The Other Side

There's almost always another side - whether we might like it or not, agree or not, there's almost always another side. And sometimes, seeing that other side can be quite an eye-opener. A few worthy reads...

• On the flip side has a different - but far more true - definition of rich and poor.
• SoccerDad notes that the NYPost has endorsed... Obama! in the Democratic primaries. Definitely different.
  
• Sephardi Lady takes on the idea of only one spouse knowing the family finances.

  But, there is too little time and too much to say. However, when I spotted these two threads on the Imamother Chat board, I had to move this topic to the head of the class. In one thread, a poster asks the women "Do You Get An Allowance?" I opened it up, thinking it was a discussion about giving allowances [to children], only to find out that there was no grammatical error and the thread was, in fact, about receiving an allowance from one's husband. Ugh! One poster writes that her husband provides her with $200 a week for household needs. Lovely.

• Jonathan Rosenblum with another good piece about what changes we need to make in our educational system, and that to even know where to start, we need good, hard data. At first the article upset me when it seemed he accepted a claim (by a charedi) that 70% of charedi dropouts were children of ba'alei teshuva, but I think that's part of his point - we need better data.

  In the course of the conversation, I mentioned a recent column, in which I noted that the dropout phenomenon is even more severe in all chareidi communities than in mixed communities.

  The explanation of everyone to whom I spoke, including two major talmidei chachamim, was that such communities generate a degree of social pressure that proves unbearable for many youth, especially those who have their own “issues.”

  My conversation partner, however, offered a very different explanation. In his opinion, it is the higher percentage of ba’alei teshuva drawn to the all chareidi cities that explains the differential. He claimed that at least 70% of the drop-outs in one such community are children of ba’alei teshuva.

• Finally, a post I debated linking to because of its more personal nature, but decided that there is much anyone can take from it. Corner Point's Silent Wishes....