in response to joseph’s story above from R’ Z. N. Goldberg (that now we don’t have to teach our children a trade because there are cases of people “dying”, i.e. going “off the derech” because of this pursuit):
based on this logic, since the institutionalized widespread kollel lifestyle (which is universally recognized to lead to increased economic struggle and poverty) has created serious concern among our children, and since there have been reported cases (even in chareidi publications!!) of both children and adults going “off the derech” (to varying degrees) because of the current push for only learning (to the exclusion of any/all parnassah opportunities), based on your logic, we must conclude that just like a father should not circumcize his sons, and (according to your post) not teach his son a trade, so too must a father not teach his son torah (ch”v!), because after all pushing every single boy into kollel for life has resulted in cases of people “going off the derech” (for various reasons, including the incredible financial strains and struggles).
joseph – is this really what you believe?? while you and i obviously disagree on whether a father should (or should not) teach his son a trade, the justification you provide for the institutionalized kollel system (which demands that every male spend his entire life learning to the exclusion of all else) is really (ch”v) a ‘svoro’ why we should not teach our children torah (ch”v)!! even i strongly disagree with this position!!