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Wer keine Kraft zum Träumen hat,
Hat keine Kraft zum Leben.
(He who has no strength to dream,
Has no strength to live.)
—ERNST TOLLER, quoted by Elon (1971)
IN RECENT YEARS, GROUP CHILD-REARING PRACTICES HAVE BEEN vying for acceptance as an alternate to child rearing within the nuclear family. Communal care of children, as illustrated by the kibbutz in Israel, the day-care program as practiced in China, and as advocated by the women's liberation movement in the United States, is considered to be more effective and practical in many respects. However, while group rearing of young children, including infants and toddlers, is advantageous in freeing women from certain repetitive chores, some of the disadvantages described by Bettelheim (1969) and others need to be evaluated.
Bettelheim pictures the kibbutz-educated generation as conforming, secure, noncreative, intensely loyal persons who have few