Remember those stupid TESTS we would take at theocratic ministry school

by dolphman 24 Replies latest jw friends

  • BluesBrother
    BluesBrother
    Did anybody actually try to get their answers right?

    Excuse me, but when I was School Overseer I always believed that everybody took it seriously, because I did. I know of other TSOs who carefully worked through it before they read the answers, just so they did not miss out

    When I was a kid, The papers were all handed in and returned next week marked with a score out of 100. - and the written rotten review was monthly

  • shamus
    shamus

    I did terrible on those tests... got about 60 percent right... I never ever reviewed anything at home like we was supposed' to! Like I had time for that... LOL!

  • blondie
    blondie
    and the written rotten review was monthly

    BluesBrother, that had to cut that back to 3 times a year. As I said earlier, the written review was the worst attended meeting. Can't have that many people missing meetings every month.

    I did fairly well even when I wasn't regularly attending. I guess it was my "vast" reservoir of Bible WTS dogma. The school overseer knows what week certain questions are covered and many just say, "brothers and sisters, remember these points for the written review" and then repeats those questions. Too few elders prepared their parts, due to overload I'm sure. At least 3 times a month, some brother would walk in, "I have a part?"

    Blondie

  • willyloman
    willyloman
    Excuse me, but when I was School Overseer I always believed that everybody took it seriously, because I did. I know of other TSOs who carefully worked through it before they read the answers, just so they did not miss out

    Of course, it helped that we TSOs had the answer sheet!

    But, yes, I was one of those 'wonks' who studied in advance and almost always got a 100 (well, more like a 36, wasn't it?). In later years, my wife would spend the entire day before the meeting, researching the written review and writing out all the answers. At dinner time, the whole family would review the test and memorize all the true/false and other multiple choice parts. We were one family that would have been happy if all the completed 'tests' were put up on a wall display and left there for a week (looking back, I'm not sure my kids would agree).

    Apparently, my zeal was not universally shared by others. Blondie is right that the worst-attended meeting on the schedule was the night of the written review. And the reason? Guilt. Most people didn't have time to do the several hours of study required to do well on the test, and it was easier to stay home and watch TV than come to the KH and be made to feel inadequate and stupid. I realize that now. What ignorant fools we were to support this dysfunctional group for all those years!

  • Thunder Rider
    Thunder Rider

    Dolph,

    I hadn't thought of that in years. What a joke! My folks used to beat our asses if we got more than 3 answers wrong.

    So we cheated, filled in the answers as they reviewed.

    Thunder

  • SadElder
    SadElder
    the written rotten review was monthly

    Love it.

    Oh, yes the days when the poor school overseer had to grade all those papers. Even after they quit that the 'review' night always had poor attendance. The general feeling was that it was a waste of time. Never bothered with it much myself, even when I had the School.

    If they want to teach, they need to come up with better teaching methods and stop boring people to death.

  • shamus
    shamus

    Thunder,

    That's sick! How parents can do that to children is beyond me...

  • Momofmany
    Momofmany

    I used to cheat of my Mom's paper. Then give my brother the answers. My Mom used to talk about how well he did on the written reveiw, that he knew so much. Not that we wanted to trick mom, we just didn't want to get any answers wrong.

  • Undecided
    Undecided

    I remember when the written reviews started somewhere in the late 40s or early 50s. I almost always got all the answers right. If I missed one I thought I was negligent in some way. I went by the old KH that my dad built from cement blocks(they were called cinder blocks back then). He wasn't a mason but he did a good job. It's used as a small church for some religion now. It was the first KH in our area back then. I got married there the first time in 1957. Those were all good memories for me.

    Ken P.

  • SheilaM
    SheilaM

    I had forgotten ................(shudderssssssssss)

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit