Does Anyone Feel the Ministerial School Helped Them?

by Band on the Run 38 Replies latest jw friends

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  Band on the Run

  As a born-in, I was eager to join the Ministry School. My cousins were also born-in but lived in different states. There was keen competition to see who could do mature things, such as baptism (my mom said when I was 35) and Ministry School. My KH was in a ghetto with functionally illiterate brothers. My joy at being more loveable soon turned to agony. I wanted to be able to give a straight talk the way my brother did. The whole sister not instructing garbage annoyed me. The hokey conversation with a fake householder was so fake, even by WT fake standards. I wonder how other women felt about it.

  It could have been a class issue with a different response in other KHs but the brother judging me was scathing. My experience with children at an Anglican church is that they are cherished resources. The adults love the childish goofiness. We were all child goofs. I was ten or eleven years old. Frankly, I don't recall any mind bending talks from the brother. My younger brother did a decent job. Oh, they loved him - and his penis. He just had to show up. His maleness was worshipped.

  Rather than cultivate confidence, as in Toastmasters or school moot court, I became worse from stress in the MS. My schoolwork suffered for at least one week. All I could do at school was memorize my lines. I was ten years old. Did I understand the subject matter? I could answer the paragraphs in the WT. Larger ideas were beyond me. The scriptural citations made me feel it had to be correct.

  There is a discussion on the board about child custody arrangements in the UK. I would part with all my worldly goods - and even my Beatles collection - to keep any child of mine from a MS. The experience wounded me deeply. It was abusive. Of course, I lined up for the abuse. My mom prob. would have loved a request to stop. It was quite clear from JW relatives, though, that I alone was never enough. My school grades made me suspect. I read too much. Although I cried alone at home and was actually throwing up from the stress, I so loved Ministry School for my relatives.

  Isn't it a social norm to encourage children? I always encourage them. They have parents and teachers to correct them. In church the kids who mess up their lines but keep going get the biggest applause. I used to attend a musical staged by adults with Downs Syndrome. It was not Broadway. I marveled at their courage. When lines were flubbed, they would repeat it twenty times to get it right. Do I show any similar courage in my own life? Children are not adults.
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  punkofnice

  I have nothing to compare it to in terms of whether it helped or not as I was born into the disgusting cult. I don't know if the Ministry School(TM) helped or not. Were I not a born in I might be able to compare a before and after.

  Public speaking doesn't bother me though. Would it if I hadn't been a JW? I cannot say.

  The elders school(TM) wasn't much use for anything really. It was just boring.
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  TD

  The JW Ministry School strikes me as strange on so many levels. They don't let females stand at the podium and face the audience because women aren't supposed to "Teach." Okay, the Ministry School is supposed to be a quasi-classroom setting where the speakers aren't actually teachers at all, they're students. That's why they call them "Student talks." So why can't ladies at least do the Bible reading?

  Of course back when you were ten, there was no "Reading assignment" and the student talks were a little longer and therefore harder for children.
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  DATA-DOG

  The TMS is basically a free class on public speaking/sales. I can't say that I would be as comfortable as I am speaking in a group without it. Still, I could have taken classes without the cult. I also think that individuals either have potential or they don't. The TMS school does not really teach just anyone to be a good speaker. It's not designed to do that. In fact, " You never graduate from the TMS!", is the popular saying. Just think of all the poor speakers the WTBTS cranks out, that should tell you something. A good speaker is the exception, not the rule. That speaks volumes about the TMS.

  The TMS is more of an ongoing indoctrination program based on repetition than a "school" that "teaches." It's real purpose is two-fold:

  1) Indoctrinate new converts with propoganda and reinforce indoctrination for all Jws, week after week, year after year.

  2) Give Jws enough "training" to hand out literature without throwing up at the door because of nervousness.

  The idoctrination helps to insulate the JW from the rejection at the door. They never ask, " What wrong with my beliefs? Are they sound?" They merely assume, "What's wrong with the people? Don't they want "the truth??" That sums up the TMS in my opinion.

  DD
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  AnneB

  As a young adult recruit, I came in from a background of "speak when you're spoken to; answer what you're asked" so it was torture to be told that I had to join the Ministry School, even as a "householder."

  I don't know when that changed, I know it was years later, but it got to the point where I could walk into the Hall two minutes before meeting time, be told that they needed someone to give the #3 or #4 talk, and I'd pull one together in about five minutes using one of my older kids as householder. There wasn't really anything to it, the material was simple enough and, as you said, the situations are so fake that I didn't have to spend any time making the thing look realistic!

  What changed was my confidence level. At first I thought I actually had to know something, maybe even more than those in the audience. My fear began to dissipate when I realized that most of the people weren't even listening and that nobody remembered who said what by the following week. Giving a talk became as mundane as doing the laundry or shopping for groceries.

