Online Higher Education

SonoftheTrinity

Since the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class now opposes Higher Education because it allegedly brings with it 'bad association', I wonder what their take is on Online Education. Let's remember that distance education was pioneered by Fundamentalist Saudi Arabia and Apartheid South Africa for the very reasons that the Jehovah's Witnesses criticize higher education. My wife is one of the faithful and I fear for our kids future, that they will see no point in keeping their grades up. She already approves of technical education, especially since our boys have both shown an interest in auto mechanics. I've thought about giving them a 6 week learning vacation when they graduate high school at the Barnett School of Bicycle Repair might get them an assembly job where they don't have to deal with annoying people as much as a service job when they graduate. Plus at least for 6 weeks they will know what it is to be young wild and free. Lord knows by the time they graduate high school they will realize how annoying the JW world is for a young black man and that annoying people in your professional life will only bring more stress. Perhaps if they can meet someone within the Organization with the same professional interests they can be study buddies in online university. I have taken online courses and that is the main drawback, that it is too easy to give in to pressure to do things other than study, so a study buddy in the same program of online education is essential. Through online education we can save money, avoid so-called 'bad associations' and the Elders are none the wiser. At least Apartheid and Wahhabism were good for something.

LongHairGal

SonoftheTrinity:

While I'm not knocking it, I wonder if employers actually view somebody with an "online" degree the same as somebody who actually went and sat in a classroom. Just sayin'.....

I remember once telling an attorney in my office that I took an online course and she made a face.

SonoftheTrinity

I think that telling people that your studies were online is NOT the best strategy in many cases, but since many colleges are hitting hard times, online programs can only get more popular. As for exclusively distance institutions, I would rather have a degree from the University of South Africa than the University of Phoenix, because it started out as the distance education division of Oxford, and because very few Americans know it is a 95% distance institution with students all over the world.

Bungi Bill

The online Advanced Diploma course that I am currently undertaking uses what they call a "Virtual Classroom" (or "Webinar" ) to counter those difficulties of distance education that you mention. The Virtual Classroom allows students to interact with both each other and the lecturer via either the chatbox or the microphone.

Having completed the theoretical component of my appranticeship by distance education, then attempted several correspondence courses after that, I am very familiar with the problems of studying by distance education. The Virtual Classroom, though, is a very effective way of keeping students motivated. (Anybody interested in pursuing such a course could check out the website www.eit.edu.au)

As an aside, this WTS / FDS / BG nonsense about "bad associations at college" merits further comment. They are okay with a young person leaving school and going to work, but not going to college - because of the issue of "bad associations". Do those idiots really believe that a young person is not going to be exposed to "bad associations" in the workplace? If so, they they are indeedtotally out of touch with reality! (As I remember well as a 17 year old, dropped fair into the middle of an alcohol-sodden workplace environment!)

Bill.

Phaedra

Times and technology have changed. Distance learning and online collaboration are things that will only increase as time moves forward.

Someday, the idea of someone spending a lot of time and resources going to a building to sit in a classroom to listen to a lecture or work at a computer will be long in the past. We live in awesome, progressive times.

Phae

LV101

How would the governing body bufoons know about college and bad association other than to envy educated, professional, men and women who've accomplished something in life and not a religious-fraud game. Losers!

perfect1

if an employer does not recognize they school where you earned your degree count on them to google it. Nothing compares to a real school with a solid reputation. There is a lot you cant get online.

villagegirl

sonofthe trinity-"My wife is one of the faithful and I fear for our kids future,"

I am puzzled that in this marriage there is not deep trust

and open communication, because if there were, she would

know your doubts. Have you read Crisis of Conscience ?

Or do you still secretly believe "its the truth " ?

Your sons have much to fear, because they will be

entirely unprepared to support themselves or buy a house

or travel to Europe or understand complex financial issus,

or how this world works in general, or even discover

their own inate inborn talents let alone develop them as real skills.

Sending them to a skill based camp is a good idea.

But isolating them from other humans and keeping them

out of the classrooms of real higher learning, is going to stunt them

in ways you cannot conceive. Will they become lawyers without

debating the law ? Will they become doctors without

dissecting a cadaver ? Will they become engineers,

without knowing how to collaborate and work with a team ?

Will they become marine biologists without

collecting specimens and working with others ?

Will they become medical technicians without working with patients ?

You have an obligation to at least try to free their minds and

liberate them from what you know to be a destructive cult that

will destroy their lives with this absurd isolation and

fear based behaviour.

The governing body are seven old white men, with one

Uncle Tom as a token, are these the heroes you want them to look up to ?

Mum

Have you encouraged your sons to explore careers and decide what they want to do?

My daughter and I are both college grads, but my 24-year-old granddaughter doesn't want to go to college. We think she will want to go back and get her education in the future, after a few hard knocks.

Your sons need to take some personality (e.g., the MBTI) and vocational interest (e.g. Strong's Interest Inventory) tests to see what they might be good at and might enjoy doing. Work is a significant part of life, and it is a pity to be doing something you did not choose or may not want to do.

smiddy

Isn`t obtaining your skills from an on-line source viewed much the same way as obtaining your skills from the armed sevices ? Second rate ?

smiddy

Online Higher Education

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