My perception after observing this site for a short time is that posters here are much better informed and articulate than the Witnesses I encountered. Growing up there were contradictory messages. First, I had to do well in school. In fact, my grades were a witness than JWs were better than my school peers. Fearing rejection, I studied for long spans of time. Love was at stake. Second, I heard the academic process ridiculed by the Society. I was supposed to achieve but not be part of this very wicked thing called school.
My father died trying to pull me out of high school. A court battle was looming. My mother never stood up to him. She lacked the physical strength and since she was raised as a Witness, deference to males was important. She never thought men were better than women. Indeed, she bellieved quite the contrary. When women did not work outside the home, she kept house and worked full-time at a factory on the nightshift. The factory was in a very scary neighborhood. Even when a miracle occurred and we had a car, he woulld not wake up or stay up to pick her up. So I knew I was not just leaving my father's power but my mother, brother and sister. I loved them. It was like being in a Charles Dickens novel.
As hard as they laugh at academia, academia laughs even harder at them, their beliefs, and culture. Large chunks of my life were spent dumbing down. I was forced to stop being a candystriper, a teen hospital volunteer. It offered a nursing scholarship, hanging out with friends and the uniform was better than a nurse's uniform. Later, I had the freedom to attend college. Education and tough questions were highly valued. I've read that the fundamental difference between Roman Catholics and the Reformation churches was not doctrine but a relationship to authority.
If the Witnesses are the "Truth" to the exclusion of all others on this planet, why do they fear education? It should bolster their teachings. I haven't read the cult psychology books yet. I look forward to reading them. My KH was atypically short on talent of any kind. I argued that God did not need to create JW women the way he did. A stripped down, retarded yet still functional model would better suit his purposes. Music was mocked. Fine art was mocked. Architecture was certainly mocked.
I so much wanted my parents' choice to be correct. There I sat cheering on the society at conventions. Conventons attended by more than a handful of people. Yes, women were sexually wild by nature. Men were pure and chaste by nature. A Bethelite removed his belt and handed it to my mom to reprove my baby sister, kicking her chubby baby legs out and brushing the chair ahead very lightly. She let me bring Suzette, my fashion doll to the KH when I was very young. Staring ahead, not understanding anything they were saying was sheer hell. I could be a Puritan girl reenactor.
The more I learn about anything, the more I know there are no definitive answers and today's dogma in any field will likely evolve to something else. Their doctrines are tolerable to me. Mormons believe in weirder things as do Scientologists. Besides, who defines what is weird. Abuse of power is another matter. The gospel of Christ is the good news. The best news ever formulated on earth. Somehow they end up with a gospel of fear and terror. It grieves me to see normal JWs in servitude to their arrogance.