ABSTRACT
How do home-schooled graduates cope with military service? This question is particularly significant in Israel where compulsory military service is a central part of Jewish-Israeli society. This article examined the conscription of home- educated graduates to the Israeli army and their service experience, using a sample of 15 graduates, eight of whom served in the military or were about to serve soon. The reasons for choosing not to serve were found to be similar to what is accepted in Israeli society and stem from religious, family and ideological reasons; yet those in home education seem to have more choice whether to serve, hence their decision to serve reflects a special personal commitment. Home-schooled graduates were also found to have encountered difficulties in enlisting in the Israeli army, but most of them were able to overcome these difficulties and had little difficulty coping with the army’s strict discipline.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Apple, “Rightist Education,” 5; Edri, “The Homeschooling Experience”; and Lois, “Homeschooling Motherhood,” 186.
2. Ray, Homeschooling Growing.
3. Heller-Degani, Homeschooling in Israel.
4. Knesset Research and Information Center, Homeschooling.
5. Knesset Research and Information Center, Homeschooling; and Detel, “Learning,” 9.
6. Edri, “The Homeschooling Experience.”
7. Gretel, Home Education.
8. Edri and Dahan Kalev, “Does Homeschooling have Freedom,” 1; and Finch, “The Experience.”
9. Waldman et al., “Is it the will of the Individual?”
10. Shafran Gitelman, “IDF Women’s Service.”
11. Malchi, Cracks in the Consensus.
12. Polkinghorn, “Language and Meaning,” 137.
13. See note 11 above.
14. Murphy, “The Social and Educational Outcomes,” 272.
15. Gaither, “Homeschooling in the United States,” 213.
16. Kuzman and Gaither, “Homeschooling,” 4.
17. See, for example, https://www.mitgaisim.idf.il.
18. Ballout, “Career,” 655.
19. Wenger and Hodari, Final Analysis.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Avishag Edri
Avishag Edri is a postdoctoral fellow at the Mofet Institute & Hemdat HaDarom College of Education, Israel. The author thanks the Mofet Institute for its generous support of this study.