Question....Did Charles Russel Ever Finish High School?

new boy

I saw John Cedars show last night about when he visited the Headquarters and this was mentioned.

This is the first I heard of this.

The 12 Apostates

No, he was still in high school when he died.

vienne

Russell finished the Common School System, then current in the US. That meant he 'graduated' when he finished seventh grade. There after he took course work through a YMCA system.

From Separate Identity, volume 1:

The YMCA gave him the opportunity to “do some good.” The YMCA was not the social club it is today. It existed to rescue sinners and to promote Christian work. He joined the Association in 1865 or 1866. The Pittsburgh Association was originally founded in 1854 but had become moribund. It was reorganized in 1865 and became a social force in the two cities. The Association offered evening classes in Commercial Law, Public Speaking and Parliamentary Law, Engineering Mathematics, Arithmetic, Working Mathematics, Electricity, Metallurgy, Chemistry, Architectural Drawing, Mechanical Drawing, Freehand Drawing and Designing, French, Spanish, German, Italian, English, and Spelling, Vocal Music, Bookkeeping, Stenography and Penmanship. To us this strongly suggests what Russell meant when he said he was educated by “private tutors.”[1] The Pittsburgh Association also maintained an active street evangelism. Leland Dewitt Baldwin in his excellent history of Pittsburgh wrote that the YMCA “fought nobly the vanities of the world, particularly the theaters.”[2]

[1] Sarah H. Killikelly: The History of Pittsburgh: Its Rise and Progress, B. C. Gordon Montgomery Company, Pittsburgh, 1906, pages 410-411. The claim that he was instructed by “private tutors” was made by Russell in the biographical material provided to The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. See the main entry in Volume 12, page 317.

[2] L. D. Baldwin: Pittsburgh: The Story of a City: 1750-1865, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1937, 1995 edition, page 260.

Vidiot

Geoff Jackson's a high school dropout.

sir82

Pretty sure I remember from Sanderson's GB bio that he started pioneering right after high school.

Which was probably pretty much the case for all GB raised in "the truth" (Morris of course a different case, he served as a medic in the Vietnam war, obviously converted to JWism thereafter).

It's pretty much a "bona fide", if you're going to climb the JW "theocratic ladder", that you:

-- Pioneer right after (or during, for extra credit) high school

-- Apply for, and get accepted to Bethel

-- Serve as a CO and/or missionary for a number of years

-- Get called back to Bethel

fulltimestudent

To try and apply modern practise in education to the nineteenth century is stupid, My parents only had 6 to 7 years of education. And, in Australia, the common school leaving age in the late 1940's was 14.

blondie

Back in the olden days 100 years ago, many US states only required children to go to school through 8th grade. Many schools were one room schoolhouses where everyone from young to old were taught by one teacher. Children in the same age group would study in some smaller age appropriate groups but mostly much of what was taught was heard and discussed by all. I went to a historical site where they recreated a school from 1913 and had a person be a teacher, those touring would be the students. Then she asked us adults some of the questions on the test given to graduate from 8th grade. We late 20th century and 21st adults failed miserably, except for me. It was quite comprehensive, especially questions about US history. It is amazing what students today are not taught.

The 12 Apostates

How much of that knowledge is useful in the modern age though?

vienne

There is no comparison between the Common School system and American High School systems. Before I retired from teaching I would present problems from sixth readers and math books. Few of them could solve the problems.

smiddy3

I left school in early 1950 @ 14 yrs of age ,did an apprenticeship in the leather-goods trade ,and then changed tack ,got a job in the photographic industry in a laboratory ,which opened up the way for me to be employed in the oil industry as a laboratory technician and officer 34 years until I retired some 12 years ago.

So I have worked 54 years with a 14 years old education as a child.

So I think it all depends on the individual and what they are capable of and not so much there level of education at the time..

We are all different ,some with far less education than me have gone on to be far greater than I could ever hope to achieve in my lifetime.

So i`m not sure that challenging Russells schooling credentials really matters .

Question....Did Charles Russel Ever Finish High School?

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