Avira > they only shut down when it was time for reading/writing.
I don’t have inside experience in fully insular schools, maybe they are conditioned to reject foreign culture so they react that way? But I observed a different thing: math and especially science in high school is taught by people with some background in the subject, maybe even a normal science teacher. We do not expect someone who is good at teaching Parsha to go do algebra, at what3ver dumbed-down level it is taught. On the other hand, English can be taught by a regular “frum” person who is either not teaching kodesh this semester or is someone’s relative. After all, the person speaks passable English and is a teacher in general, what else do you need?! So, no wonder these teachers are not generating enthusiasm. I don’t know how widespread this is.