WT Q&A Study Method

by leaving_quietly 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  leaving_quietly

  For years, I've never understood why we read a paragraph, ask a question, and then recite what we just read in the paragraph, and at the WT Study, it's an hour long period of severe boredom because, well, how many times can we recite the same stuff over and over? Even new ones who come in have been baffled at this method of teaching. I have a theory, though.

  However, I just read the "What Is Sacred Service?" post over on jwstruggle.com (http://www.jwstruggle.com/2012/03/what-is-sacred-service/), and I think I finally have a theory about the Q&A study method employed by the WT. If one were to read the WT article straight through without interruption, they might see the contraditions within articles, just as this posting mentioned (para 5 compared to para 2). It's the same as reading the Bible straight through instead of cherry-picking scriptures. Everything would be in context. However, by stopping at the end of a paragraph or two to ask a question, even when preparing for the study ahead of time, the average JW would not see the contradictions because the thought process is interrupted by those questions and the instilled need to highlight the answer.

  There have been interesting studies about interruptions with relation to various types of work (e.g. writing, software development, etc.) It takes the brain quite some time to get back into "the groove", so to speak, when interrupted. The questions at the end of the paragraphs are just that: interruptions. The flow of an article is interrupted enough so that the mind has a difficult time connecting the dots between paragraphs, and thus, it's easy to overlook the many contradictions and odd statements that are made. My awareness has been heightened in recent months, but I find that I still miss a lot of the contradictions that so many of you easily pick up on.
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  Marvin Shilmer

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  Interesting observation. Take a look at what Watchtower says:

  Watchtower Identifies Brainwashing available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2012/04/watchtower-identifies-brainwashing.html

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
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  sabastious

  Leaving_quietly that is an excellent observation. In fact after I left the Watchtower I started ignoring the Q&A while reading the study articles and they suddenly appeared completely fabricated. They have to stop at each paragraph and solidify the indoctrination by Q&A or else it doesn't work. I still cannot believe that I fell for them for so long. Great point!

  -Sab
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  frankiespeakin

  Read paragraph,, read question,,, answer question from material in paragraph,,, deveiation strongly discurraged,,, is a very hypnotic form of indoctrination,,keeps them all zombies with watchtower directives operating the corpse of an ego from repeated indoctrination.
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  NVR2L8

  The CO that visited the congregation just before I left made a comment that sounded alarm bells: "If a false statement is repeated often enough, in time people end up believing it is the truth" ...I asked myself where do I hear the same thing over and over again? Where do I accept everything said as the truth without question? Yes at the KHall! Toward the end I could pretty much predict what the speaker would say next, what scripture he would use, what the scripture said and how it would be applied....that what 50 years of repetition does to you...but not once did I question the truthfulness of what I was hearing....
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  Bobcat

  The rote repitition is not at all unlike what kindergarten and early elementary children do. Like repeating alphabets, basic numbers and multiplication tables. It is made for drillinng ideas in. You will notice that many WT catch phrases like "slave class" (and its iterations), "little flock", "other sheep", "sons of the kingdom", "wheat class", etc, are simply repeated without explanation. Some of the phrases are actually Bible phrases but the WT has succeeded in attatching their own unique meaning to them.

  You should know concerning the questions for the paragraphs:

  These should be considered every bit a part of the paragraph. The WT study conductors have been instructed not to rephrase the questions. The questions are designed to direct you towards a particular conclusion. And in doing so they will often short cut your thinking to prevent you from thinking along lines they don't want you to go.

  I'll give you an example (because it was on my mind for other reasons.) :

  In the Revelation Climax book on page 234, paragraph 38: The paragraph discusses Rev 16:18-21. Verse 19 starts out by saying, "And the great city was split into three parts." The "B" part of question 38 says,"What is symbolized by (b) the fact that "the great city," Babylon the Great, is split into "three parts."?

  Here, the question identifies "the great city" for you. That, despite the fact that there are two different "great cities" in Revelation. The idea that it could be the other "great city" (from 11:8) is never allowed to come up.

  Whoever said above about reading the paragraphs without the questions was on the right track. If you read the paragraphs without the questions you may very well get a different view of the material than what the WT intends.

  BUT, you should also keep in mind that the paragraphs themselves also will contain thought stopping ideas and ideas to direct your thinking. Wading through all that, once you've become aware of it, can make reading WT literature very cumbersome to the mind.
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  blondie

  Back in my grandfather's day when he was the conductor, there were no set amount of paragraphs to study. A sister from that time told me that sometimes because of all the extra discussion, only 3 or 4 paragraphs would get discussed in one hour.

  Also, at first the WTS asked that the congregation submit questions for the paragraphs.

  Up until the mid-1970's, the question was asked first, discussed, and then the paragraph was read. The WTS realize that few people pre-studied and were reading the paragraphs when the question was asked. When they changed it to the paragraph being read first, people had a chance to familiarize themselves with the article for the first time, haha.

  I figured there are 3 kinds of people who answer

  1) People who read from the paragraph word for word

  2) People who switch the words around a little bit to give the appearance of putting it in their own words

  3) People who research beyond the paragraph (now they are sanctioned from doing so)

  Also several categories of starting out their answer

  1) The paragraph says

  2) The magazine says

  3) The book says

  4) The slave says (extreme ones say mother)

  5) and the rare bird that actually says "the bible says" and reads a scripture
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  leaving_quietly

  @blondie: "3) People who research beyond the paragraph (now they are sanctioned from doing so)"

  So very true. At the week-long school for Cong. Elders, they said: "We have a part for that. It's called the Bible Highlights." No going "beyond what [the GB] has written", but feel free to put whatever spin you'd like on the Bible for, say, 30 seconds (the encouraged max length of a Bible Highlights comment.)
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  00DAD

  Q: What do JW's believe?

  A: Whatever the paragraph says!
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  james_woods

  Up until the mid-1970's, the question was asked first, discussed, and then the paragraph was read. The WTS realize that few people pre-studied and were reading the paragraphs when the question was asked. When they changed it to the paragraph being read first, people had a chance to familiarize themselves with the article for the first time, haha.

  Yes, this is the way I remembered it - question first, then read paragraph later.

  Either way, it is an idiotic waste of time - no college (or even elementary school) class is conducted this way.