They don't have religious instruction in Qld state schools anymore. They have school chaplains but they do nothing because most kids aren't religious. Australia is nowhere near as religious as some other countries.
JW Middle Schoolers vs Non JW Middle Schoolers - what was your middle/high school experience?
by Julia Orwell 35 Replies latest jw friends
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Adventurousone
Hello Talesin:
Sorry to hear about your life as a kid. It made me think why parents are afraid that their child will be smart. Maybe they were
afraid you would find out the truth about the organization and it's lies. Now that's a thought.
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blondie
I moved a lot, 13 schools by the end of high school. I was adaptable. Not much problem in flag salute except in one school. It made me famous and popular; nothing like resisting authority in the 60's and 70's (politely, of course). Being new so often, I did not know anyone from grade school on up; I just liked learning, made me popular with some teachers. Having the good will and being popular didn't matter to me...2 years and it would be a new school. My father was not a jw so I could play both sides of the fence. Also, we did not have a lot of money so certain school things were out of my league (like prom). I learned not to be self-righteous and see people as one step from eternal destruction.
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Julia Orwell
That's a good way to be. I could never view people as being one step from destruction as it seemed to go against the Christian principles of love and redemption.
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skeeter1
At the Kingdumb Hall we were perfect!
In senior high school, we JW youth went to a few NFL games together, sometimes straight from the Hall. The cars were stocked, and I mean stocked, with beer, beer, and more beer. The JW elder's son I drove with got stinking drunk. He drove on the Interstate very crazy. Then, in the City, he got a gun out of his dashboard and brandished it at the other drivers. I got scared and didn't want to go with them anymore. They were crazier then the worldly kids.
I moved away after High School (and stopped attending the KH). I heard that the elder bought his kid a new car after high school, a Mustang or Camero. I can't remember. He got into a bad car accident. He was paralyzed, in a wheelchair, and then got super mad. I remember he was a chubby, red haired kid. Personally, he was nothing but a prick in high school.
Skeeter
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love2Bworldly
I remember my 6th grade year was great-- I was starting to socialize like a normal kid. Then I became a JW with my sister & couldn't hang out with the other kids & anything I liked like the Beatles was considered bad. Every time I liked something, I would find out it was bad in some way. In middle school I went to the back of the classroom every morning so I could sit down during the national anthem-- kids used to try to trip me. I knew going to college & having a career I liked was out of the question, so I took as few classes as possible since the Big A was coming.
I already had childhood depression issues & socializing issues from my messed up family, becoming a JW made me even more depressed and I felt so alone, so isolated & so different from the other school kids. It was bad enough that my parents were deaf & mentally ill, now I was a JW and stood out even more.
Now I SO enjoy socializing & feeling normal, and not feeling guilty for liking things or having fun.
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skeeter1
"Now I SO enjoy socializing & feeling normal, and not feeling guilty for liking things or having fun."
Amen & Ditto.
Skeeter
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Julia Orwell
I used to think the born in kids were such idiots for behaving they way they did when we were all in our late teens. I thought they were so lucky to have parents 'in the truth' and they didn't appreciate what a gift it was, because my parents were hostile towards my new religion and it was hard for me. I looked at them and thought that this thing I had to fight for was given to them on a platter and they were treating it like it was nothing.
Boy do I know better now! Hence my interest in what it was REALLY like growing up Jw. The ones who are still jws as adults always said it was great.
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return of parakeet
It was an unmitigated disaster of my teenage years. Won't bore you with details.
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ilikecheese
I only ever knew one JW kid, and he was just sad all the time. No one was mean to him. We just felt bad for him because he had to leave the class every time we did anything fun. My parents didn't let us celebrate Halloween, (some Christian families are like that) but they at least didn't embarrass us by making us leave during the Halloween party. This kid had to sit in the office for the rest of the day because his parents wouldn't pick him up early. This was every time we did something like that. He never talked to anyone, really. Just a sad, quiet kid.
Anyway, I found this JWtalk topic about this lady wanting to throw a party for her teenage son because she never lets him do anything. The suggestions were "invite old people," "invite pioneers," and "invite elders." I'm sure that's what a high school kid wants at his party. That's like someone saying, "I'm going to throw your friends a party! But grandpa is going to be there telling you meandering stories where he interrupts himself every ten seconds to say... 'Oh, wait... I was wearing a BLUE shirt, not a red one.' I'm also going to invite a nun to sit in the corner and look at you severely when you look like you might be enjoying yourself or looking at boobs." Here's the link...