How many of you followed the WTS direction on education years ago and have been screwed by it?

by Julia Orwell 119 Replies latest jw friends

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  Julia Orwell

  I'm really interested in this question because I've heard for years that if you forgo further education and go pioneering, when you have a family down the track you will get a good job because Jehovah will provide for you because you pioneered. As long as I was a kool-aid drinker, even then, I thought, "How does pioneering pay your bills? Surely education should come first."

  I was sneered at a lot while I was at university, and when I got my degree and became a teacher and moved upstate to a town, I'm pretty sure most in the congregation regarded me as satanic because I had a degree AND worked in education.

  I left teaching when I got sick and took an office job. I worked it for 5 and a half years and lost it late last year due to cutbacks. I've now gone back to teaching, and I am ubelievably glad I have a profession to fall back on.

  My question to people on the forum is therefore: did you forgo your education because of the WT teachings years ago, and in what way has it affected your life? I hear of some who are in their 50's having to work at hard physical labour just to support their families or keep a roof over their heads because they were denied education. If you are one of these, I would like to hear from you!
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  Honesty

  I have to do hard physical labor because my parents believed (Mom's words) "We thought the end would be here before you became an adult."

  I was strongly discouraged from attending university.

  My sister is 14 years younger than me and never believed that BS.

  She has a Master's and is VP of one of the largest financial institutions in the world.

  I constantly tell her how proud I am that she is successful.

  BTW, her only child also knows it is BS and is currently working on her Master's.

  The cult cycle has been broken by our generation.
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  ldrnomo

  As a parent of a son growing up in the bORG I can say that because of the societies propaganda at the time we did not encourage our son to pursue any form of higher education. Because of their, "the end is so near" teaching we felt no motivation to do so.
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  troubled mind

  Yes ,I am one of those feeling the effects of the wonderfully wrong Watchtower advice on education. I was always a good student ,and loved science and art . In High School I was an Honor student ,and graduated top of my class . Teachers tried to convince me to go on to college ,my worldly Grandfather offered to pay for school . However my Witness Mother had always drilled into me the end was near ,and a career would be a waste of time . I was afraid the end would come ,and at 18 all I wanted to do was get married have children before it was too late .My husband became a witness in his teens and because of other family problems had to start working as a teenager.

  Now we are in our fifties ,and still work physically demanding jobs . I work three part-time jobs with no benefits . None of my jobs pay well . My husband is very smart and mechanically inclined .He has taught himself so many things, yet he is stuck in a job that exposes him to harmful chemicals and exhuasting work . We feel trapped because we are too old to change jobs now .

  I would just burn up when they gave parts at assemblies about some kid being glorified for giving up a scholarship in order to pioneer....
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  Pickler

  Hey julia, When I grew up in the 80s it was more than just "discouraged".

  When I reached 15 my mother said she could no longer support my worldly desire to stay at school. My dad set up a secret bank account & put cash in it so I could survive. A sister in the congregation a year ahead of me went to 1 term of University, she had to drop out, I don't remember if she was reproved publicly or privately? Anyway, so much pressure was placed that she had to leave.

  the brothers from the 80s & 90s are the ones I feel most sad for. A lot of them have had their health ruined by years or cleaning or building work. Their backs are wrecked & I can't even imagine how hard it would be to have to provide for a family without an education.

  Years later I went to university, and I now have a degree (yay!).

  No wonder they never let us go to uni, too much exposure to real writings, studies, research & thought! How shit does WTS literature look when compared to even first year university texts?

  But, I would say I chose my studies based on practicalilties (health science) and I regret that.

  I still hope that one day ill get to go & just do what I want to......which would probably be a mix of history, literature, philosophy etc. no practical things allowed!!!!!
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  daringhart13

  Me.

  And I'm seething with resentment over it.

  At 45 (child of the 80's)........our company just restructred and let some of us go with a severence. Here I go again.......the "no degree" conversation
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  gma-tired2

  I did. I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was in third grade. I would sit in class and try to figure out how I could be a teacher and so much of my JW wasn't encouraging. I knew even at that age flag salute, holidays, and many other things would not work. In high school I dropped from college prep classes because I would not need such a good education. The joke was on me. I am 65 in retirement years and the only thing saving my family is that when I realized life was going on I went to work in the school system I was rewarded a retirement pension.
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  NeonMadman

  I graduated high school in 1969, and of course, Armageddon was coming by 1975. Now I'm 61, and while I've always done OK, I've never had a really satisfying job or an especially well-paying job as I could have had if I had gone to college. My wife, who was never a JW and went to college after high school, has always made more than I do.
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  Tiktaalik

  I was a teenager in the 80s. Armageddon was just around the corner (all that 'Peace and Security' bullshit). Higher education was just continually pounded. Talk after talk and countless watchtower articles denigrated and demonised it.

  I do not know of one single person from my age cohort who went on to tertiary education. Even finishing high school was considered suspicious.

  I regretted it for years. Then I stopped moping around and went to university and completed two degrees and then did a masters. Part of the reason for doing so was to shove it up the watchtower.

  One of the best things I have ever done.
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  Richard_I

  I'm almost 23 and I just started college recently, from 18 to 22 I was pioneering/bethel and I severely regret it. In fact, I was thinking of this very topic today at work (which is, surprise! janitorial work). What does the WTS really expect pioneers to support themselves by? Without a community college/university background, you're stuck with cleaning, construction, or McDonald's/Wal-mart type jobs. What if you don't want those jobs or don't like cleaning/construction? And in the case of construction, its only seasonal work you'll have, so you need to find anther job in the off-season or live on what you made during the summer.

  What if you don't want to be making minimum wage for the rest of your life? Is this what they expect, or do the GB figure because "they are putting Jehovah first" they'll be making $20+/hour cleaning toilets? It just doesn't make sense. They only way you can get a good job without an education is through networking, which is highly unlikely with witnesses.

  Anyway, I severely regret slacking off in my last year of high school and really wish I went to college right after graduation rather than wasting four years of my life pioneering. I am sick of cleaning and doing construction, I want an office job doing something I enjoy. Yep, people won't talk to me/won't talk to me as much anymore now that I am going to post-secondary schooling while they are stucking cleaning toilets/construction work in their 40's+, but I'm not wasting my life doing that shitty work.