I recently completed reading the biography [which will remain nameless for reasons that will become clear] of a well known Rosh Yeshiva in the religious Zionist world here in EY. It was completely complimentary. Everything he did or said was turned into praise. He had no faults [according to the narrative of the author commissioned by the family]. Pure hagiography, idealizing the subject. Published not by Artscroll but rather by a secular Israeli publishing company.
In it we learn -
1] The students were eating bugs [at least they claimed they were] b/c the vegetables were not being properly inspected but they were shut down by the RY who told them not to be so machmir. [One bug equals five לאווין].
2] The students were at an event where women got up on stage to sing and they were told that this isn't Kol Isha and they should stay [that was more or less the story].
3] The RY would throw the boys our right and left. One class started with about 43 and ended with about 13. [And again - this was related in a complimentary way]. The students would BEG to remain but to no avail. One student was thrown out of Yeshiva for learning Gemara during math class. The RY explained that if he had been learning math during Gemara class he wouldn't have been expelled b/c that would have just meant that he was nervous about a math test. But to study Gemara during math shows a זלזול for math and THAT is unforgivable.
4] Students wanted to wear their Tzitzis out which the RY forbade. They showed him the Mishna Brura who said to wear them out and he responded that nobody did in Europe so they shouldn't. Facial hair was also forbidden.
5] The boys were reprimanded for not wanting to open up bottles on Shabbos [as the שמירת שבת כהלכתה rules as do many others] b/c R' Chaim Ozer opened up bottles so they should to. [According to that logic all we have to do is find a Gadol who is meikel in a certain area and then being machmir like [most] everybody else is forbidden.]
6] The RY was very strict and outspoken about many things - halachic and non-halachic [cleanliness, neatness, order etc.]. But he allowed girlfriends. That was OK for his post pubescent charges. Don't dare wear your shirt outside your pants but it is OK to have a girlfriend writing letters that go through the Yeshiva office. [One such girl called and she screamed at him on the phone. Later he told the boy she was calling for to find a different girlfriend...].
7] He had no understanding or reverence for the spiritual guide of the entire דתי לאומי world HaRav Kook ztz"l and held Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in disdain.
8] A different Yeshiva high school turned out products that were either חרדי or חילוני but this RY produced students happily in the middle. So the book claims. But the reality is that the Yeshiva produced graduates who became חרדים and חילונים too. People in the "middle" are often [not always!] a hybrid of חרדי-חילוני which, to my mind, is not great a achievement. Some Halachos they keep, others they don't. Sometimes they fear G-d - sometimes not.
Of course - he wasn't all bad and taught and guided thousands of boys in the way of Torah [mostly]. But as a model of proper chinuch it seems he left much to be desired. Chinuch should be filled with positivity, a minimum of cynicism and encouragement for spiritual growth even if the specific path of the student is not exactly the cup of tea of the mechanech. A boy should be expelled only under extenuating circumstances and not constantly be threatened with expulsion. Chumras are GREAT if done with the right intentions - like Yiras Shomayim and should not be derided.
