Me:
“Another positive: Our dropouts come almost exclusively (I said ALMOST) from dysfunctional families.”
WC:
How is there anything positive about that? Doesn’t anyone feel any rachmonus for her at all?
Me:
My heart goes out for this confused girl and even more for her dysfunctional family; every lost soul is a terrible tragedy. But think how much worse it would be if she came from a stable family. This is “man bites dog” news, because our OTD rate is not only the lowest on the Orthodox spectrum, but our dropouts are mostly (again, I said MOSTLY) confused, abused, neglected kids, PLUS dumb, untalented ne’er-do-wells. Where are her siblings? Probably smart enough to survive their unfortunate ordeals. I haven’t heard of a single successful chassidic dropout. The most normal ones do blue-collar work, and many do teshuva. Conclusion: With very, very few exceptions, normal chassidishe kids who grow up in normal homes stay on the straight and narrow BH. We must be doing something right.