Rebecca Freeland
The kibbutz is a communal society where the principle of equality between the sexes in every sphere of life is the philosophy. They believe that women's economic dependence on her husband and her "biological tragedy" can be broken by the system of collective education (Spiro, 1968, p. 16). When a child is born into the kibbutz, they become official members of the "Children's Society", or chevrat yeladim, not of the kibbutz (Spiro, 1968, p. 8). Membership into the kibbutz is considered a privilege not a right and the children are not elected to membership until they graduate from high school.
When the children are approximately five-days-old, they enter the kibbutz education system know as chinuch meshutaf, or collective education (Spiro, 1968, p. 8). They are organized into small peer groups and brought to live in "cottages" where they are cared for by kibbutz women called "nurses". The interaction between the parents and children is generally limited to the interval between the parents' return from work and the child's bedtime. The children do not sleep at home with their parents and according to Lev-Wiesel (2000), this communal sleeping arrangement is actually preferred by the fathers (p. 5) The parents have no formal or legal authority over their children. The only relationship they have with them is emotional (Spiro, 1968, p. 11). Also, the kibbutz do not have and authoritarian-submissive father-child relationship but rather an egalitarian relationship. The idea behind this system is to serve to eliminate the ambivalent aspects of the parent-child relationship, which characterize the Oedipus Complex (Spiro, p. 15-16), and to prepare the individual for life in the collective society without having to give up the development of his or her individual personality (Yuval, 1995, p. 5).
The children of the kibbutz go through a series of changes during their childhood. At 6-months of age, they can be taken into their parents' room in the afternoon for one hour. At approximately one-year of age, they are moved to the Toddlerhouse, which consists of two nurses and eight children. Here they learn to toilet train, feed themselves, interact with age mates, and can be taken into their parent's room for two hours (Spiro, 1968, p. 9). Sometime between their fourth birthday the group passes into kindergarten where there is a new building, a new nurse, a kindergarten teacher and a larger group of children, or kevutza. The kevutza is important because this group remains together until high school. Between ages five and six, the group passes into a new dwelling where they receive their first formal intellectual instruction that includes reading and writing (Spiro, 1968, p. 10). From eight to twelve years of age the children become a part of what is called the junior children's community (Rabin & Hazan, 1973, p. 49).
One of the biggest turning points for the children of the kibbutz occurs at the completion of sixth grade. They enter high school where they are physically separated from the kibbutz, the kevutza is split up, they encounter male educational figures for the first time, and they begin to work in the kibbutz economy (Spiro, 1968, p. 10). After graduating from high school, the students are expected to live outside the kibbutz for approximately one year so that their decision to become kibbutz members may be based on the experience of non-kibbutz living.
Much has been written about the kibbutz approach to education. The kibbutz hold their children in high regard. They stress the social education of the group, with emphasis on the development of the individual. The kibbutz consider the individual a product of his education so they devote much of their efforts to formulating an ideal education system by first regenerating the individual (Spiro, 1968, p. 11). They believe that their children must learn a sense of responsibility to the larger society and loyalty to the community (Rabin, 1973, p. 1), The kibbutz are mainly concerned that its communal/agricultural values be perpetrated by its children for they believe that "without children they have nothing to do here" (Spiro, 1968, p. 17).