I am beginning to think Jonathan Rosenblum is a closet Centrist. Well… not really. I know that he disagrees with the Hashkafa of Torah U’Mada. Although I do believe he is an adherent of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s classic Torah Im Derech Eretz which is also a Centrist approach. What I am referring to is his attitude about the Charedi educational system. His views are virtually identical to mine. His approach may be a bit different but his perceptions of the problem are the same.
Here is an excerpt from his Mishpacha Magazine column involving dropouts which is available at Cross Currents:
The truth is that drop-outs constitute only the most glaring example of a larger probelm of alienation. That is why one famous lecturer on parenting bases almost all his examples on drop-outs: They serve to highlight more general problems in chinuch.
Drop-outs represent only one end of a continuum – the tip of the ice-berg. At the other end of the continuum are the hundreds of bochurim that one sees learning full-blast in the local beis medrash every bein hazmanim. In between, there is a whole range. And so it is among girls as well.
Anyone with eyes in his head knows that there are plenty of kids of both sexes who are still in regular yeshivos or Bais Yaakovs and, more or less, in uniform, but whose faces do not reflect much enthusiasm for their lives and for whom thoughts of the Ribbono shel Olam are rarely uppermost in their minds.
Signs of alienation among those still in the system are easy enough to pinpoint. Every time a proposal is raised to lower the burden of the army draft there are protests from certain segments of the chareidi world, who are concerned that any lessening of the fear of the army will result in many bochurim leaving the yeshivos.
Why is that? Why… no enthusiasm? There is no one single answer. But there is one thing that can be pointed to as a sure contributing factor to the problem. It is the refusal by the Charedi Torah world to recognize the simple fact that not all students are capable of becoming R. Chaim Briskers.
The fact is many are not capable of it. But instead of finding a niche for them that they can excel in, they are encouraged to keep trying. That can only lead to a feeling of failure and worthlessness. I don’t know what the percentage of children fall victim to this but I’d be willing to bet that the numbers are pretty large. How many of the 1000 kids that we throw into the system have to fall through the cracks before anything is done about it? Does God really want to sacrifice 999 of them to get one R. Chaim? I don’t think so, nor do I believe for a moment that it’s necessary.
Even though the Torah world could use a few R. Chaims right now, it can ill afford to sacrifice over 99 percent of its people. They will never fulfill their potential because opportunities were denied to them by the system. Mechanchim are all about learning Torah full time to the exclusion of all other types of learning. A large number of them who don’t ‘make it’ in leaning will then either drop out young or drop out as an adult. Not all. Perhaps not even most. But a large number. That should be obvious to everyone by now.
But that is not the only problem. Somehow the Charedi world has been indoctrinated - intentionally or otherwise - to believe that bans and insularity are a substitute for Chinuch.
A point I have repeatedly made is that our youth need to be taught how to live in the real world and not in the artificial insular world that is created for them. Building walls around walls which surround even more walls is a temporary stopgap at best. We are no longer living in 19th century ghettos where walls were forced upon us by anti-Semitic governments and thus preventing most Jews from having any significant contact with the outside world.. It is the 21st century.
No matter how much children are isolated these wall will almost certainly be breached and the outside world will come pouring in like a tidal wave. The more sheltering one gets, the more of a shock the outside world will be. And the more difficult it might be to resist its temptations many of which are unholy. Instead of over sheltering one’s children one ought to be inoculating them. That means controlled exposure and teaching them how to deal with it. This is something I have been advocating for many years.
Of those who are in the educational system and uninspired by it some may drop out while they are still in it. Others dropout later in life… the so-called adults at risk. They managed to survive the system relatively unscathed going through the motions. Their lack of achievement at the high levels expected of them may have made them feel inadequate. In other cases there may have had some deep questions of faith that were denied answers. At some point in their lives it led to dropping out to an exciting and welcoming outside world.
For those who have serious questions of faith, the attitude among Charedi Mechanchim at best is to give overly simplistic answers which are very unsatisfying. More often children who ask such questions are either hushed up or severely admonished for even entertaining them... including threats of expulsion, social isolation, and Shidach problems in the future. Parents who are asked such questions often pass the buck and tell their children that the Rebbeim will address them at some point. Is it any wonder that a curious mind wanting to find out answers and dismissed by both his parents and teachers will find answers elsewhere? And drop out at some point in their lives - even as adults?
Jonathan says that the bans and the walls built in the Charedi world are necessary. Although I agree that one must control the environment of a child to a certain extent, I do not agree with the gross over-sheltering that goes on in that world. The results of a couple of generations of that are all too clear. Combined with the freedoms we now have to move freely in all walks of life and the virtual assault on the senses of all manner of improper images through various media such as billboards and the internet… it should not be unexpected that there are so many dropouts. I don’t know the numbers but as Jonathan says it is the tip of the iceberg.
This is not to say that Charedi schools system is a massive failure. They are not. In fact in a major way they are a massive success. There are more people committed to the Torah way of life and more Torah knowledge being learned by more people than at any time in history. But it has come with a price… one that does not have to be paid. Children and adults are dropping out at record numbers.
I want to make clear that there are plenty of people dropping out in all segments of the Torah world - modern Orthodox included. I have heard many formerly observant Jews who have become skeptics say they are from modern Orthodox backgrounds. But in all the cases I personally know here in Chicago they are from Charedi families. Just yesterday I received a phone call about one such young person, a teen sent to Lakewood now in trouble with the law and asking if I know of anyone who could help.
Which is greater? I don’t know. Does that make any difference? The numbers are great in both communities. And one thing seems certain: Sheltering is not the answer. Bans are not the answer. Denying answers to serious questions or worse - scolding children for asking them - is not the answer. And as Jonathan indicated the problem is really with the great number of children who are just getting by in the system and are completely uninspired and alienated by it.
In my view every Charedi rabbinic leader ought to pay attention to what Jonathan Rosenblum wrote and do something about it. The alternative is now playing itself out and can only result in one of the biggest spiritual catastrophes of our time.
