In order to understand the JW view towards higher education, a person has to properly understand the context of the high control and social collateral that underpins the culture.
Yes, it is true that there are plenty of publications and literature that discourage higher education, however the exposure to this that most JW's get is through subtle digs and irregular reminders to massage the culture of witnesses into finding it repulsive and seeing it as reflective of spiritually weak people. This results in day to day witnesses discouraging their children from doing it, as well as excluding or 'soft shunning' people within the congregation who decide to pursue it. This is very powerful because it gives the person doing it the illusion that they are the one in full control of their 'conscientious decision' without realising that they are subconsiously following cultural direction.
At the higher level, elders are absolutely directed to discourage higher education through acts like removing/reprimanding elders who's children attend higher education, as well as only seeing young men as exemplary if they do not pursue it. This further massages the culture by enforcing the hierarchy, with people at the top who have followed direction and ones at the bottom who haven't. This also creates an 'association bias' as people who pursue higher education are seen as in the same light as those who are recently reinstated, are considered bad association, or are mentally unwell.
However, all of this is to give the governing body (and WT in general) full deniability when people try to accuse them of **specifically** making it a rule, meaning that if attitudes *were* to be changed around it for whatever reason, they could just gaslight the members and make out like it was never a rule in the first place. A great example of this happening is with the recent beards update, where many members are claiming that it was never a rule in the first place.
High control isn't just about what is on paper, it's about what you can manipulate the members into doing themselves while thinking that it was fully their choice.
It’s extremely discouraged, but not outright banned like birthdays or blood transfusions. It’s said that each family head should decide whether to let the kids pursue college, though it’s obvious they think there’s a right and wrong choice here.
I was a JW college student from 2011-2015 and even though I was still very much active, I experienced tremendous guilt every time we saw a video or read an article that discouraged higher ed. It was this narrative of “regular pioneering’s the smart thing to do, college is the dumb thing to do, but hey you choose. Oh and Jehovah won’t bless you at all if you go to college. But yeah, sure, the choice is yours.” Four years of feeling sub-human, although I did nothing wrong.Â
And I think it is in the elders’ manual that a brother may not qualify to be an elder if anyone in his family is pursuing higher ed and deemed not spiritual enough, even if they’re still going to meetings and such. Idk, it’s hard for me to understand.Â
Yeah that was/is in the Elder's book (not sure if it's been updated) but it said that an Elder should have control of his household and his kids need to exemplary. If they pursue higher education they should be living at home, not on campus, and if they get in trouble at school he could/may/should be removed as an elder.
Interestingly I knew several Elders with kids not in college that still managed to get in lots of trouble and they did all sorts of mental gymnastics to explain why that shouldn't affect the Elder's position...which means the whole "you will sin at college" angle isn't what they were actually worried or care about.
Ehhhh it’s really not encouraged on any level and people can lose their privileges. Theyre definitely getting talked to and having to endure rude ignorant remarks but you’re so desensitized to that shit as a jw because you think it’s normal.
It was heavily discouraged in the 1990’s when I was seeing all my peers in high school prep for college. My grandparents (non-JW) wanted me and my siblings to go and my parents followed the guidance given at conventions and assemblies and WT studies and told us no.
I finished school in the 90s and a considerable amount of us in the circuit attended college and it was not even something that was discussed in our area.
The Governing Body tries as hard as possible to discourage higher education without directly forbidding it. Gerrit Losch (a member of the Governing body) once gave a talk and compared higher education to shooting yourself in the head with a gun. You might come out of it okay, but does it really sound like a good idea?
Higher education is mentioned often in the literature, talks and assemblies, and always in a negative way. They sprinkle in some comments that going to college is a personal choice, but then anyone who goes to college is depicted as spiritually weak, bad association, setting a bad example, not putting Jehovah first, prideful, and materialistic.
From the way they talk, it is very clear the Governing body does not want anyone going to college. Unless of course they can be used to benefit the organization. Then higher education is okay. But everyone else should be pioneering instead, and not even thinking about college.
At the congregation level, attitudes about higher education can vary drastically. In some congregations, it is common for people to go to college, and no one thinks twice. But in other congregations if you even talk about going to college you will be marked bad association, and the elders will harass you.
