As someone who is part of Lakewood society I agree with n0mesorah. I can tell you that there is basically one mesivta with a fully functioning English program, and it is from the top mesivtos. A couple others also have, at various levels of low functionality. Others have tried to do it, until the program died out when they became completely dysfunctional. The reason it doesn’t really work is simply because the bochurim are usually completely uninterested, don’t see the use, and just use the time to let out their extra energy on whichever unfortunate person chose to try to teach them something. That is why the lower level of yeshivos are less likely to have English, not more likely -because their bochurim are usually less tzu geshtelt. There aren’t to many people who have a real shitah against it, just not too many people who are particularly interested.
All people brought up in Lakewood learn basic math, reading, and writing. Al pi rov the rest of their worldliness is based on self-education for those who are interested, namely reading the Zman or secular books, which I venture to say provides a pretty good idea of what the world is like.
Most OTD issues that you hear about begin in elementary school with kids who are, to say it bluntly, too ADHD/hyper/wild to function as part of a system, many times as an outgrowth of growing up in a dysfunctional home. There is a huge variety of mesivtos for all shapes and sizes, but many of these kids don’t go to one because they’re not ready to be part of any type of structured environment. There are of course people working with the kids with problems, for example Waterbury and MOE.
Many working boys in Lakewood started out in the above category and then got a job for structure, and many were in a yeshiva for a few years, some even went through the entire system, until they made the decision that it wasn’t working for them and they went to work. Nobody looks down on a frum bochur working if that’s what he needed.
It seems like many people have a mental block when it comes to understanding the Lakewood matzav. And Yserbius seems a little lost. I guarantee you, no one in the last 20 years that grew up in lakewood ever looked back and thought “I wish my elementary school/mesivta had more English.” Not one.
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