyone.

  This same brother gave a friend of mine a W one time, not because she needed to work on anything, but because she had only received Gs in the past and he felt it was important that she receive at least one W. The entire hall chuckled loudly when he said it. It was all my friend could do to hold back the tears until she was alone. She later cried her eyes out and asked me "why did I even try?"
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  EmptyInside

  I had the same problem with my "r" 's LITS. I got a W on my slip too. One good thing is they don't give G's and W's anymore. And they are only to give commendation on the platform. And anything the student needs to work on is discussed in private after the meeting.

  But,we had a brother in our hall who was the overseer in the second school and known as W, J***,because he had to give at least one W per school.
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  lesabre

  my brother was counseled because he would deepen his voice to hide that his voice was changing. the overseer even mocked him on the stage. my mom is STILL pissed!
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  not bitter

  I remember giving talks from the platform as a child and my older brother would sit right in front of the platform directly in front of me because he did the sound. He would sit there pulling faces at me and I would giggle all the way through my talk but not once was I councelled for laughing.
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  blondie

  I gave fairly good talks...I did not script the sister who acted as the "householder." So except for what came in my introduction and a sparse outline, I was prepared to handle whatever. The sister was the TMS conductor's wife and thought she would teach me a lesson...at the suggestion of her husband. She responded in a confrontational way, upset, loud....I just commended her on using her "thinking cap" and showed her that the scriptures agreed with her point and went on to add....so it was a smooth, kind transition. I had never seen someone do this on the stage but I had certainly handled it in real life from door to door. The conductor was surprised and had to commend me. Afterwards I got more positive attention from the congregation than ever before...I was new you see, there less than a month and this "brother" had done this to other sisters.

  Most TMS conductors did not mess with Blondie since I bailed out their butts many a night when people cancelled or did not show up for their talks.
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  Broken Promises

  This didn't happen to me, but I still remember it, and I remember bristling at the time.

  There was a family in our cong who were originally from England (can't remember which part). Their accent involved dropping the g at the end of words eg. shoppin', workin' etc.

  Well the TSO who was the most arrogant jerk you could meet, counselled the English brother on his accent. I really couldn't see the point, as it was part of his accent and it wasn't really a speech impediment. I'm sure an English person could point out heaps of errors in our Aussie accent.

  I was just a lowly teenage sister, but I felt like having a few words to the TSO in defence of the poor English guy.
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  watersprout

  I speak quite fast and it never affected my talks in my cong, always got G's...Then we moved to the cong from HELL...They didn't like i had all G's so started giving me W's because i spoke quite fast...I had just given a talk in the ''second school'' and the overseer started counselling me with the wrong counsel! I said to him that i was being counselled on so and so and he looked at me like i was dog poop and carried on humiliating me...I got really mad [as the snots who bullied me, were sat at the back like they always did when i had a talk] and started to talk very loudly that it was the wrong counsel and i was going to ignore it...The mocking and humiliating got soo bad i threw my bible on the floor and broke down in tears! That really fuelled the bullies! My parents were trying to calm me down to no avail! I was on a W for a long long time! LOLOLOLOLOL

  Oh what fond memories!

  Peace and light