What are some activities you can do when you are working with a Jehovah's Witness in a classroom?

Answer 1

You can do anything artsy related. Anything not having to do with holidays.

FURTHER

From the wording of this question, I am assuming you are a teacher who has a JW child in your classroom.

We have a very nice publication called "School and Jehovah's Witnesses." It is a short magazine that will be a big help to you. Ask the student to bring in a copy.

Back to the original question, I feel that it is important for you to understand some of our reasoning, so that you are better equipped to reason what the student would or would not do when certain situations come up.

First, we do not celebrate any of the holidays that the other students do. In regards to the religious holidays including Christmas, these originated in pagan religion even before Jesus was on earth. A little research on the matter, even in your school's own library, will reveal that the vast majority of customs associated with these holidays were actually part of worship of various pagan gods, including goddesses of fertility, sun gods, and other gods that were venerated by those who did not worship the God of The Bible. We feel that our celebrating these holidays would violate our Christian conscience regarding having exclusive devotion to the true God of heaven. We do not judge others for engaging in these holidays, we just simply choose not to do it ourselves.

We also do not engage in activities that involve worshipful devotion to any governmental entity or a symbol thereof including the flag. We DO strongly respect the government and it's flag, but we will not cross the line when it comes to giving what we feel is worship to it. We believe that worship should only be given to the God of Heaven, therefore, we will not engage in the flag salute or sing National Anthems.

Those previously mentioned issues will likely be the two biggest ones you and your student will face. Any activity that does not encroach on these areas should not be an issue at all.

Here are some suggestions that might work: Keep in mind that Jehovah's Witnesses encourage their children to study the Bible from a very young age, so if you are a teacher of K-(about 2nd or 3rd), you might consider having the student do artwork centered on a Bible story or character instead of, for example, Halloween art.

You should also realize that just because an activity might involve things typically associated with certain holidays, it does not always preclude the Witness child from taking part. I will give an example: Suppose a first grade teacher had an assignment in math toward the end of October where the students were to count pictures of pumpkins arranged in rows on a paper and add them to the number of pumpkins in another row to help them learn how to add. An assignment like this shouldn't be a problem. But now if there was an activity where the students were to carve out a Jack-o-Lantern, then there could be an issue. Do you see the distinction? It is when the activity crosses over to, in some way, taking part in the celebration that there will be an issue.

If you are a teacher of an older student, maybe instead of artwork, they could write something about an event in ancient history, or Biblical history.

Maybe during a particular holiday, the student could do a report on why they do not celebrate this holiday, or why they do not engage in some other activity. I am sure the parents would support any such idea.

Often when students come back from Christmas break, they are often asked to tell the class what they did over the holiday. This would be no different for a Witness student as well. We do things during the holidays as well, just not holiday related. We often use the time off from work and school to travel and visit family, possibly so will your student. Your Witness student will likely have no problem with telling what they did as well, it just won't involve all the Christmas presents they got from grandma.

It usually isn't all that awkward for the Witness student during these holidays, and it shouldn't be for you either. Keep in mind that while this student may not be celebrating certain holidays and getting presents when the other students are, the Witness child is doing things and getting presents on occasions that the other students aren't.