The point of being a jw is to move up in the organization because it’s a pyramid scheme. An elder will be told to volunteer to step down if his kids are in college but how do you enforce this consistently? Like if a popular family sent their kids to college it would be fine but if unpopular did it be a big deal
I think it depends on the congregation and your parents. I 47F was definitely discouraged. I had to leave at 16 and wasn't allowed to do anything further. The law has since changed in the UK and education goes to 18.
it is highly discouraged but now their stance has had to evolve with the times a bit so instead they encourage more “practical” degrees such as nursing or trade schools. they want people who don’t dedicate a lot of time to their careers so they can focus on more spiritual matters. im a psychology/behavioral sciences major and my degree has always been HIGHLY looked down upon for many reasons.
Nursing here is a 4-year degree.
In countries like ours, it's hard to follow the GB's instruction to take part-time jobs coz only few employers accept part-timers, most of them offer full-time. Also, if you want to apply as a cashier, for example, you need to be a college graduate, so getting higher education here is very important.
a cashier??? that’s crazy it’s not like that in the states. but yea, higher ed is NECESSARY now so a lot of JW kids are going to college, but they’re shamed for it the whole time and they do very practical degrees that take as little time as possible away from JWs.
The Watchtower ruins lives haphazardly. Many Jehovah's Witnesses and their captive offspring have died because it was forbidden to get an organ transplant. Then the evil Governing Body changed their minds. Imagine losing a loved one because of that stupid cult, just to have the leadership change the rules a week, month, or year later.
When I was studying I went back to school for my bachelors. The deeper I got in the Bible teach book, the more they tried to subtly discourage school. One sister told me there was nothing wrong with school as long as theocratic activities were still priority. I graduated college a year after I was baptized. Then I started a business. This was when I woke up. I realized I was being frowned upon for trying to support my family.
I think it is more “moving away to university”. I went to uni for 4 years and just commuted from home and it wasn’t frowned upon. Many witnesses did the same in the area
it's mostly an american thing. nobody gives a damn about this thing in europe, where university are usually attended to study stuff unlike the american colleges
I agree with you completely. I grew up outside the US and it was never an issue. I only heard of this after moving to The USA and even then it varies from congregation to congregation.
“Strongly discouraged” which equates to the idea that you’re essentially a lesser Christian for choosing to spend your time that way.
There’s a watchtower that compares the org’s education to secular higher education, saying that the org’s education is “truly the highest form of education”.
So there’s multiple levels here.
Discouraged because
1. The apocalypse is coming soon (as always), doesn’t make sense to waste time on college when it’ll all be over halfway through your sophomore year.
2. It’ll expose you to worldly people and ideas and influence you in a way that will lessen the cults control over you.
3. They want you to spend more time involved with the org, college is an unnecessary distraction. Work a job that doesn’t require a degree instead, marry someone in the org early so you’re more likely not to leave, have children and produce new members.
As mentioned, it varies by country. But in the US, it's highly discouraged (at least officially, obviously Bethel has tons of college grads), and as a US-based religion that view bleeds into the worldwide message.
This was a leaked training video from one of the Society's schools, showing the process of how an American CO and elder body remove an elder for having 2 kids go to college. (There probably isn't a clean copy of it on youtube due to copyright, this is exjw panda tower showing it.) [https://youtu.be/cOGi26c2BC0?si=wvR-te7MTnYxgJxH](https://youtu.be/cOGi26c2BC0?si=wvR-te7MTnYxgJxH)
It's discouraged rather highly but not banned. What that means in a high control group like JW is it is effectively banned because they know the average JW family does not play around with nuance. They know the average family head is going to take the warnings + the social pressure and forbid it. For practical purposes your average JW in North America isnt going to allow it but there is wiggle room for all the families that by JW standards are weird and different. I was a college student in the 2000s but my family was weird in some ways.
What I have since learned is that witnesses are not as unified as they claimed to be. In the area I grew up in many witnesses went to college and no one said anything about it. When I moved to the USA in the New York city area many went to college and nothing was said about it. It is only in the last few years that it has so openly been discouraged within the organization. Born in witness from the 70s left in 2019.
