AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 221, 18 September 1930, Page 13

AMONG OURSELVES.

(By CONSTANCE *CLYDE.)

. PALESTINE COMMUNISM. In a British magazine Hannah Berman writes of a Communistic settlement in Palestine which has been in existence now some score of years. The communism concentrates largely on the children, who are taken from their parents in infancy, but, as the women join, knowing that this is the rule, one takes with some salt the statement that "the separation at a few weeks old almost breaks the maternal heart." However, it, is stated that the mothers are permitted cognisance of their children from afar, off, whether in the nursery, where they remain till five years old, or promoted to the school, where a play teacher takes them in hand. The ideals of the play school are the elimination of fear and also of the word "Don't." The play teacher, again, and the nurses, must f6llow after the children, instead of compelling the little ones to follow them. Learning then and later must be made attractive, for compulsion must never be Used. It is too early, say enthusiasts, to speak of the ethical results from this ideal, but there is rather a hint that some of them, pupils in their late teens, are looking forward to the cities, without realising that they are a special race.