Education is the Key to Everything

OnTheWayOut

Education (not necesarily structured classroom and not necessarily college) is really the key to everything.\

Skyrocketing birthrates go down when the women get educated about birth control and disease. Even where such education is freely available, birthrates go down further when the women go to college and wait to have babies.

We got out of WTS, many of us mainly through some form of self-education.

Children don't even get a chance, typically, to succeed in entertainment (sports, music, acting) until they accomplished some academic goals.

Men who go to prison and get an education while serving, go back less often than the others.

An education of some sort is where children becoming adults learn respect and motivation and personal responsibility.

Whether you are one side or the other of any given issue, it is your education on the matter that will motivate you to do the right thing.

Education is the key to better health.

Please add your thoughts.

panhandlegirl

Ecclesiastes 7:12 says that "wisdom is for a protection [the same as] money is for a protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom itself preserves alive it's owners." I agree with you that education leads to knowledge and at times, money. Even if some people do not believe the Bible, that statment is true. You cannot vote for the right person if you don't understand the issues or what is at stake. If I had not recieved an education, even though it was late in my life, I would be in trouble now. I would probabley be unemployed because of my age. As it is, I can support myself and never have, as yet, asked anyone for help or received help from the govenment. If I had not used my wisdom and knowledge, and help from others, I would still be a JW. Thank goodness I used my brains and got out of there. You are right, education is the key.

AGuest

A "good" (and accurate) education, yes, Jer. But who determines what's "good"? There's a whole lot of bad and inaccurate "eduation" out there. Has been since the beginning ("You positively will not die..."). So, I think it depends on:

The subject (think "Theocratic Ministry 'School'")
The student (what does he/she really want to learn [about]?), and, always, always...
The teacher (what is his/her take... and motive?)

I mean, is a "street degree" really proof of a "good" education? It is an education, though, isn't it?

I have a law degree. And while my eyes were opened to a whole lot that has done me good in my personal and professional life... as well as has allowed me to help others to some degree or another... I was also "educated" as to the "mind" of a "lawyer." And I don't necessarily agree that that "mind"... is something "good." Hence, I'm not a lawyer. Passing the California Bar is not about knowing the law - they assume you know the law - and I do. It's about whether or not you "think like a lawyer". Given how most California lawyers "think", then, I have to admit that I do not... well, that's not accurate - I could, if I set my mind to it (it's actually pretty easy - sleezy, but easy)... but I truly do not want to.

There is a reason that lawyers are held in great derison... by a great many people: how they think, especially with regards to the law and how it applies to their case and/or their client... and how they ultimately carry out those thoughts. The experiences I've had in this regard make me shudder (when I consider what the lawyer "on the inside" had to be thinking to go where they went with it!).

I don't mean to undermine what you're suggesting; I am just trying to be little more accurate... because there many [educated] "fools" out there. Many. Including myself, perhaps (although, in a different way).

But great topic, thanks!

A slave of Christ,

SA

P.S. I know of uneducated people who have lived for decades past their educated peers... and educated people who never made it past midlife. Education can help health, yes; however, joy in life can, as well... and one doesn't need to be [formally] educated to have that.

BizzyBee

I whole-heartedly agree.

I started taking college courses as soon as I left the JWs. But by then I also was supporting myself, then got married, kids, etc. So I never finished. But I will say that if I had not had that modicum of education I would not have been able to do my dream job (freelance grant writer).

Aside from employment, education affects how one thinks about things and thus affects everything. I had always read a lot, but college made me read things I would not have selected on my own - biology, history, sociology, even math - making for a more well-rounded outlook.

Perhaps one of the best outcomes of education is that it teaches you just how much you don't know!

Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

I agree.

From the moment we are born, we are "educated" on/about everything, so why do so many want to stop and say, "Nope I'm good, no more for me"?

It's mind boggling how someone can lose interest, or dampen someone else’s curiosity, in learning and education.

I never went to college but, now “awake" in my thirties, I have a driving urge get a higher education just because I'm an information junkie and love learning; my only obstacle is figuring out what I want to study, there's just so much to choose from and it all looks interesting.

NewYork44M

I absolutely agree. Even as a witness I continued my education. I finished my MBA and was working on a doctorate while I was an elder.

Never made a big deal, so few - if any - knew what I was doing, I just did it. All the while, I was figuring out how to get free from the organization.

When I finially made my break, I was well positioned to have a successful afterlife.

My advice, if you are still in use this time to plan for your life after leave. If you can go to school, do it.

jam

You think if the world in Jesus day was more inform

about the world we live in today, would Christianity

survived. We must remerber, the majority could not read.

And then you think, there are weird groups popping up

each day ( we fell for the borg.) and people are signing up.

Yes there is nothing worst then A educated fool.

Heaven

OTWO, I agree. "To Learn" is a human need. Without it, we are not whole. And thus, are not healthy.

edited to add: You are never too old or too ill to learn. My Father, suffers from dementia. Last year, in the spring time watching the birds at the feeder he was surprised, amazed, and delighted to learn that mated pairs of birds (cardinals, housefinches, goldfinches, etc) feed each other. He never knew this.

Quendi

I'll add my voice to the chorus. I think education can be gained in different ways and forums as OTOW has said. For some, the formal setting of the classroom works best; but others have learned a great deal from mentors and teachers outside the classroom. One of the wisest men I ever knew never finished high school and spent much of his youth working on farms and ranches in Nebraska and Wyoming. Nevertheless, he taught me a great deal about life that went over and beyond what I learned as I earned degrees in geography and mathematics at the University of Colorado.

This is not to say that I don't value the college diploma I proudly display now--far from it. But I believe, and I think our friend Jerry/OTOW would agree, that learning must be a lifelong engagement. When it is that, we'll be better people and do much more good in behalf of others.

Quendi

wasblind

My granma was born in 1911 only had a 3rd grade level of education

my mom was born smack dab in the middle of the Great depression

quit school in the 9th grade, to help on the family farm, which they were blessed

enough to own

As for My generation, we all finished high school , some went further

me , I went straight into the textile mills and made pretty darn good

for myself. Of course those jobs have been outsourced, and people now

make less than half flippin' burgers. but that's another thread all to itself

Anyway, before my generation, the only jobs the women in my family

could get were domestic jobs as maids and/or cooks. Even the men who worked in a mill

work as a custodians , they were not allow the positions that paid well

Education was the key to better yourself, to improve your lot in life

Especially after the civil rights act was past in the mid sixties which

made discrimination illegal, meant we had a better chance to get

jobs that paid better. More to that story, another thread to its self of course

It wasn't until my daughter was in her senior year, making preparations for the prom

and college , when the brow beatin' from Witnesses went into full effect. My question was

why were the Elders children allowed to further their education. I felt they were the

leaders in the cong, why can't we follow ???

It was clearly a double standard. screw that mess

Why should any woman of color take two steps back because

a group of men tell them to wait on the kingdom

Edit:

Education is the Key to Everything

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