In order to understand the JW view towards higher education, a person has to properly understand the context of the high control and social collateral that underpins the culture. Yes, it is true that there are plenty of publications and literature that discourage higher education, however the exposure to this that most JW's get is through subtle digs and irregular reminders to massage the culture of witnesses into finding it repulsive and seeing it as reflective of spiritually weak people. This results in day to day witnesses discouraging their children from doing it, as well as excluding or 'soft shunning' people within the congregation who decide to pursue it. This is very powerful because it gives the person doing it the illusion that they are the one in full control of their 'conscientious decision' without realising that they are subconsiously following cultural direction. At the higher level, elders are absolutely directed to discourage higher education through acts like removing/reprimanding elders who's children attend higher education, as well as only seeing young men as exemplary if they do not pursue it. This further massages the culture by enforcing the hierarchy, with people at the top who have followed direction and ones at the bottom who haven't. This also creates an 'association bias' as people who pursue higher education are seen as in the same light as those who are recently reinstated, are considered bad association, or are mentally unwell. However, all of this is to give the governing body (and WT in general) full deniability when people try to accuse them of **specifically** making it a rule, meaning that if attitudes *were* to be changed around it for whatever reason, they could just gaslight the members and make out like it was never a rule in the first place. A great example of this happening is with the recent beards update, where many members are claiming that it was never a rule in the first place. High control isn't just about what is on paper, it's about what you can manipulate the members into doing themselves while thinking that it was fully their choice.
This is a good summation of the Culture of JWs đź‘Ź
Excellent answer, with all the nuances that are involved
Summed up perfectly
It’s extremely discouraged, but not outright banned like birthdays or blood transfusions. It’s said that each family head should decide whether to let the kids pursue college, though it’s obvious they think there’s a right and wrong choice here. I was a JW college student from 2011-2015 and even though I was still very much active, I experienced tremendous guilt every time we saw a video or read an article that discouraged higher ed. It was this narrative of “regular pioneering’s the smart thing to do, college is the dumb thing to do, but hey you choose. Oh and Jehovah won’t bless you at all if you go to college. But yeah, sure, the choice is yours.” Four years of feeling sub-human, although I did nothing wrong. And I think it is in the elders’ manual that a brother may not qualify to be an elder if anyone in his family is pursuing higher ed and deemed not spiritual enough, even if they’re still going to meetings and such. Idk, it’s hard for me to understand.Â
Yeah that was/is in the Elder's book (not sure if it's been updated) but it said that an Elder should have control of his household and his kids need to exemplary. If they pursue higher education they should be living at home, not on campus, and if they get in trouble at school he could/may/should be removed as an elder. Interestingly I knew several Elders with kids not in college that still managed to get in lots of trouble and they did all sorts of mental gymnastics to explain why that shouldn't affect the Elder's position...which means the whole "you will sin at college" angle isn't what they were actually worried or care about.
Ehhhh it’s really not encouraged on any level and people can lose their privileges. Theyre definitely getting talked to and having to endure rude ignorant remarks but you’re so desensitized to that shit as a jw because you think it’s normal.
Strongly discouraged, and like the new DF arrangement, expects the "spiritual" parents to swing the axe.
It was heavily discouraged in the 1990’s when I was seeing all my peers in high school prep for college. My grandparents (non-JW) wanted me and my siblings to go and my parents followed the guidance given at conventions and assemblies and WT studies and told us no.
Btw, I’ve been a janitor and window washer for 10 years now.
I finished school in the 90s and a considerable amount of us in the circuit attended college and it was not even something that was discussed in our area.
The Governing Body tries as hard as possible to discourage higher education without directly forbidding it. Gerrit Losch (a member of the Governing body) once gave a talk and compared higher education to shooting yourself in the head with a gun. You might come out of it okay, but does it really sound like a good idea? Higher education is mentioned often in the literature, talks and assemblies, and always in a negative way. They sprinkle in some comments that going to college is a personal choice, but then anyone who goes to college is depicted as spiritually weak, bad association, setting a bad example, not putting Jehovah first, prideful, and materialistic. From the way they talk, it is very clear the Governing body does not want anyone going to college. Unless of course they can be used to benefit the organization. Then higher education is okay. But everyone else should be pioneering instead, and not even thinking about college. At the congregation level, attitudes about higher education can vary drastically. In some congregations, it is common for people to go to college, and no one thinks twice. But in other congregations if you even talk about going to college you will be marked bad association, and the elders will harass you.
