One should remember there is a difference between schooling and education, between what one does in a structured setting, and what one learns. If Hareidim rejected “secular studies”, then when one walked through Boro Park of Williamsburg you would notice that all the stores were run by goyim or at least “modern” Jews, since running a business requires a variety of skills involving secular knowledge (languages, math and accounting, law, economics, etc). The fact that most hareidim do not study “secular subjects” in yeshivos (e.g. no learning Latin, or how to solve quadratic equations, or the difference between Keynes and Hayek, or Marxist social theories) does NOT mean they are ignorant and dumb. Frum Jews have always, and still do gain secular knowledge as necessary – but gaining such skills is NOT a function of what one does in a formal school setting, since traditionally frum Jews reserve the formal school setting for Torah studies.
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