WT Now actively encouraging Education Awake Oct 8th

by stillajwexelder 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AlanB

  This stuff Pisses me off.....

  When I completed High School, my Father told me "You are NOT going to University!". Instead I got quite a good job, one that I would not have got a few years later without a degree. Even then there were many in the congregation who looked down on me for following a "Worldly Career" when the end is just round the corner.

  20 years on......

  At least my children who are being brought up at JW's will have the chance to go to University and will hopefully learn the shallow teachings of the WTS.

  A
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  Monski

  Wish they'd come up with this idea when I was leaving school. I might not be in a dead-end job with no prospects now.
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  CountryGuy

  This is one of the big things that led me to leave the WT. I knew that I would be very unhappy working in restaurants and retail for the rest of my life. I needed to get an education to get a good job so I could support "a pioneer wife." I knew that could be my contribution. Looking back almost fifteen years later, this makes me laugh and sick at the same time.

  The congregation in the town where I went to college was very nice. The elder who's book study I was assigned to took me under his wing and we developed a genuine friendship (rare in the WT). He had gone to college before becoming a JW. While I was not labeled 'bad association' in my 'school' congregation. I was surprised to learn I was in my 'home' congregation. It helped me see the hypocricy of the whole situation. After that, I started noticing more and more...

  I hope that God holds them accountable for all the lives they've ruined.

  Country
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  mamochan13

  If they are finally allowing education, I hope so - for the sake of those young people still trapped. My peers and I were in high school at the height of the "quit school and pioneer" fad, based on the end coming in 1975. And its exactly as some here have pointed out - its not what the Awake says, its what the CO's, and the elders and the KM tells you. I gave up so many opportunities for this religion. My friends all quit school, and anyone who dared to get any kind of post secondary education was considered "weak" and scorned.

  But it still may come down to how close you are to the organization. Everyone in my family abandoned education for the religion, but most of us ended up going back to school later, realizing that we had no way to support our families. My sister has encouraged her sons to become nurses, and they are in the middle of a four year bachelor program. They are still in the religion, but I have a feeling they may not last. My brother, on the other hand, is an elder. He's so holy it would make you nauseous. His children have been encouraged to get a career that will support them while pioneering - both have taken short term training (ie. months) and nothing more. They are shallow, yet I know they used to be intelligent. Ironically their mother is a nurse - a degree achieved before she embraced the religion, and her earnings sustained the family for many years.

  It's hard for me to get on this topic. I'm so angry at the WT for so many things, and depriving me of an education is just one of the topics that really raises my ire. Stupid me. My father (non-jw) would have paid my university, but I chose pioneering. Stupid me. Now I pay my own university. Its never too late...but I still mourn for the lost years when I could have been doing so much better in life if I would have had an education. They really do keep people ignorant. Don't go to university, stay uninformed, and you are more likely to not ask questions. I remember them telling us that going to university would cause you to start accepting things like *gasp* evolution...
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  truthseeker

  The Society will encourage you to complete compulsory schooling, which is why they mentioned Nicole in the October 8th Awake.

  Obviously, single teen parents have more than likely not completed their education - the Watchtower would encourage all in this position to complete their education.

  But that is as far as it goes! Anything beyoung GCSE's or a High school Diploma is not encouraged.