A Rav Grounded in Torah First
The Rav insisted that a rabbinical candidate must be anchored in Jewish learning before anything else.
In his memorandum to the government on training rabbanim, Rav Mordechai made a sharp observation. If a candidate for the rabbinate were required to finish the whole course of the gymnasium, the one required of every other profession, he would be prepared for anything but the rabbinate itself. The Rav did not oppose secular knowledge for a Rav. His point was about order. A future Rav must first possess a solid foundation in Torah and halacha, and so he proposed that until about the age of eighteen the candidate devote his time chiefly to Jewish studies. Only on that base could other knowledge be added without displacing it. The principle applies well beyond the rabbinate: whatever we learn later is safest when we have first fixed what matters most.
Source: Toldos Mordechai (Alt-Ofen, 1832), pp. 35–37 (his memorandum on the education of rabbanim)
Look at how you spend your learning time this week. If your day is full of news, podcasts and articles, check that a fixed time for Torah has been set before them, even fifteen minutes of Chumash, Mishnah or halacha. Do it first, not last. Then the rest of your reading sits on a firm base instead of crowding it out. For children, the same rule holds: let Torah be the first thing they learn well, and the later subjects will find a home.