Should IDF soldiers be allowed to visit kindergartens for army talk?
As Israel prepares to mark Memorial Day, many educators worry about the long-term effects of such events.
By Yarden Skop
An
apparently growing number of combat soldiers are being invited to speak
to kindergarten children aged 3-4 on Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen.
Invitations to the soldiers are independent initiatives by teachers or
municipalities, and the Education Ministry cannot provide figures as to
how prevalent the practice is.
It
also declined to comment on the educational value of such visits. The
teachers usually prepare the students for the soldiers’ visits by having
them make gift packages and write letters, which they present to the
soldiers to pass on to their units.
A
kindergarten teacher from Azur who has invited soldiers to speak to her
3- and 4-year-old students for the past three years told Haaretz, “When
I teach about Holocaust Memorial Day and Independence Day, we talk
about the army and that soldiers protect us. I showed them berets of
various colors and insignia of various units.”
On
Memorial Day eve, the children will be paid a visit by soldiers from an
infantry unit, with whom the teacher made contact through a relative
who serves there. The soldiers will come in uniform, the teacher says,
and “will explain to the children what they do, and what it means to be a
combat soldier. They teach the children how to salute. The children are
very excited to see a soldier, but some are deterred by it.”
Although
the teacher says she understands that there is something galling about
the encounter of soldiers with children, “what’s to be done? This is the
country we live in. The children are exposed to the horrors outside all
the time. They see the news with their parents, and three times a year
we have to do emergency drills with them where they go into the shelter.
I don’t drop it on them that there are soldiers … Yes, it’s too bad
their innocence is destroyed, but that’s the country we live in.”
Another
teacher from the Sharon region says she doesn’t bring soldiers into her
class. “On the one hand, we convey [the message] all the time that
soldiers protect us, and thanks to them we live here – and I believe
that’s true. On the other hand, the direct message by bringing in
soldiers is weapons and power and war; there are bad guys and good guys,
and somebody has to win, and that means there’s shooting and killing –
that’s not suitable for the younger children.”
The
teacher says she regrets not receiving more training on how to deal
with the issue, and that there are so many narratives conveyed in
kindergarten about sacrifice and the Jewish people.
“We
teach them that we have a state and a flag, and usually on Holocaust
Remembrance Day it comes out that at that time the Jews didn’t have a
state,’ she says. “The same way I explain about good and bad Germans, I
explain that there are Arabs who are good and not good. I feel what
happens is that they mix up the various enemies a little, because
they’re around it all year: At Hanukkah there are the Greeks and the
destruction of the Temple; for Purim it’s Haman; for Passover it’s
Pharaoh; on Holocaust Remembrance Day it’s the Germans and the Nazis;
and on Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers and Independence Day,
we have the Arabs.
A
father from Tel Aviv whose 4-year-old son’s class had a visit from a
male and female soldier last week, says he is against the idea, but is
afraid to tell the teacher. “Independence Day is a wonderful opportunity
to tell the children how the state was built. Maybe instead of a
19-year-old soldier, they could bring grandparents who would talk about
the establishment of the state.”
The
father, who himself serves in the reserves, said he was afraid to share
his feelings with his son’s teacher, because he thought she would not
be open to criticism. “Nobody wants to go against the consensus, and
nobody wants to look like they are against soldiers. I feel that it’s
fine to send them packages, but to meet a soldier who speaks to them –
nothing much comes out of that. What’s more, we’re building a
militaristic society that sanctifies power and, even at this young age,
teaches children that we have enemies,” he says.
Hagit
Gur-Ziv, editor of a book about militarism in education, says those who
think it’s OK to bring soldiers into the kindergarten class “will say
that’s the way it is in our country, and that we have to prepare the
children. So I ask, at what age do we have to prepare the children?
Early childhood is early childhood, let them be children. We can also
think that we should educate them for a better future – one of peace –
where militarism won’t be a central value.”
Prof.
Rachel Erhard, who established the early-childhood education
counselors’ program at Tel Aviv University, says the practice of
bringing soldiers into the kindergarten classroom is unacceptable, and
that a lot of research shows that what’s learned in early childhood
remains for years. “The question is, do we want to be like all other
countries, or do we want to be Sparta? In Sparta, children are taught to
be fighters at a very young age. But don’t we want our children to
learn values like tolerance, culture and humanism?” The message that
everyone is against us is simplistic, Erhard says. “It’s the message of
the good against the bad. That’s an easy message to convey at this age.”
Research
by Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal and Prof. Yona Teichman shows that children
between the ages of 3 and 7 have a one-dimensional view of Arabs, which
demonizes them. According to Erhard, considering that such perceptions
stay with the children for such a long time, “when we discuss who should
and shouldn’t be invited to the kindergarten, we have to understand the
developmental impact.”
Prof.
Edna Lomsky-Feder, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also objects
to soldiers’ visits to kindergartens. “The question is, why bring only
soldiers, and not, for example, fighters for human rights or workers’
rights?” The “automatic connection between independence and the army” is
a problematic one, she says, adding that the torch-lighting ceremony on
Mount Herzl, which begins Independence Day, is a good example of
“liberation for solely military messages.”
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