Kibbutz Child Parenting

One culture that varies distinctly from ours in regards to child rearing is that of the kibbutz. Located in Israel, kibbutz are voluntary communal settlements, established on the principles of equality, cooperation and collective ownership. In adherence to these principles children within a kibbutz are raised communally. This means that the biological parents are not solely responsible for the education, health, or finances of their child. Founders of the kibbutz way of life felt this was favorable because it allowed for equality of the sexes, by liberating women of their traditional matriarch role, as well as eliminating the dependence on a male father figure to provide for the household, which is common in patriarchal societies.
Communal child rearing within a kibbutz begins with newborns. Kibbutz babies go from the hospital directly to the babies’ house. The babies’ house is …show more content…
At this stage children will have several different teachers that will all aid in encouraging the children’s various strengths and interests. Boys and girls in children’s society continue to do everything together with minimal gender separation. This means that children will continue to bathe together regardless of sex until they are in sixth grade, and in some kibbutz, boys and girls share a room well into high school age. This in particular is something our society has a tendency to shy away from. From the moment American children are born, they are pushed into specific gender roles and taught that boys and girls are distinctly different. The leniency towards co-education present in kibbutz society is hard for me to wrap my head around. I can remember various summer camps I’ve been to where the boys and girls dormitories were not even in the same building and so much as entering the opposite gender’s dorm lobby was a serious enough offense to warrant being sent