Social and academic integration of city and kibbutz youth

Summary: The article describes two kibbutz secondary schools that have absorbed city children and seeks to examine whether and to what extent kibbutz educational perceptions reflect integration between kibbutz and city children. In both schools absorption and integration are central educational themes. This policy is expressed in arrangements in both schools and kibbutz that stress social and academic integration of the city children with their kibbutz peers. Components of collective education, which emphasize values, cooperation, and education for a life of work contribute much to the encounter with city children. This group is exposed to varied venues of social and work activities, and this advances the process of integration into the absorbing society. However, the situation is different with regard to individualistic components in the educational policy that nurture individual achievements. These obstruct integration, because those doing the absorbing fear that academic progress will suffer as a result of taking in students from weaker population strata.