How many of you followed the WTS direction on education years ago and have been screwed by it?

by Julia Orwell 119 Replies latest jw friends

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  gingerbread

  I was fortunate to be raised by pretty liberal JW parents. I was encouraged to pursue and earn a degree (in the 1980's) and it has opened up opportunities throughout my life. I've seen the results of parents kneeled to the directions of the WT about raising kids. As these posts express, it leads to disappointment, struggles and resentment. But the JW "blame game" mentality for the woes in ones life has to stop - if a life well lived is your desire. Stop allowing the WT - or your JW parents - to control you as an adult. Erbie sets a great example! You're never too old to further your eductation. Adjust your circumstances (I know that sound JWish...) to achieve your goals. If you are in the US, take advantage of the Pell Grant and your state's grants. There are thousands of scholarships available. Get certified in something. Take classes at night or online. The majority of students in public university right now are going to school at NO COST.

  As a side note, when some of us entered into college or universities after high school we were treated very badly in the congregations and circuit. After we had our degrees, these same folks were dying for us to marry one of their kids.
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  cantleave

  My mother was and still is hardcore JW. BUT - She insisted on both my brother and I getting an education. She was a nurse my father was an engineer, education was a family value. I did my higher education on a part time time basis, I was lucky enough to be bright enough to be sponsored by my employer. I have never been unemployed and have developed the tools to problem solve and strategise, which have enabled me to run my own business for a number of years and currently build someone elses from scratch.
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  Socrateswannabe

  I grew up in the 1960s and in the area I lived in, higher education wasn't discouraged by the JWs, it was absolutely forbidden and almost unheard of. With coaching from my naive parents, I treated my high school guidance counselor as the devil incarnate. I graduated public school with as little learning as was possible. The JWs in my area got a huge boost to their ridiculous anti-education thinking, when the one guy who bucked the trend and actually received a university education, promptly left the "truth" after he graduated. See, I told you so, they clucked.
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  fresh prince of ohio

  I'm not smart enough to write the type of papers that you need to write in order to earn a 4-year college degree so kinda neither here nor there on whether I was "screwed" by the anti-education propaganda that the WTS was putting out during my stint among the Jeehoobies. A situation at the KH I attended really annoyed me though - a married couple in their mid-20s moved into the cong from another city - bro was raised in da twoof, but had gone to college and earned not only a BA but a MBA as well, and was making BANK working at a local energy company, and oh how they were the DARLINGS of the congregation. ugh it just was so utterly barfacious.
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  Refriedtruth

  I dropped out of high school in 1973 directly due to 1975 Watchtower apocalyptic prediction.
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  Newly Enlightened

  Yeah right [Sarcastic like Dr. Evil]

  YES WE GOT SCREWED!!!

  My husband & I are 49 & 51. When I was a teenager, I asked my folks if I could become a veternarian and was told 'No, armeggedon is right around the corner. My teeth are so crowded that I have a tooth that sticks straight out and cuts my lip if I'm bumped in the mouth, but my mom told me 'Oh just a wait a little bit for braces, the new system will take care of that. So now I have problems chewing and my teeth are crumbling"

  Same thing with hubby. Wanted to pursue a career in baseball. But because the new system was coming very soon, we quit school because that was what you did back then.

  So now, we're facing retirement in about 15 years. Our Social Security [according to our latest statment they send you] won't be enough for our living expenses. My husband works at a farm that raises game birds, which is physical hard labor. We live from paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford a newer car. Mine has 215,000 miles on it.

  Even when hubby was regular pioneering, God did not grow $$$ on trees and he had to come off the list.

  AND, most Elders we know, left the org. to make their $$$ when they were in their 20's & 30's and now get up on the platform and tell us how to live a life of service to God.

  Sorry, but we no longer buy into that because we have been faithful JW's for 40+ years and we have nothing.
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  free and happy

  Me too.

  I wanted to go into further education but my parents discouraged me as it ment moving away from home and they said I would get so involved in a career that I would stop going to meetings.

  They encouraged me to get a part time job and pioneer and then when you meet a nice brother, settle down and be a good wife and mother, which is what I did. I have always worked but never had a career until we left 5 years ago and I went back to school and am now in the Health Profession.

  We had a different view for our children even before we left the jws and we actively encouraged them to be who they want to be hence eldest is at uni doing a nursing degree and middle one is doing gcses soon and then off to college, as for the youngest who is only 7, she wants to be a fairy, may need help finding a college for that!
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  tenyearsafter

  I started university in 1969, much to the displeasure of my fellow JW's. I caved under the pressure from the congregation to pioneer, with an eye to the system ending in 1975, and left school. I started to wake up a bit in the 80's and went ahead and finished my degree in 1988...better late than never.

  I wanted to make sure my kids didn't fall in to the same trap, and managed to get them both through college with degrees. As a result of my wanting my kids to have an education, I was viewed as "less spiritual" and a father not putting spiritual things first. That would have devasted me in my younger years, but by then I had my foot out the door already. Both my kids have great careers and are living productive lives...both outside of the Borg.

  Unfortunately, my experience growing up in the JW's is very different from many of my friends...the majority of my old cohorts didn't go to college, and ended up in jobs that they probably would not have chosen if they had a chance at higher education. Most went in to the trades and did, and still do, hard physical labor to make a living. They have survived and made it through life, but I know they wonder "what could have been?".
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  Quendi

  Thanks for this topic, Julia Orwell. I have read the tendered responses with both interest and sadness. Here is my story. I went to college straight out of high school. I also began studying with the Witnesses at that time. Three years later, in 1977, I dropped out because even though 1975 had come and gone, “The End” was still very close and I was urged to do more for Jehovah.

  To make a long story short, I stayed out of school for twenty years before returning and finally earning degrees in geography and mathematics. I am now in my late fifties, but am every so grateful that I did get that diploma. I was able to get a teaching job after graduation and did some other things as well. Then I got laid off and was unemployed for more than three years. I have returned to teaching and am working again, but that would have been impossible without my degrees.

  The WTS has done a grave disservice to its followers by condemning higher education. There is also its hypocrisy in this matter to consider as well. Higher education is evil in its view—except when the Society needs the help and services of the college educated. Then it wastes no time urging any and all with that kind of schooling and training to lend their abilities to the Society for one of its pet projects.

  When I returned to school, the elders called on me to get me to drop out. I told them to mind their own business as this was my life and I would do as I saw fit. I was a mature adult then and made that point as well. I never heard any criticism afterwards. Indeed, a number of congregation members attended my commencement ceremonies when I graduated.

  Quendi
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  Ucantnome

  I did.

  I knew what I wanted to do when I was about 8.

  But I left school to pioneer. Worked at hard physical labour for many years. Be glad when the day is done.