Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: WELS GA Personality:
I went through the whole system. Prep was definitely the worst. The "running" by seniors lasted the whole year and some (not all, not by a long shot) was very cruel and humiliating). There are some pastors and teachers who are two and three years than I am to whom I still can't talk because those memories won't go away. I vowed that I would not run freshmen the way I was run (ran?). The seniors said, "We all said that when we were Freshmen. Look at us now." For the most part, though, I kept that promise. The only exception was when I allowed myself to get into a group mentality when I was with a few of my classmates who did like running freshmen. NWC, on the other hand, had the tradition of initiating the freshmen during Homecoming week. Most who were involved with that did it all very tongue and cheek and it didn't carry over throughout the rest of the year. GA at Sem was rumored to be the worst of the bunch. I found that it was actually more of a spoof of initiation than an actual initiation ritual proper. It was sort of, "I got fooled by this when I was a Junior. Now it's your turn." So, there it is. The whole experience wasn't as innocent as some claim (high school was bad), nor as bad as others claim (college and Seminary was almost comical).
P.S. I take it you still haven't figured out the literary reference in my pen name.
'via Blog this'
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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: WELS GA Personali...":
Sexta is the ordinal form of Six in Latin:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sexta
When the college and seminary course was six years long (vicarage year was added during the Depression) and another year was added at some point, the classes were named in countdown mode: six, five, four, three, etc. Only in Prep did the classes retain those names, and at Martin Luther Prep in Watertown, they still do. Last time I was there was 2008 or so.
So the Sextas (freshmen) are just out of grade school and away from home, and besides doing their Latin and other homework, they have to clean a room and make the beds of juniors (quartas) and seniors (tertias), endure their harassment and threats, and receive pink bellies and grundies and be at the bottom of monkey piles. The sextas must also act as waitresses in the cafeteria for entire tables getting them juices and water and such for the entire school year, and some of them got hit for being a waitress for entire table of tertias or quartas three or four times a week, or more, as their food got cold. The quintas (sophomores) had no "powers."
I don't know if the "running" or "hazing" and physical abuse still goes on, but I have heard that still in 2005 or so seniors and juniors would put freshmen and sophomores in headlocks and otherwise illegally restrain freshmen, putting them in mental and physical duress.
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GJ - Prep is where the brain-washing and sadism begins. The behavior is often sub-human and encouraged by the graduates of that same system of hazing. Anyone who tells parents is tortured even more, so naturally everyone denies anything has happened.
Mutual blackmail threats also help.
A WELS teacher can murder his wife, lie about it, and get a busload of students plus the college president to back him up at his murder trial (guilty!). But question the infallibility of WELS and the ice curtain comes down faster than rotorless helicopter.
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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: WELS GA Personali...":
This is an important point, I think. The pastors I've met who are the most die-hard WELS members, not countenancing much criticism of the WELS, if any, are the very people who didn't go through Northwestern Prep, and thus missed an entire unpleasant year in Sexta, and they also profess to not remembering the Bone Cruncher at the Mequon seminary, or much about GA. However, one pastor who fits the above criterion does, however, remember that Northwestern College initiation was quite unpleasant, especially for being forced to lick a toilet plunger. I don't know if it is Stockholm Syndrome, or what.
The reason I bring this up is I reread an old post you linked to today or yesterday, and find that one of your ardent critics, Michael Schottey, professes to not remembering GA. Maybe if Schottey did remember GA, he wouldn't be such an ardent critic of Ichabod. Also, he'd be like many of us and would be leery of ever recommending someone attend a WELS prep school, and if they were going to go anyway, making sure to warn the person what might be in store for him or her.
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http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2009/10/wels-ga-personality.html
Michael Schottey has left a new comment on your post "WELS GA Personality":
After eight years in the prep/MLC system I don't remember GA. Perhaps I was brainwashed and can't remember it.
And perhaps all of my family and friends who have gone through the Seminary are just really good at lying to me.
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GJ - Anyone who criticizes GA is run into the ground. Schottey did not go to seminary, so he had no GA to remember.
During hazing (not GA hazing) one student was knocked unconscious. He remembered.
