Posts by JWdaughter

33

Semi Home Study Based Charter School vs. Regular School

by SonoftheTrinity in

i blame my stepkids bad grades in school squarely on the watchtower.

they don't get enough sleep because of the demands of family bible study and thursday meetings but comprimise isn't in my wife's vocabulary.

my stepson has friends at school but there are also bullies, and the classes are overcrowded with sicknesses spreading through them in a way that is detrimental to the family's health.

JWdaughter

Oubilette, I commented on what I read-and the impression that I strongly got was that you were giving that dad a hard time as well as any parent trying to educate a child, when the parent doesn't have the education that you seem to deem necessary. I think you are being a bit elitist about it, however I do agree that many parents jump into the home-schooling thing with a lot more naivete and bravado than they ought to have. It isn't EASY to teach children, but I know many very successful home-schooling parents (and a few disasters). I do think that an interested parent with a reasonable education (in any field) can make it work if they have the right reasons and support. The public school system is very challenged-and they are responding with alternatives. I dont think schools are necessarily a disaster, but they have to meet the needs of a lot of children that would formerly have been shuffled off to institutions, special schools, or kept at home. Not all children can dealI well with the public school system for various reasons-some are the children who formerly would have been somewhere else and some are the children whose normal variations become much more of a effort when in this more inclusive and challenging environment.

Rather than attacking or venerating all homeschoolers, I think it is a good idea to figure out whether this is the right thing for the little boy whose JW mom may have agendas other than educating her son. The father will figure out soon enough if he is up to it. It isn't rocket science, and he has the advantage that most teachers do not. He knows the child and has real insight into how he operates and what challenges him and interests him. If the situation with the mom warrants it, it might be a good idea. Or not. Its a reversible decision!

SOTT I love you for trying to help your son and not accepting the status quo. With serious gang issues, I'd rip the out of a dangerous situation too. Great teacher has a great suggestion. Find SOMETHING that kid can be great at. If he is the best cookie maker, birdhouse painter, trumpet player. . . whatever. My sis was having trouble with one of her kids who was smart and normal and had a brother who just excelled at academics and sports and is great looking, too. He is that kid that dads want their sons to be. Well, being the older sister of a paragon is no easy thing. Smart, but not as smart. Played sports, but was never the star. She was headed into the land of goth and spikes when she stumbled into the performance arts. She is dramatic, she can sing, she can dance. That is HER thing. She is happy-not because she is a star but because she found something that she is good at that she enjoys.Much happier kid. My brother found his nirvana in fishing.My son is a singer, my daughter an artist.Not for money, for love.

30

The Opal Ring: a story based on the true life of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

it's finally finished!

it's a fictional story about an old jw.

it is very long, about 7000 words.. the opal ring.

JWdaughter

Good story, Julia.Thank you for taking the time to write it and share it with us. Sometimes we are the choir being preached to, here, but sometimes it is so nice to know someone "gets" us. Thank you.

19

"in" Family driving me crazy on social media

by freemindfade in

does any other fader who maintains a minimal connection to preserve family ties have this issue:.

i post something on ig, facebook whatever.

and from my super zealous family i get preachy posts.

JWdaughter

Before I shut off my FB, the only posts that were for the public were the ones that I shared. When going to other's, I often see everything ever posted to them. TMI. Ultimately, I got sick of it, so no more FB. I hate social media mostly. I waste enough time here.

52

The beginning of the end for shunning?

by Saltheart Foamfollower in

the borg seem to prepare for changes by missing explanations out for a while then presenting a "new understanding" which doesn't contradict the most recent discussion.check out the most recent references to gog - no identification as satan.. in today's wt study, paragraph 15 concerning benefitting from the prodigal son stated "if we meet a person who has strayed from the congregation, will we offer loving and practical help to assist him to return?

" there is no footnote or other qualifier saying not to go to disfellowshipped ones (who are definitely the ones being talked about) which is still the official policy.

i know this isn't an ending to shunning, but it may signal the start of the preparation for a change.