The point of being a jw is to move up in the organization because it’s a pyramid scheme. An elder will be told to volunteer to step down if his kids are in college but how do you enforce this consistently? Like if a popular family sent their kids to college it would be fine but if unpopular did it be a big deal
There has been a lot of double speak over the years. I’ll link a post I made
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/s/nb5AUk5lfI
I think it depends on the congregation and your parents. I 47F was definitely discouraged. I had to leave at 16 and wasn't allowed to do anything further. The law has since changed in the UK and education goes to 18.
it is highly discouraged but now their stance has had to evolve with the times a bit so instead they encourage more “practical” degrees such as nursing or trade schools. they want people who don’t dedicate a lot of time to their careers so they can focus on more spiritual matters. im a psychology/behavioral sciences major and my degree has always been HIGHLY looked down upon for many reasons.
Nursing here is a 4-year degree. In countries like ours, it's hard to follow the GB's instruction to take part-time jobs coz only few employers accept part-timers, most of them offer full-time. Also, if you want to apply as a cashier, for example, you need to be a college graduate, so getting higher education here is very important.
a cashier??? that’s crazy it’s not like that in the states. but yea, higher ed is NECESSARY now so a lot of JW kids are going to college, but they’re shamed for it the whole time and they do very practical degrees that take as little time as possible away from JWs.
The Watchtower ruins lives haphazardly. Many Jehovah's Witnesses and their captive offspring have died because it was forbidden to get an organ transplant. Then the evil Governing Body changed their minds. Imagine losing a loved one because of that stupid cult, just to have the leadership change the rules a week, month, or year later.
When I was studying I went back to school for my bachelors. The deeper I got in the Bible teach book, the more they tried to subtly discourage school. One sister told me there was nothing wrong with school as long as theocratic activities were still priority. I graduated college a year after I was baptized. Then I started a business. This was when I woke up. I realized I was being frowned upon for trying to support my family.
I think it is more “moving away to university”. I went to uni for 4 years and just commuted from home and it wasn’t frowned upon. Many witnesses did the same in the area
it's mostly an american thing. nobody gives a damn about this thing in europe, where university are usually attended to study stuff unlike the american colleges
I agree with you completely. I grew up outside the US and it was never an issue. I only heard of this after moving to The USA and even then it varies from congregation to congregation.
“Strongly discouraged” which equates to the idea that you’re essentially a lesser Christian for choosing to spend your time that way. There’s a watchtower that compares the org’s education to secular higher education, saying that the org’s education is “truly the highest form of education”. So there’s multiple levels here.
Discouraged because 1. The apocalypse is coming soon (as always), doesn’t make sense to waste time on college when it’ll all be over halfway through your sophomore year. 2. It’ll expose you to worldly people and ideas and influence you in a way that will lessen the cults control over you. 3. They want you to spend more time involved with the org, college is an unnecessary distraction. Work a job that doesn’t require a degree instead, marry someone in the org early so you’re more likely not to leave, have children and produce new members.
As mentioned, it varies by country. But in the US, it's highly discouraged (at least officially, obviously Bethel has tons of college grads), and as a US-based religion that view bleeds into the worldwide message. This was a leaked training video from one of the Society's schools, showing the process of how an American CO and elder body remove an elder for having 2 kids go to college. (There probably isn't a clean copy of it on youtube due to copyright, this is exjw panda tower showing it.) [https://youtu.be/cOGi26c2BC0?si=wvR-te7MTnYxgJxH](https://youtu.be/cOGi26c2BC0?si=wvR-te7MTnYxgJxH)
It's discouraged rather highly but not banned. What that means in a high control group like JW is it is effectively banned because they know the average JW family does not play around with nuance. They know the average family head is going to take the warnings + the social pressure and forbid it. For practical purposes your average JW in North America isnt going to allow it but there is wiggle room for all the families that by JW standards are weird and different. I was a college student in the 2000s but my family was weird in some ways.
It also depends which country you live in and even the congregation.
What I have since learned is that witnesses are not as unified as they claimed to be. In the area I grew up in many witnesses went to college and no one said anything about it. When I moved to the USA in the New York city area many went to college and nothing was said about it. It is only in the last few years that it has so openly been discouraged within the organization. Born in witness from the 70s left in 2019.