Class context- Jehova’s Witness

My class for prac was quite an interesting one, and one I would like to share as some people may not have experienced it yet.

• Low- Medium Socioeconomic status
• No Indigenous students
• Even split of male and female students
• One SLI student
• One ASD student (quite smart but social and anger issues presented often)
• One VERY low ability student (couldn’t write his name legibly) currently undiagnosed
• Three students who identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses

The first points are pretty standard for a classroom these days but it is the last point I wish to address.

Having three Jehovah’s Witness students meant I really had to think things through in my time on Prac. Here is a link to the official Jehovah’s Witness website for some information: http://www.jw.org/en/.

Based on the children in my class, this is what I have gathered being a Jehovah’s Witness includes (and I am not infering this is the same for all people who identify as Jehovah’s Witness).

• Birthday’s, Christmas and Easter are not celebrated
• They do not believe in the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa etc
• Any form of magic or mystical creature is not to be part of their life

This seems relatively easy to cater to right? Here are the problems I either encounted or was informed of by my mentor teacher:

• The Jehovah’s Witness students would have to stand outside the classroom on another students birthday while the birthday song was sung.
• Reading books would have to be chosen very carefully- no fairys, zombies, ghosts, celebratory figures, mermaids, witches ETC (imagine how hard that was!)
• The C2C often brings in imaginative texts that really benefit both students and teachers.
• On assembly, these students would bow their heads whilst everyone else sung the National Anthem (something I still can’t come to terms with)
• Reading through report card drafts, I noticed there was a commemorations and celebrations unit- for which the students were not assessed due to their religious beliefs.
• Activities such as colouring ins had to be thought through well- e.g a dragon colouring was not appropriate.

Although I did not speak to the parents about any of this in my time on prac, I would recommend as the teacher of a Jehovah’s Witness student, the best thing to do would be to sit down with the parents and just talk to them about what their expectations and religion is all about.