JWdaughter

Most mormons do not shun in the way that the JWs do. They may excommunicate him, but if he shows up to meetings, it will be the rare LDS who would overtly give him the cold shoulder in church. He won't have "priesthood" responsibilities (or any) or go to the temple. That's pretty much it. They won't take his tithing money (boo hoo?). They just do it to officially control people and to discipline them (make an example out of them- (same reason JWs do, just not usually so ugly).

33

Semi Home Study Based Charter School vs. Regular School

by SonoftheTrinity in

i blame my stepkids bad grades in school squarely on the watchtower.

they don't get enough sleep because of the demands of family bible study and thursday meetings but comprimise isn't in my wife's vocabulary.

my stepson has friends at school but there are also bullies, and the classes are overcrowded with sicknesses spreading through them in a way that is detrimental to the family's health.

JWdaughter

I have homeschooled and worked with teachers in the PS system. I was hired to teach first grade in a private school and was just smart enough to back out before I damaged anyones critical early years of education. I have taught at the college level (and was kind of awesome, thank you) and IELTS. I am pretty conversant with the education system. In grammar school, teachers deal with a wide variety of subjects but their expertise is teaching and managing a classroom rather than their claim to fame having been that they know the ABCs or how to do simple math. There is more knowledge required in the upper levels, but the things that are being taught are the same things that most parents forgot around the time the midnight feedings started after parenthood. Teachers go to college and learn techniques to deal with different educational styles, how to manage a classroom and sometimes focus on a particular academic subject-but they don't know everything.

I think that a reasonably intelligent person should be able to help a child in a structured educational program when they know the child well if they have any kind of personal discipline. Keeping kids on task is the biggest challenge of teaching, IMO. Or my biggest challenge, anyway. One is a lot easier than 23 or 40.

I did not read everything you wrote, but I just picked up a strong opinion about those without college working with a semi-home schooled student. I wasn't sure where it was coming from. It definitely takes more work and time to assist a home schooled student, but parents work with their children in the PS system all the time and many of these parents do not have the same degrees that teachers do.

Neither one of my parents had the level of schooling that I did by the 9th grade, but the way they failed me was not that they couldn't help me with my homework but that they didn't make sure I was DOING it. They were simply uninvolved (Dad was too busy, mom was too much a JW to care). I think the most critical thing that the son has going for him at this point is not the kind of school that he attends, but that he has a father who gives a damn. How many of us would give our eye teeth for a parent who cared as much as this guy?

My biggest worry is not about the semi home school itself, or the teacher, or the dad-but if mom is going to be dragging this boy off to FS, then he would be better off in the PS system altogether. She will keep him from other kids and he might well be extremely isolated in the congregation. THAT would be a lot more tragic than any minor academic consequences. For a normal family with a child who would grow in that kind of system, I would LOVE the semi home school system. In a JW family, I find it problematic and am conditionally enthusiastic. You or another poster brought up the personality/needs of the child. That is important to consider. And playing at being teacher is NOT what any child needs a parent to do. It takes a lot of committment to home school.

10

Lock the parking lot gate after the meeting starts?

by MinisterAmos in

jw
friends

quick synopsis...the local spanish congo is the only one in about a 40 mile radius.

most of the members live nearby, but the ones in the outskirts have up to a 1 hour trip depending on beach traffic.

recently the wife and i noticed that the hall's parking lot had been secured by a wall and electric gates added to all three exits and entrances.

JWdaughter

Great, lock me out. Terrifies me that they feel the need to lock everyone else IN. That seems like some sort of fire or safety code violation. . . anyone check into the safety aspects of such an act? It seems kind of nasty-and I am not for one minute worried about the latecomers. The more of the general public that is protected from the cult, the better.

33

Doh! wife is about to hear the trololol song

by freemindfade in

doh!

here i sit on my laptop on this site, while the wife is watching dubtv over there, she is watching the feb one with trololololy song at the end... i am trying to hold back my laughter because i know it is coming soon!

how will she react???

