Free choice and social influence
It’s pretty clear to me that the answer is very simple, yet I had difficulty formulating it:
Studies often appear on dropout rates in the religious community (or other communities), indicating very high dropout rates. Everyone discusses the educational failure of the religious community (or other communities) following this data and offers advice and solutions on how to resolve the crisis, etc., etc.
And I asked: Doesn’t all the attempt to search for “reasons” and “explanations” for dropout contradict the principle of choice? Why not say that the reason there is such a high dropout rate is simply because people chose to do so. Not because of the openness, or the closures, etc., etc., but simply because of the very fact that they chose to do this action. Without any additional reason or factor.
(And if you ask – why then in other communities the dropout rates are different – I will answer that it is because in other communities they allow less choice).
I hope I understood.
First, I have written here more than once that I am not sure that the dropout rate among the ultra-Orthodox is lower. There are all kinds of dropouts, and so on.
Second, statistics are affected by conditions, even when each individual chooses freely. Put a hundred people in front of two paths: a plateau versus a descent. And another hundred people: a plateau versus an ascent. The percentage of those who choose the plateau will be different in the two groups even though each person chooses freely. Circumstances influence our choice, even if they do not determine it.
I gave an example of this from the Rambam and the Rabbinate in the fifth chapter of the Teshuvah (regarding the punishment for the Egyptians who enslaved Israel).
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