@n0mesorah Almost every Mesivta I know of starts with davening sometime between 7 and 8, and has a full schedule until at least 5, often with night seder. That’s ten hours.
I mention Gemara and Halacha because in those type of places, those are generally the only two subjects that are actually taught. (Though, now that I think of it, Mishnayos too.) Chumash, kids are expected to learn on their own, math is assur, mussar usually boils down to a speech once a week and maybe some Mesilas Yeshorim bein ha’sedarim, science is apikorsus, and Nach is usually not taught at all. So Gemara and Halacha.
I’ve heard from many Lakewood parents that they wouldn’t send to the high schools with curriculums other than Gemara and Halacha because those aren’t good enough. I don’t know exactly where it started, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it’s very ideologically driven at its core. The movement has so much momentum that even if there’s a silent majority that wishes Yeshivos would offer math, science, history, etc. they are swept up with those that actively fight against it.
It’s leading to disaster in the sense that there simply isn’t enough knowledge to support our growing frum community. We need askanim, businessmen, scientist. People like Rav Moshe Heineman SHLITA who can take apart an oven and determine how can be redesigned to be opened on Shabbos without an engineering degree are few and far in between (and even he relies heavily on Star-K engineers). People lobbying the government who are currently fighting for the “right” for parents to raise kids ignorant of anything outside of Gemara and Halacha are themselves mostly college educated. The real estate companies that employ massive amounts of frum people are run by those who learned math and social studies in high school. And I’m not even going into the massive amounts of sheer illiteracy plaguing our community where people eschew doctors in favor of “natural cures”, bringing long dormant illnesses back, or those that literally believe the Earth to be flat. Where will these people come from in the next generation?
We are already seeing this happen in Eretz Yisroel, nebech. The only reason the Chareidi oilom precariously survives is a combination of the massive amount of power in the Knesset allowing tons of aid to be directed to Chareidi families. And that’s still not enough, as evidenced by the sheer number of people who survive on tzedaka alone, often forced to travel overseas just to beg! This is the future we have to look forward to if Moshiach doesn’t come soon.
And we wonder why there is so much teen violence.