Israeli Kindergartens Dress Toddlers As Stormtroopers (Ha'aretz June 26)

Stormtroops: Take the Slides in the Playground!
By Aviv Lavi
Haaretz (in Hebrew)

June 26, 2002

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=180538

A., resident of Tel Aviv, arrived at the end of the year celebration in the municipal preschool facility which both of her daughters attend. Everything was very nice until the ceremony began: to her astonishment she saw the teacher standing the preschoolers in rows, dressing them up in what looked like IDF uniforms, and marching them along as they chanted "left right left" "attention!" and "at ease".

The children accompanied the military parade by loud singing: "Soldiers of Israel, marching and guarding by day and by night".

The preschool which A.'s daughters attend is not the only one that chose to mark the end of the year in this manner. At another preschool, in a small city near Tel-Aviv, the end of the year party included the storming of a target with (toy) swords, and the children there also recited texts about their being warriors in the service of the state of Israel. A. says that she didn't send her daughters to preschool so they could be made into soldiers at age five.

The spokesman for the Tel Aviv municipality states that the source of the military spirit that hovered over the end of the year events
was not directed by the supervisor of kindergartens and preschools or by any other official person. On the other hand, the municipality does not tend to get involved in such cases: "we are not familiar with the phenomenon. The content of end of the year parties is determined jointly by the teachers and the preschool's parent committee."