  It helped me to be in the School. One less "mountain", one less obstacle to overcome! Later, when I took a class in Public Speaking or had to give presentations at work, my stress level was 'way down; I could concentrate on articulating and defending my position.

  One of the times that I was consciously grateful for the Ministry School was during a class on International Business. Each student had to choose a "controversial" case to present and defend. Unbeknownst to me, the instructor, an attorney, had an entirely different perspective on the case that I chose and proceeded to devil me, the like of which we had never seen in that class. It was a tennis match for a while, but eventually he stopped. I was still prepared for another round! As I walked to my seat someone in the class called out "You go, girl!" I was stunned. Long way from being afraid to open my mouth, eh?
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  Laika

  It was good public speaking practice. (If you're a man.) Though I think it's the longer talks and public talks for MSs and elders that really help with this.
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  4thgen

  Never. To force someone into a traumatic situation and them tell them publicly everything that they did wrong in that situation is abuse.
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  WTWizard

  It was a complete waste of time. Often, I could spend the 10 minutes looking at the reading and cross-link a few scriptures for a brief opening and conclusion. Yet, the dingbats that dragged me into the cancer wanted me wasting 6 hours rehearsing the talk, with no improvement. As for getting W's, I got a few--and some were legitimate. However, I got one on warmth and enthusiasm because they wanted me to show joke-hova that I did not need the opposite sex in my life (why should I show that thing something that is a lie when it never intended to supply it or let Satan supply it). And they wonder why I started blowing them off.
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  THE GLADIATOR

  I joined the Ministry school when I was 8. The training has been of great use over the years. Below is a Recollection from my notes, I was 12 at the time - names changed.

  As part of his training, Terry had been enrolled in the theocratic ministry school. He was working on the correct use of notes. He finished giving the six-minute talk to an audience of around a hundred, using verses from the Bible. Picking up his Bible, he left the rostrum and returned to his seat. Ron, Terry's father, was the school overseer. He took the platform and swayed from side to side for a moment as he cleared his throat.

  ‘You have given an excellent talk. This is a fine example to other young brothers. It shows what can be achieved through training in the theocratic ministry school. You used your notes so well, I was unaware you had any. Could you hold up your notes, so we can see how few notes are needed, if they are used properly?’

  Terry shook his head. ‘I don’t have any notes that I can hold up.’

  Ron was exasperated. ‘No notes! How can I counsel you on use of notes if you don’t have any? You’re working on use of notes. You are supposed to have notes. You will have to work on use of notes again next time you give a talk. You have wasted our time today!’

  Ron’s handkerchief was out, as he mopped his eyes and swayed from side to side with more vigour than before. For a moment Terry felt sorry for his father, until he became aware of the shocked look on faces in the audience. They were looking round to see how he had taken the counsel. The school overseer is not supposed to have a strop but counsel in a kind and tactful way. It seems that on this occasion Ron had lost his cool. After the meeting a number of people approached Terry, to commend him and see if he was upset. Brother Game approached, smiling.

  ‘That was a fine talk, Terry. It’s a shame about the lack of notes but you haven’t wasted anyone’s time. We always enjoy your talks. I hope this has not upset you. Next time you will have some notes,’ he added, nodding.

  ‘I did have notes,’ he replied.

  Brother Game looked puzzled. ‘But you told your father that you didn’t have any notes.’

  Terry raised an eyebrow. ‘No, I said I didn’t have any notes that I could hold up. I only had notes pencilled into the margin of my Bible, to cross-reference the next verse that I needed to go to.’

  ‘Oh dear, Terry, why didn’t you tell your father that and avoid being told off in front of everybody?’

  Terry looked at brother Game with a twinkle in his eye and replied dryly, ‘That would have spoilt all the fun!’

  Brother Game looked at him for a moment, as though he had misunderstood. Then the penny dropped. He started laughing. Chuckling to himself, he patted Terry on the back.

  ‘I have a feeling that you are going to be alright. Wait until my wife hears about this,’ he said, as he walked away still laughing.
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  scotoma

  The ministry school was the only thing that benefited me. I got my first reading at 8 years old in 1953.

  My father fought with the School "Servant" to let me join.

  I gave my first hour (actually an hour back then) when I was 17. I was also appointed school overseer in our congregation of 150 publishers.

  I remember that I never gave anyone a "W". W used to actually mean WEAK at that time. Later it meant WORK ON THIS.

  I make my presence at meetings 2 or 3 times each month to keep my wife happy. In her new congregation they keep trying to get me on the school and I tell them I graduated.

  Since I'm seriously add it helped me organize my thoughts.

  The really bad thing about it was I felt my speaking ability was a gift from God and that I would only have it for use at the Kingdom Hall.

  I know now that it is 10% gift and 90% practice and that the skill is transferrable to any subject.