J-Dubbed: He was giving her ultimatums "If we want to see him then we have to change/convert also".
Sure evidence your son is in a cult.
I suggest you and your wife get and read Steven Hassan's book, Releasing the Bonds.
how do you wake up someone taken from us by these screwed up people?.
our son was hooked by a jw at the age of 25. within 3 months they were married and we never even new about it.
he is now 29 and has nothing to do with his family(except his sister the odd time, when he needs something) of any freinds.. we are lost and have been for four years.. .
J-Dubbed: He was giving her ultimatums "If we want to see him then we have to change/convert also".
Sure evidence your son is in a cult.
I suggest you and your wife get and read Steven Hassan's book, Releasing the Bonds.
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 think you are being a bit elitist about it
What you call "elitist" I call being realistic.
It's funny, you agree with virtually everything I write, you just don't seem to like the way I write it. Oh, well.
My experience has been that the majority of families that I have worked with in our independent study program are successful, but a significant percentage are not. Judging solely by SotT's OP, he has all the hallmarks of someone that will not be successful: he has no confidence in the teacher(s), he overestimates his abilities to help his stepson with homework and he admits to not being able to maintain necessary communication with the school regarding something as mundane as an absence.
I hope he can be successful. But for him to do that he needs to be realistic, get organized, be disciplined, understand what he can and cannot do and work cooperatively with his son's teacher with the understanding they are all on the same team.
Returning to your comment about my being "elitist," I have to say, that is a very odd thing to say, and in fact you couldn't be more wrong. The skill set that children and their families need to be successful in an independent or home-school setting are most certainly not the exclusive domain of any allegedly "elite" group. I've seen wealthy families that were complete disasters in independent study programs and I've seen families that struggled financially make a huge success of these kinds of academic programs.
Success in independent study has nothing to do with being "elite;" it has to do with a certain work ethic and a particular temperament in the child. I have known many families where one child in the family took to independent study like the proverbial duck to water and yet another child in the same family struggled with the same program. Independent study is an alternative to traditional education. It is not the right fit for everyone.
Hell, some kids shouldn't be in school at all, but it's legally required in most states in the US until the child graduates, takes an equivalency test and/or emancipates.
Again, I'm a huge advocate of alternative education in its various forms. But it's not a cure-all for the many woes in education in America and it most certainly is not for everyone.
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.
GT, everything thing you said is really, really good advice!
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.
TD1914: The English version seems more loving.
May I clarify: The English version SEEMS more loving.
The WTBTS is all about appearances.
Let's review: It's a cult!
richard ashe a full-time special servant of the order of jehovah's witnesses testified in the lopez case that every single disfellowshipping and disassociation and other things have all been scanned in 2011 and are and will be on permanent record with jw's forever.
is this legal?
another completely ironic and warped thing is the disfellowshipping form is called the s77 form.
rF: the disfellowshipping form is called the S77 form. Is that a sick joke as in forgive the S(in) of your brother 77 times? Sin 77? wow.
I never noticed that little bit of irony. Sadly funny. Thanks for noticing and sharing!
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 did not read everything you wrote,
Then you shouldn't comment on it. You took several of my remarks out of context and then wrote things that agreed with other things I had said, but which you didn't know because you hadn't read them.
JWDaughter: 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.
Not merely my opinion, but facts based upon years of experience working with students in an independent school environment. I know what works and I know what doesn't. Again, had you read all of my posts you would have known that. It's not like you joined a 20+ page thread in progress.
The ironic thing is that you essentially agreed with almost everything I wrote! For example, you wrote:
JWDaughter: It definitely takes more work and time to assist a home schooled student,
This was my point. Had you read all of my posts you would have known that. That being said, I'm glad to know you agree with me.
JWDaughter: ... 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.
This is true, but they don't claim to be able to help the children with homework they themselves do not understand. These parents do what you so clearly described that your parents unfortunately did NOT do:
JWDaughter: the way [my parents] failed me was not that they couldn't help me with my homework but that they didn't make sure I was DOING it.
THIS is the appropriate role of a typical parent, particularly in a traditional school setting. However, the more a family moves from traditional schooling to independent study to home-schooling, the larger the role the parent needs to assume in--not only keeping their child on task, but--helping them with subject content area the student does not understand. Either the parent needs to know how to solve/teach the content or they need to hire tutors that do.
An AA in "childhood development" will simply not suffice.
So many parents bitch and moan about education in America (and there's a lot to complain about) and think they can do better when the fact is they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.
Oubliette
simons critcal fact = defendants assigned candace to perform field service with kendrick.
martinez testified that she saw candace and kendrick in field service together.
was candace ever assigned to anyone else?
Kendrick and Candace were seen together in FS [field service], then logically, the elders must have assigned Candace and Kendrick”.
Sorry, but the conclusion in the above statement does NOT in fact follow from the premise.
However, the elders have a fiduciary responsibility to be observant and to protect "the sheep." They should have seen Kendrick and Candace together and they should have prevented it.
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.
If you're expecting a "kinder and gentler" Governing Body, I expect you will be sorely disappointed.
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.
GrreatTeacher: your Algebra I problem is like one we work on as a bonus problem in the 4th grade! Of course, we just solve it without the algebraic equations, but it just goes to show the level of work that is now expected from younger and younger students.
Just to clarify, I took this problem straight out of our Algebra I textbook. In our school, this is a class that 9th and 10th graders would take, depending on their math proficiency.
In response to your comment that 4th graders could solve this I would say this: there are often multiple ways to solve a problem. I'm not sure how you might have 4th graders solve it, but I can imagine it would be an elementary method to have them make a table of arithmetic, adults 1-45 @ $4.50 each and children 45-1 @ $2.00 each. The kids could relatively easily multiply each pair of problems and add the sums to get a subtotal. It would be time consuming, but would certainly work.
But it would not be algebra. The whole idea of building an algebraic system of equations and understanding how to do the necessary substitutions is far more sophisticated than most 4th graders could accomplish. It is also a much higher level of thinking.
The point I was trying to make, and apparently did not, is that most parents would not know how to do this and would not be able to help their children solve this problem, which incidently is from the middle of the first semester in our Algebra I course.
To reiterate, this was in response to SotT's comment that because he has an "associates degree with childhood development coursework" he felt qualified him to help his stepson with his homework.
I'm glad he has some higher education. Hopefully it helps him understand what is and what is not developmentally appropriate for his children. It does not however prepare or qualify him to teach math, science or English.
Oubliette
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.
GrreatTeacher: I think supporting your child in the charter school program is going to be harder than you think. ... I can't imagine how much more effort it would take to also have to teach time management and project management and supervise schoolwork those extra days of the week, a lot of that being self-taught by necessity. ... My son needs the structure of a daily school routine.
Thank you for adding your insight and experience on this point. These are exactly the issues I was trying to get SotT to consider in my posts. Many people UNDERESTIMATE the difficulties in independent study while at the same time OVERESTIMATING their abilities to "tutor" their child. It's a recipe for disaster.
Again, I'm a huge advocate of alternative education. But it's not for everyone and it most certainly is not easy.
I really appreciated your comment that, "If the child is extraordinarily organized and self-motivated and is not currently having academic difficulties, it could work." This is in a nutshell the essential qualities that a successful independent learner needs to have. I've been doing this for years and I know of what I speak.
Thanks for sharing your opinion!