A yeshivah bochur in Kollel does not know how to suture a wound, much less do brain surgery. Secular education is needed for that. Any frum Jew who believes otherwise, had better pray hard that he never needs the services of someone who also had a secular education.
BS”D
I am a graduate of an Ivy League college. I cannot repair anything related to gas or electricity and have only a basic knowledge of plumbing, too basic to trust myself. I also do not consider myself able to attempt to repair an automobile or even to maintain one, and I am “too old to learn” even if I do have the inclination to do so. Anyone with secular education who thinks they know it all should remember that unless you are doing it for parnosso, you are not learning much of anything that helps you in the real world. And if you want parnosso, skilled trades are just as honorable and more lucrative than all but the top tiers of the top paying professions, which are more and more closed off anyway especially with the contraction of the economy and the bureaucratization of health care.
My yeshiva educated friends who are internet or computer professionals and I learned computer skills the same way – by doing. I was at least 29 when I first logged on to the Internet, about 33 when I first used a graphics program, and 40 when I built my first commercial site. I don’t even think Word existed when I was in college, and I learned Lotus (predecessor to Excel) afterward. These skills, as well as repairing a computer which, guess what, I taught myself, are skills I use in real life. The devarim betelim I learned in college are of so little interest to me that I think the last time I even read a book related to my major (history) was seven years ago on a trans-Atlantic flight. And I don’t even want to talk about the divrei kefira I learned there, unavoidable because it was part of the required curriculum. Though it does haunt me at times, most of it convinced me only that “ashreinu ma tov chelkeinu”!
Now, would someone care to fix my farshtunkener kitchen faucet that hasn’t worked properly in a year? (I actually do know how but like many who acquire theoretical knowledge, I can’t apply this in the real world especially as a flood may result).