Judging by the material that my kid brings home on a daily basis in copius amounts. Everything about everything in elementary school goes against the doctrines of the Jehovah's witnesses. How do JW's expect to make any money if all of their kids are defecting the JW's? How can the business of being a jehovah's witness survive if they have to fight yet another battle with the elementary school teachers of the world? It's just not fair.
I'm Shocked The Jehovah's Witnesses Even Allow Their Kids To Go To Mainstream Schools.
by Jehovanomics 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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OneEyedJoe
A great number of the parents in my area have begun homeschooling their kids for just this reason - they want to avoid "worldy influence." I think homeschooled kids in my congregation outnumber the ones in public school.
I wouldn't be surprised if homeschooling began to be encouraged by the WTS in the years to come. They'll probably start by mentioning it off-handedly in a convention talk and giving it subtle positive recognition (we all know how the uber-dubs will find every minor detail of a convention and just run with it). Once they see how that goes over they'll throw it into CO talks or KMs and maybe the WT a couple years later. That way if they ever need to make it required, almost all of the JWs will already be doing it, or they'll just say "I thought that's how it always was."
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sseveninches
This is a thought that has crossed my mind too. A big part of going to school is learning to socialize and network, and to become a valuable member of society, while the JWs teach the exact opposite of all of that. By going to school, children are exposed to people of all backgrounds, cultures, orientations, religions, and more. As they mature and begin to think for themselves, they are bound to question a few things from their own religious background. So it makes perfect sense to me for a JW parent to decide to homeschool their children rather than send them to public/private schools.
Given that the widely known and accepted retention rate of born-ins are 33%, it seems to agree with what your saying: mainstream schools are not good for business. But don't give them any ideas...we should be discouraging homeschooling as much as possible (because JW parents are horrible at it), and let the kids go to regular schools. They need it, and it contributes to getting rid of the borg.
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DesirousOfChange
The JW children that I know whom have been home-school are clearly disfunctional. Going to the meetings with other JWs does NOT equal the socialization there is among peers at school. Eventually this people will need to function in our society to earn a living and simply live their lives. Many will have greater difficulty because of their lack of experience.
Doc
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Separation of Powers
What?!? And not allow them to build up their defenses against using their hand to draw the tail of a turkey!!! They need to stand up for righteousness from an early age....If they can die for not taking a blood transfusion, they can take the heat for not celebrating Mother's day! Toughen up little Witness kid! It will only get worse from here!
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garyneal
Yeah, I think of our kids and how my wife feels about what they are being taught at public schools. The schools in our area do not officially celebrate the holidays due to their being politically correct with all the religions (remember the Jehovah's Witness religion is not the only religion to not celebrate Christmas for example) which I actually agree with but they still do some things related to the holidays. My kids come home frequently with Mother's Day cards, Christmas themed crafts, etc. not to mention the interaction with people of other faiths.
If you want to get a glimpse of what witness children will be like if everyone turned to home schooling look no further than your other fundamentalist sects who advocate it on a whole. Look particularly at the quiverfull movement (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nolongerquivering/) at the sections that speak about homeschooling.
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Apognophos
This is increasingly a subject of interest to me as I am realizing that more of the kids in our cong. are being home-schooled than I thought. At least some of them seem well-adjusted nonetheless. I'm just frightened by the absolute vacuum of information counter to their beliefs in that environment, as well as not being able to see that non-Witness kids can be good association.
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millie210
The Jws allow secular schooling because there is no money in it for them to provide schools.
Plus it keeps parents from the preaching work.
So there is no upside for not allowing kids to go to school.
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OneEyedJoe
The Jws allow secular schooling because there is no money in it for them to provide schools.
Plus it keeps parents from the preaching work.
So there is no upside for not allowing kids to go to school.
I suspect allowing secular schooling has more to do with legal implications of an outright ban on it - in some countries this may be illegal or otherwise problematic. It would be difficult to justify (though I'm sure they'd manage if they wanted to) such an action from the scriptures, so any government (aka superior authority) would have the final say. That's why I'd expect any action against public schooling to at least start with talks (conventions or CO visits) so that they'd have deniabilty if parents start getting in hot water with the government.
I don't think they care about it actually keeping parents from preaching - the preaching work is more about keeping JWs busy so if they allow homeschooling they'd actually be better off since parents would still have to "get in their time" and they'd have to deal with homeschooling and would thus have even less time to think critically about their belief system.
The upside is (probably) that they'd have a higher retention rate of JW children, and thus better long-term profitibility. That said, they're going to be at least profitable enough, long enough, for the existing GB to live out their lives. That may well have something to do with why the GB doesn't seem to care about youth retention.
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prologos
For JW kids, school is there assigned preaching territory. You could auxiliary pioneer without ever setting your service feet ouside the school grounds. I mentioned that to my teenage son, and he winced. good for him.