Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1937-08-01 · 8.1937 · p. Seite 42

— 42 — teaching the subjects that constitute the curriculum. Hebrew and the geography of Palestine were the two chief subjects studied, under the guidance of specialists. Leadership as distinguished from the function of teaching is a desideratum not yet fully attained. The early arrivals brought their leaders with them from their Youth Organisations in Germany. They were intended to be the intermediaries between the young immigrants and the adult members of the Kibbutsim, a function which they performed provided they were masters of Hebrew and not wholly unacquainted with the conditions prevailing in Palestine. Latterly, in many instances the leaders have been recruited from among the younger members of the Kibbutsim interested in youth training. It has been found, however, that neither Germany nor Palestine can be depended upon to furnish leaders in the numbers and with the qualifications required. The Leaders' Organisation will, therefore, make the training of leaders one of its main objects. This year's Seminar is the first step towards the execution of the aim. Planning a teaching system adapted to adolescent youth from abroad is not the only educational problem presented by the Youth Immigration Movement. There are also the psychic problems of the individual to be dealt with. Fortunately the cases calling for special guidance have not reached a high percentage. But they have been varied in character and as grave as the inhibitions and struggles accompanying adolescence are bound to make them. Aside from the difficulties peculiar to the age of puberty, it is natural, that psychic disturbances should attend the passage of a young person from one world to another, with its new social system and its strange language, and involving separation from the intimacies of parental care. In the case of the German youth there is, moreover, the desire to give material help to the family left behind in Europe. Finally, a main cause for mental disquietude has been the desire for another form of training than that afforded by the Kibbutsim. Many of the young people, and their parents in Germany no less, demand a strict, systematic training for a definite vocation or trade. The kibbuts is not in a position, nor is it consonant with its philosophy, to assure expertise. The attitude is that what'