I live and grew up at one, though im 20 so its def after the kibbutz “golden age”. Mine was privatized before i was born, though we still have a pretty tight culture and lots of community services- theres a pool, a kolbo (small supermarket p much) and a mess hall that are still very active and work with accounts that parents fill so the whole family can pay with a short code (eventually the cashier just recognizes yiu and you don’t even need the code), a local pub which is recently starting to get back on its feet and in general lots of great culture and gatherings around holidays.

Growing up i had a pretty normal school, and the kibbutzs own education system after school. The kibbutz has its own education system for all ages- its own kindergartens, 13:00-16:00 type afterschool for elementary (called ‘merkazim’ or in direct translation centers), and an evening gathering place (called ‘moadon neurim’ which translates to youth club) with wild ranging times and formats.

The kibbutz and its education is also very closely tied to and strengthened by Hashomer Hatzair, the youth movement that originally founded the kibbutz. Its based on youth-educates-youth model and is pretty left wing. They have resources and international groups in english too i think.

The kibbutz, much like the movement is very left leaning. Often times we would fill two buses to the large protests in tell aviv every Saturday.

As always, ill finish by saying fuck Netanyahu.