As a Witness I Hated Personal Study- How About You ? (page 3)

nomoreguilt

I more or less had the feeling that after having studied every blasted book that the wts had printed, I knew all there was to know. I'm talking about the really deep stuff that started in the 50's and 60's. babylon book, Then is Finished mystery, all that good stuff. Hey, once you study all of that and then re-study the revelation book, what is left to learn??? I was in cerebral overload as it was. Personal study? After having the wt bound volumes etched in your skull? And then the AID book. Dang, we even studied that thing subject by subject at the Ministry school didn't we?

I think in the course of my dub career, we went through the reading of the bible, what 3 times???Oh, and then the Ezekial book.......Chariot wheels with eyes, cmon. If you could understand that stuff, you graduated Magna Cum Dub. This is giving me a headache, and it's only 6:30 am. Have a good day all.

NMG

snowbird

As some others have mentioned, I was/am a nerd. I love researching and getting different viewpoints on things. I remember reading the Aid Book through from Aaron to Zuzim - on my own during the summer of '73!

I began a study with the JW's in the early '70's. At first, I looked forward eagerly to getting each new copy of the WT and Awake. After awhile, with trying to raise a child practically by myself and working hard to make ends meet, keeping up with all the required reading became tedious.

I would beat up on myself because I thought I was the problem. I can't tell you how many nights I fell asleep with the magazines or books scattered one way and my glasses the other! I eventually gave up and would just wing it when it came to participating in the question/answer sessions.

Before I made my exit in '05, I had stopped completely any semblance of "personal study." It was a total joke anyway. Now, I read some part of the Bible daily and love it. The WTS has it all wrong, as usual. You cannot force spirituality on people.

Just my take, Mr. Flipper. A fantastic thread as is your wont.

Sylvia

moshe

Personal study never worked for me- I guess that is what was nice about the WT- it was like a Cliff notes for the Bible- a not very good one though!

WTWizard

I actually enjoyed studying Chemistry far more than I did the littera-trash. I almost never studied any of the meetings, since they were all so predictable and I knew that, once I mastered one, I would not need to study anything from the littera-trash. Big waste of time.

megaflower

Flipper..as usual...great writing! I only like personal study if it's on my terms. The Watch Tower mag used to get my blood boiling when one whole paragraph was just one, long run on sentence. It usually had about a thousand commas in it, making you re-read the freaking thing about 5 times to try to find out what it was saying.

As for not having enough time to read "ALL THE SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS" as is brought out at all the assemblies, work should not get in the way. As a matter of fact, you're not supposed to work at all....you should be a destitute pioneer.

As for the illustrations in the books, I always felt ones like "the great dragon" were akin to someone drawing and painting while on acid.

chickpea

i am glad to see i am not the first poster to say i really enjoyed studying..... unfortunately i was learning BS, but d@mn i was good at it!!

i took amazing notes for talks and at the DC/CAs ..... crikey i even took NOTES during the bethel tour! ...... when we visited in foreign language congregations i bluddy well made note of the year text!!! what a dupe i was..... arrgh!

hillbilly

I was lucky enough to get some exposure to crititcal thinking (formal training) in high school. I learned how to research and write in high shool. Counterpoint is a wonderful thing... i found that you could study all you wanted in the WT pubs and never find anything but what they wanted you to know.

The WT offers a closed circuit of information... plus the information vacillates (New Light, ya know!).

I never "hated" study... I like to read and learn new things. But I came to hate the JW version of it. Higlighters dont make scholars.

~Hill

darkuncle29

I hated the forced structured study or prestudy of the watch tower or any of the 'study' books. I loved just reading through the Aid book or Insight books, just reading the history or looking at maps.

AshtonCA

My parents didn't make us study before the Study. I did it because I wanted to, or actually because I wanted to answer a question during the study so I'd just highlight a few answers. Also, my friends were all forced to study theirs so I didn't want to be the only one with no yellow highlighter in mine, so I'd underline, even if it wasn't really the answer lol. I was one of those who basically underlined everything hahaha oh well, at least it looked like I was studying. I remember I'd go to the KH with my friend but we'd have to spend an hour or more studying before we went because her mom would make her study every Saturday night. I guess there is nothing wrong with that. I enjoy my personal study time now, but I'm not doing it out of some magazine either. I enjoy studying the bible and doing my daily readings. I actually look forward to my morning study time. Who'd have ever thought I would enjoy studying something, and actually look forward to the next time I could do it? Ashton

AshtonCA

LOL RE: Note taking! My mom would not let us have notepads because all we would do is doodle on them and not "pay attention" to the talks. If we didn't pick up our bibles and turn to the scriptures, my mom would know we were spacing out (which was easy to do when it was one of those droner oner elders who just would not shut up!) I'm now a note taker though. I've actually learned that it helps me concentrate way better, but then again, It's easy when you are sitting before a Baptist preacher who may let loose with a little spittle during his sermon (woohoo I love a yeller! Preach it Pastor!). No more dozing off due to sheer boredom. Ashton

As a Witness I Hated Personal Study- How About You ?

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