Georgia wrote: I remember a girl in my KH who upon turning the age to start high school here in Oz - 13 - her parents withdrew her from public school to be home-schooled...
Hey Georgia, you don't live on the Gold Coast by any chance?
And then further on this topic, I was actually thinking about it today at work (teacher) while I was supervising a load of year 7 and 8 kids (12-13). I realised when watching the children talking, playing, negotiating and just doing normal kid things like chatting, talking about celebrities and music, sharing photos, talking trash to each otherwhile working on projects together, and even playing handball in the quad, that the thing JW parents fear is kids being kids. One, they fear the kids working with each other to explore their kid-world and develop, and also that the things teachers tell them they have no control over.
I've really noticed the difference between school kids at play during their lunch breaks and class activities and JW kids at halls and assemblies. The JW kids are under constant control in everything from the way they speak to each other, the things they talk about, and who they hang with. At school, the kids are more or less under constant supervision too, but the teachers on playground duty don't control what they look like (except for breaches of uniform code) and what they talk about and what games they play. The teachers' concern is that the kids are safe in the playground and learning in the classroom. How the kids use their time is up to them within loose guidelines.
The JW kid, in my observation in the school playground, is a normal kid too. She chats, she talks trash, she plays handball, she runs around, she yells, negotiates- all the things kids do with each other. But at the kh and home and assemblies, she has to be like a JW adult.
Kids being kids- THAT'S what JW parents fear.