Jehovah Witnesses

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Home : 2002 : August : 13

Jehovah Witnesses
By Cathy-Dee

This is an interesting group and religion. They do claim at times to be Christian but if you do read their beliefs and doctrines much of what they believe goes against Christian beliefs. You can read about them on their
website as well.
As far as holidays go, they do not celebrate them because they feel most holidays stem from pagan holidays and should not be celebrated. As far as saying the pledge, I would think this would have to do with making any type of pledge to anyone other than Jehovah God (this is whom they worship). They also do not believe in war and will not fight in wars.
It is often

hard if one is not a part of the group to fully understand why they do certain things and why they will not do other things. Many JW's do not even know why they follow some of their rules, only that their leaders (The Watchtower Society) have told them this is what they may or may not do. Some of it is based on scripture and they specifically choose scriptures to support their beliefs. Often they have been called upon to validate how they interpret those scriptures.

According to Christian organizations as well as Muslim groups, Jehovah Witnesses are considered a cult.

As far as a teacher's perspective. I will do what I can to include children who are Jehovah witnesses without bending so far that my other students miss out because of their beliefs. So I will still celebrate all the holidays in my classroom but I will ensure I have alternate activities for JW children to do. It's not too hard to do this. During Thanksgiving and Halloween, they can do things on pumpkins and the harvest. For Christmas, they can do things on winter. And so on. I have found if you are willing to sit down with their parents and make some compromises they are usually willing to make quite a few compromises as well. Some will pull their children during the last week or two of December to have a family holiday because they know the schools are involved with Christmas or other seasonal holidays at that time.

Most can stay in the classroom during the pledge, birthday celebrations, etc., they just can't participate. Older children can deal with things I think a bit easier than the younger ones. I try to include them as best I can, instead of a birthday card and treat, sometime during the year I give them a card for just being a special student.