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(name of person, i guess they decided to not reveal her real name)., 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."