Yesterday, I had an epiphany. I realized that the JW religion made my experience in school awful and I hated school because of this.
Yesterday, my kids had an activity where the whole school was out at the park, playing baseball, soccer, other pic-nic games and even swimming pools. During the day, I had conversations with the teachers and saw the kids out, playing having fun. Then I thought: Why wasn't it like this in my days? Oh, wait, it was! Its just that I would not get involved in those.
See, at the end of the year, when everything was supposed to be all fun and games, I was missing school completely. As soon as I got my final report for the year, that was it. See you next year. So while my schools did hold such activities, I was simply not there. The same can be said for every activities that were done outside the school.
It was only when I was a tenager and that my parents were "weakened spiritually" that I started doing things with the school. But it was too late, the damage had been done. I was a zealous baptized kid who saw all my teachers and school mates as future corpses upon which the birds would feast. I had no respect or appreciation for anything the teachers were doing as they were all pons of Satan believing and teaching lies and trying to shape me into a "brick in the wall" of this system.
I felt superior to everyone, enlightened! Unlike me and my "spiritual family", they were awaiting certain death in an Armageddon that was "just around the corner". If they did not accept my message, they were enemies of God and I hated them for it. With this kind of attitude, no wonder I hated school!
So, yesterday, my kids were playing with their friends, enjoying the day, and I thought: "Boy am I happy that I had the courage to leave that cult so that they would not have to go through this type of experience".