Thanks for all the information and links. After reading them over, I still don't see any scriptures that prohibit going to college. This seems to be a case of mere imperfect humans going "beyond what is written" in an effort to "lord it over" the congregation and "exercise authority over" its members. (Matt. 20:25) It is the height of hypocrisy to condemn so-called higher education in the publications but then use attorneys, architects and lawyers at the Watchtower headquarters. True Christians do not condemn something out of one corner of their mouths, but then out of the other corner praise selected individuals who can benefit their cause. The ends cannot justify the means.
The example of Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary, is taken out of context in an effort to discourage college. Baruch wrote down the prophecy of Jerusalem's doom from the mouth of Jeremiah and read it to the king, the princes and the people. He was an eyewitness to Babylon's seige on Jerusalem. What he did took a lot of courage and it made him weary. Understandably he sought "great things for himself," if great means wanting to live a life that wasn't all doom and gloom. It had nothing to do with trying to get a college education. You would have to twist the scriptures beyond recognition to make such an application.
At times the WT has praised individuals who go to technical schools, but even those schools are often more costly, have high drop out rates, and produce unreliable results in comparison to colleges. High school is praised even though many students leave with no useful job skills. Statements are made in the publications that a college degree has limited value and doesn't guarantee work, but in the same articles it mentions that people who get their degrees are materialistic and striving to be rich. You can't have it both ways. The articles don't mention that most jobs today do require a degree even if you have the skills. They also don't mention that you can earn various levels of degrees such as an associate's degree, a bachelor's degree, a master's degree or a doctoral degree, and most of these won't earn you wealth. Getting an associate's or bachelor's degree doesn't mean you're materialistic, it just means you want a job so you can fulfill your scriptural obligations.
To discourage fellow Christians from getting a proper education to support his family borders on apostasy when you consider Paul's warnings at 1 Timothy 5:8: "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" and 2 Thessalonians 3:10: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
One more thought, why is it that the WT urges children to go to grade school through high school in the face of taunts, bullying, the flag salute issue, the holidays, sports, sex education, etc., even though they are only minors, but yet adult Christians are too weak for evolution classes and critical thinking courses in a more mature setting found at universities? There must be a hidden agenda here somewhere. It reminds me of the plantation owners who kept their slaves uneducated in order to control them.
