I am probably on quite solid ground when I state that there isn’t a person who hasn’t had his own child, a neighbour’s child or that of a close relative go OTD.
I have always wondered at the phenomenon of having more baalei teshuvah than ever today while at the same time we are experiencing more FFB kids going OTD than ever before.
What gives?
I am not involved in chinuch but I do get the feeling that there is a major disconnect today between talmidim and their Rebbeim. Most Yeshivas do not have the resources to deal with non conforming kids and many take the easy way out by expelling them. Some take the equally non productive path of actually letting a non learning child stay as long as he is not being a negative influence on the other kids.
Neither option is helping the child.
I would think that more children today with their shorter attention spans cannot spend hours and hours in a Beis Medrash as their fathers did.
Piling on chumros after chumros preventing healthy physical and emotional outlets just give the child the feeling that he is in jail and will take the first opportunity to escape which many do.
I realize this is a very simplistic summary but the thrust is that we cannot use tactics from previous generations to deal with today’s problems. They will not work for kids today who are tech savvy and know what the world is all about.
It is not easy being a young frum child today.