by Band on the Run 38 Replies latest jw friends
I realize that this is not always a popular thing to claim, but in my case I did benefit from the TMS. As a teenager and young adult, I was plagued with shyness - almost to a crippling degree. The Ministry School did help me overcome this.
Still, I would be the first to agree that the TMS proved to be a bloody expensive course in public speaking!
Bill.
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.................................................Ministry School Sucked!..
At the Age of 6 or seven you have no idea,what any of your mom wrote down meant..But..
........................................There you are,up on stage reading it..
...............Try getting out of Ministry School as a JW Kid..It`s not going to happen..
...................Regardless of how Unhappy you are or,the Mental Stress it causes..
............................................Month after Month,Year after Year..
.
......................................................Stop WBT$ Child Abuse..
...............................................
..................................................................................................................... ...OUTLAW
I took my assignments seriously and always tried to figure out a practical application even when some of those topics were just plain ridiculous. I the the exercise was good overall to learn something new and step outside your own box.
However, with that being said, everything I learned in the TMS I could have learned by participating in school activities. In fact I could have learned much much more.
The last talk I gave in the TMS was when the school overseer said from the platform "I had a hard time finding anything wrong with your talk." I figured I was done. About a year before I left the org, I handed the talk assignment slip back to the overseer and told him "I graduated."
The TMS is the perfect example of what would happen if the GB were to be placed in charge of, well, anything that matters.
Well over 90% of JW speakers are in the spectrum of "horribly incoherent" to "just barely adequate, but boring as hell". And they've been enrolled in the TMS for decades, likely.
What do you get when you have a school where (1) there is no accountability (no "grades"), (2) there is no incentive to improve (you never graduate), (3) no matter how piss poor the assignment was, the instructor is commanded to give "commendation"?
You get a school where 90% of the members are in the spectrum of "horribly incoherent" to "just barely adequate, but boring as hell".
Just imagine the absolute chaos if real schools were conducted as the TMS?
i remember--back in the 60's--in west bromwich--UK--a lovely warm hearted west indian bro---who had no concept of timing.
end of his minskool talk--buzzer sounds--he ignores it--so--after another minute--2 bros walk up on the stage and frog-march him off---still giving his talk.
i was in tears.
Does anyone know when the MS arrangement was started? I have no idea.
The Theocratic Ministry School was formally started in 1943. It was an experimental program at Bethel a year prior to that.
Like Bungi Bill, I definitely benefited from having my shy butt forced up on stage to give talks. I went from trembling before I had to go up, to feeling quite comfortable and being able to charm the audience. Of course, it's a sort of facade that one uses when one is introverted and has to give a talk, but I think it's made me ready for any public speaking I might have to do in the business world. Certainly that experience helped me in college when I had to make presentations to the class.
As to why the school is not generally able to make great speakers, I blame a lot of it on the brother in charge of the School. He's usually borderline incompetent. And this blame goes back to the elders who appointed him in that position. We had a great school overseer while I was growing up, though.
I never figured out why they give talks with mature subject matter to kids
I've taken several short public speaking workshops given as continuing legal education requirements. The instructor said it can't be learned. He said you need to practice over and over again. We had about one hundred particpants, all lawyers, with an opportunity to get feedback from a public speaking expert. I kept thinking of the MS. Perhaps the celebrity lawyer would be nasty. Only two people agreed to participate. Perhaps there were some other MS participants in the group. They received feedback that would have cost a fortunate in a different setting. One male did very well but you could tell he was nervous. He showed me that you can be nervous and still be a good speaker. His subject was public speaking and how difficult he found it. He announced that if he did not practice several times within three months, the process would start anew.
I've been trying to find an available Toastmasters Class.
It sounds as though maybe I was unfortunate in the brother who critiqued me. I never heard anything at MS that made any sense to me. The CLE I took taught me a few nice skills. Arrive early and greet participants. Ask which topic interests them the most. I came home with all sorts of quotation books and anectdotes collections.
"The whole sister not instructing garbage annoyed me. The hokey conversation with a fake householder was so fake, even by WT fake standards."
Ditto.
