lesschumrahs – please reread what I wrote. I didn’t say that it didn’t happen My point was that the OTD of today is a specific phenomenon that started around 20 years or so years ago. There may have been other times and places where there may have been a lot of people going OTD for different reasons and in different ways. When people write and speak about kids going off the derech, they are speaking about something that has been happening in the US and Israel for the past 20 years. There may have been others (maybe even a lot of others) who went OTD in other generations and places, but that is not what they are speaking about. Every generation is different and has its own issues.
In each generation, when people went off, it was for different reasons and in different amounts. In Europe, I think it was the Enlightenment and Reform, etc. In Israel, it was the Zionists. When people came to the US in the 1800’s and first half of 1900’s, it was because of a lack of Yeshiva Education and Frum infrastructure. Nowadays, it ‘s not for any of those reasons, so educators have to figure out why.
btw, this is a side issue, but I am not a baki in history, but my impression is that for most of the years when we were based in Europe (at least up unti the 1800’s approximately), the numbers of people going OTD were much smaller than today. Even if that is not the case, it has nothing to do with what I wrote.