JWdaughter

Sad to go through life thinking the only thing that keeps you from being a depraved monster is that you have to go to meetings each week and you will be kicked out if you don't follow the rules.

Even if it is false they think it worth wasting their whole existance serving the organization?

Too pathetic.

18

Joseph and Potiphar's wife

by StarTrekAngel in

what are the real reasons joseph refused to sleep with potiphar's wife?.

the watchtower and others teach that joseph refused to commit adultery.

specifically to the jws, we teach that joseph, somehow, knew that adultery was wrong, despite not having any specific rule or writing to teach him so.

JWdaughter

Whether or not there was "god's law" in place, that doesn't mean that morality was not a concept. And yes women WERE property and there are some things that are just "not right" no matter where/when you are from. Even folks without religon usually have the concept of sexual morality in a marriage relationship.

Women were (and are) bargaining chips. You don't mess with that if you value your life. It was a man with great power. Even now, infidelity is not treated lightly and many people do not subscribe to biblical morality. (such as it is)

33

Semi Home Study Based Charter School vs. Regular School

by SonoftheTrinity in

i blame my stepkids bad grades in school squarely on the watchtower.

they don't get enough sleep because of the demands of family bible study and thursday meetings but comprimise isn't in my wife's vocabulary.

my stepson has friends at school but there are also bullies, and the classes are overcrowded with sicknesses spreading through them in a way that is detrimental to the family's health.

JWdaughter

Oubillette, the reason I said for him to not worry about the the child academically was because the child has a TEACHER and there is a plan, not the parents plan, to educate the child according to school standards. The parent doesn't need to be a qualified teacher in this case, but rather, an involved parent. He isn't making the lesson plans or grading. Like any parents, they need to supervise, help and direct to a certain degree. The parent in this situation has a great opportunity to enrich the child's learning, but isn't responsible to teach them the basics. That is on the school and their program.

With all due respect, I don't think that you're in any position to judge grammar. Or spelling. That's not an attack-we are not here to prove our worthiness to enter an English master's program and plenty of us are not doing our "best work" as we dash off our quick responses here. I really don't think that you were attacked and hope you don't take it that way, I don't think it was meant that way.

I have edited and proofed scholarly engineering papers and really had no clue as to what I was reading-but I educated myself to do the job well enough that I still get freelance assignments referred by former students from across the globe (I love paypal!) I have helped people get into the graduate engineering programs in Europe and the US. I am no engineer, though. I'm barely an English teacher:)

If this dad has trouble "helping", there are resources all over the web and through the school district to help with every problem foreseeable.

The bit about the truancy-things slip. That doesnt make us incapable as parents. It makes us human. This is obviously a man who cares for his son and is doing the best for him. Please don't attack parental competence based on something like that. It't unfair. I've had a chronically ill child and if you just don't date the excuse slips properly, you won't know it till there is a problem reported.

Do you have an issue with homeschooling in general? These programs are not the stereotypical kind of homeschooling plan.

I wish someone IN the public schools had cared that I totally zoned out on maths and science. My GED dad could have taught me better!

72

Is the preaching work, no longer the number 1 priority?

by ToesUp in

i have been observing a pattern in recent wtbs publications and events.

is the importance of the preaching activity no longer the number 1 priority?

are not billions of lives still at stake?.

JWdaughter

INSIDE THE KH:

The WT changed the rules of what makes a JW-the hours used to be 2 hours. Now it is 15 minutes in a pinch. A MONTH. My mom does that much "witnessing" to me each month and it is a subject we are not even supposed to talk about! (She's older, I just let it go these days). Children are being baptised earlier. 15+ was standard when I was a kid. Now 9 seems to be accepted.

I am sure a few come in from the doorknocking-but the numbers do not lie-baptism rates as related to hours reported have gone down immensely. So, you have more publishers putting in so many hours and getting so few baptisms (total) in return compared to how many hours per baptism was required a couple of decades ago. Numbers don't lie.

I am not trying to be snarky, but you seem pretty loyal to the Society. What is a nice JW like you doing in a place like this?