Posts by Saoirse

Many are the benefits that you and your family will derive from attending this school. For example, the New York Times, September 28, 1969, called attention to the seriousness of the reading situation in the United States. It reported that, according to James E. Allen, Jr., the new United States Commissioner of Education, one-third of the schoolchildren in the United States read below their grade level. But does this situation exist among the Witnesses? No, it does not. Why not? Primarily because of the Bible-reading program of their Theocratic Ministry School. Thus a mother in Ottumwa, Iowa, told that her fourth-grade child had a second-grade reading ability until he took part in the Theocratic Ministry School’s Bible-reading program as carried out at home. Then within three months he advanced to fourth-grade reading ability, to the amazement of his schoolteacher.
In the Theocratic Ministry School, in addition to learning to read well, students also learn to communicate clearly with others. Time and again its youthful students have been highly commended by their secular schoolteachers because of their ability to present interesting material in an effective manner. Thus a schoolteacher in the Caribbean island of Grenada asked a young Witness if he had ever heard his voice on a tape recorder. When the youth replied that he had not, the teacher asked him to do some talking. The youth gave a sermon on the subject "Life in God’s New Order." The teacher was visibly impressed. "You surprise me, young man! You speak so meaningfully and coherently for your age. You will make a good speaker in the future." The youth credited his ability to the training he received in the Theocratic Ministry School.
Likewise testifying to the value of this school is the incident that took place in a Luzon town in the Philippines. There the school officials asked local religious leaders to supply a speaker for an anniversary program. They declined because of not having received notice far enough ahead of time to prepare properly. Finally, on the very day of the celebration the school officials decided to ask the Witnesses to supply a speaker, and a young Witness minister responded. As the program had already begun, he at once changed from his work clothes and accompanied them. He spoke for forty minutes on the subject "Meeting the Problems of Today’s Youth." Later, when the main guest speaker, the chief school official of the entire province, got up to speak, he complimented the young Witness and said: "If I gave the speech I had prepared I would only be repeating what this young man said, and I would probably not do as well."
The wondering school faculty later asked how this Witness, an ordinary workingman, could speak so well before a distinguished audience. Yes, it was because of his attending the Theocratic Ministry School at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. As the apostles had learned from Jesus, he had learned at this school.—Acts 4:13.