RULES & REGULATIONS

My nephew called me Sunday night to tell me that his nine year old son was giving his first talk. He gave me the Zoom i.d.. and password for his Congregations in-person Tuesday night meeting.
I haven't been to any meetings in nine years. Many things have changed. The comments were typical Watchtower ''Parroted'' answers. The boredom almost killed me.
I get on Zoom five minutes before the meeting starts. There are 74 people on the Zoom meeting. Ten members are on a live screen, and the rest have their video turned off. A new song ( awful ) is sung, and the usual '' bless the Governing Body'' prayer is given.

An Elder gives a talk about King David and the book of Samuel. ( The Governing Body love King David with all his faults and imperfections, but have no problem throwing everyone else out of the Congregation for minor infractions)

Next, my nephew's nine year old son walks to the stage. ( WHY IS HE EVEN ON STAGE? Why did his dad and the Elders find it necessary for a nine year old to get up in front of an audience and read Bible passages? )

He reads from a tablet ( instead of a Bible ) and looses his place many times. He puts his finger on the tablet so he won't get lost. The Bible reading is over in less than 3 minutes. The Elder thanks him for his fine talk and looking forward for more fine talks to come.

The Elder critiqued his talk on how well he read. He did a great job on his Bible reading. A nine year old should of never been up on stage in the first place!

road to nowhere

There is a slight gain in learning how to contain stage fright, and face an audience. There is no school in the school any more. If you watched the other parts you notice there is nothing resembling real life.

When I touch my tablet it goes odd places, so that part was good.

Sometimes the 9 year old reads better than the instructor.

TonusOH

I was nine years old the first time I went on stage to read the week's Bible passage. Though I am pretty sure that my first few times were in one of the secondary rooms that only had seating for a dozen people or so. Those rooms were used for beginners a lot, since the smaller room/capacity made it more cozy and less intimidating.

I did pretty well, I had an aptitude for public speaking. Which is odd, since I was also painfully (and I mean painfully) shy and withdrawn, most of the time.

Queequeg

One of the positive things that I gained from being a JW was being comfortable with public speaking.

I gave my first talk at age six.

iloowy.goowy

yeahhhh, some things change, some stay the same, some have gotten way, way worse. At one time the TMS had tests, which were scored and graded. And then there was the talk in a District Convention where they sternly counseled against using digotal devices on stage and you were no good if you didn't use your paper NWT to read from. But the emphasis on very young children joining the school has always been a practice in KH's. For many of us, Queequeg, I'd agree, it was a positive result of the training for speaking in public more comfortably and even doing research to draft your talk, good skills for sure.

Mum

Brainwash them while they're still young and think you know everything! Don't teach them critical thinking, but how to be a good drone. Never mind great poetry, great prose, great books, great music, learning in general. The important thing is bare survival and regurgitation of fantasy beliefs.

MeanMrMustard

He puts his finger on the tablet so he won't get lost.

This would scare me .. that he would swipe his finger along the screen and dismiss the entire passage.

Question: In JW talks, Is it unpopular to read from an actual Bible now? Does the GB promote tablets over Bibles?

waton

There was a footstool for the kids to stand on. great for reading skills. audience contact skills. problem is, if you are not of the right clique, the same person might be still only reading 10-15 years from now. and without saying anything meaningful after the reading, unlike Jesus in the synagogue in his home town,

Of course a truly meaningful comment would ban you from ever reading up front again, like what happened to the carpenter from Galilee.

FedUpJW

In JW talks, Is it unpopular to read from an actual Bible now?

Yes it is. ~~Tablets~~ I forgot, I should use the WT approved term, electronic devices, were just really catching on when I pretty well dropped out of sight at meetings, but I was given a stern talking to by a thirty some odd year old elder about how I should be a better example of keeping up to date with the society and their use of electronic devices instead of relying on hard copies of the Bible or publications. Besides the fact I was informed that paper copies were "really expensive and labor intensive" to produce when I could just go buy an electronic device and have everything right at my fingertips. What a muh-roon!

Last nights Zoom meeting: Watching a nine year old on stage reading Bible passages