Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein provides a link on Cross-Currents to “Are Our Children Too Worldly?”, a paper by Rabbi Dr. Aharon Hersh Fried (the download link is here).

This is a very important paper. I don’t wish to quote from it, because I see how easy it could be for his ideas to be taken out of context. On such a sensitive topic as judging the appropriateness of our educational methods, it’s only natural that we will tend to instinctively respond from the gut. We are liable to approach an essay like this one from our own bias: whether it be overprotective (”He calls that religious?! How dare he quote gedolim on this!”) or liberal (”You see! This proves those ultra-Orthodox people are narrow-minded/uneducated/kept in the dark by their rabbis.”)

Nonetheless, if you can read this paper with a wide open mind to really hear what Rabbi Fried is saying (that an intellectually and religiously honest educational path in Torah is the means to further cultivate a love of Torah life), then you should read it. If you can’t, don’t. Rabbi Fried’s objections to indiscriminate blanket “protection” of children from the “outside world” call to mind the attempt to defend France with the Maginot Line: For as long as it keeps the enemy at bay, it works, but as soon as it is circumvented or breached, the situation is worse than ever, with the “protective” wall itself working against you.

My experience (as a teacher, mother, and interested observer of other people’s children) is that most American (non-Orthodox) kids are not over-protected from society, but rather are under-protected. Still, if you aren’t Jewish, or aren’t religious, but are very involved in your children’s education, you may also find the case made here to be of interest.