Your GPanelWithText class  should not extend from JScrollPane, rather it should
extend from JTextArea and should be inserted inside of a JScrollPane, like so:

GPanelWithText gPanel = new GPanelWithText();
frame.getContentPane().add(new JScrollPane(gPanel));

You can still configure the scroll pane if you want, i.e.:

GPanelWithText gPanel = new GPanelWithText();
JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(gPanel);
scrollPane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
frame.getContentPane().add(scrollPane);

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;


public class  Mywindow {

public static  void main(String[] args) {

CenteredFrame frame  = new CenteredFrame();
GPanelWithText GPanel = new GPanelWithText();
frame.getContentPane().add(GPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);

}
}
class CenteredFrame extends JFrame
{
public CenteredFrame()
{

//get screen  dimensions


Toolkit kit  = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
Dimension screenSize = kit.getScreenSize();
int screenHeight = screenSize.height;
int screenWidth = screenSize.width;

// center  frame in screen


setSize(screenWidth / 2, screenHeight / 2);
setLocation(screenWidth / 4, screenHeight / 4);

// set  frame icon  and title


Image img  = kit.getImage("icon.gif");
setIconImage(img);
setTitle("CenteredFrame");
}
}

class GPanelWithText extends JTextArea {

public GPanelWithText () {

super("This is a test",5,30);
setLineWrap(true);
setWrapStyleWord(true);
this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(250,250));
setBorder(
BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("My
Panel"),BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5)),this.getBorder()));

} //end constructor

} //ends GPanelWithText

To show a JTextArea, don't forget to add it to panel.
Add this 'this.add(text);' to 'public GPanelWithText()' -- last line.
Hope it solve your problem.

The text  never gets added to the scrollpane. Use the JScrollPane
method addViewportView(Component) to load the scrollable component.
Usually the scrollable object is passed directly to the JScrollPane
constructor.

My apologies I went back and tried what you said and it worked this
is what I did
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;


public class  Mywindow {

public static  void main(String[] args) {

CenteredFrame frame  = new CenteredFrame();
JTextArea text  = new JTextArea("This is a test",5,30);
text.setLineWrap(true);
text.setWrapStyleWord(true);
GPanelWithText GPanel = new GPanelWithText(text);
frame.getContentPane().add(GPanel);
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);


}
}
class CenteredFrame extends JFrame
{
public CenteredFrame()
{
//get screen  dimensions


Toolkit kit  = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
Dimension screenSize = kit.getScreenSize();
int screenHeight = screenSize.height;
int screenWidth = screenSize.width;

// center  frame in screen


setSize(screenWidth / 2, screenHeight / 2);
setLocation(screenWidth / 4, screenHeight / 4);

// set  frame icon  and title


Image img  = kit.getImage("icon.gif");
setIconImage(img);
setTitle("CenteredFrame");
}
}

class GPanelWithText extends JScrollPane {

public GPanelWithText (JTextArea t) {

this.setViewportView(t);
this.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy
(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(250,250));
this.setBorder(
BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("My
Panel"),
BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder
(5,5,5,5)),
this.getBorder()));

} //end constructor

} //ends GPanelWithText

I tried that, got no errors but it still didnt
work for some reason.

Then a friend suggested that instead of having my object extend
JScrollPane that I have it extend JPanel.

Then I created a JScrollPane in that JPanel.

Cant see from the 1.4.1 docs why you HAVE TO have a JScrollPane on a
JPanel BEFORE you can see it.

Does anybody know?