Robert Weinreb 
A baby’s schedule becomes adjusted 
to that of the colony. An older 
child is assigned the task of 
baby sitter when the mother is 
occupied with colony work, eating, 
or attending church services. 
considered willful and useless: “They 
can’t do anything but memorize.” The 
willfulness is somewhat threatening to 
a rigidly controlled people, and be- 
cause the uselessness is no longer com- 
bined with complete dependency, it 
cannot be enjoyed by succoring care- 
takers. Verbal threats are used on chil- 
dren of this age for they are old enough 
to experience fear, yet not old enough 
to realize that the threats are empty. 
Most threats fall into one of two cat- 
egories: those that teach that exclusion 
from the group is unpleasant; and 
those that teach that beyond the 
boundary lurks danger. Thus, a child 
may be warned that he will be locked 
in a hole under the house or given 
to a non-Hutterite visitor. If he opens 
a door, a bee in the closet will sting 
him, the dog in the (off-limits) barn 
will bite him, or a bear “outside” will 
eat him up. When it thunders, children 
are told that God is telling them they 
must be obedient. 
Children pass the whole day in kin- 
dergarten, arriving before breakfast 
and, depending upon the convenience 
of the colony, leaving after an after- 
noon snack or after dinner. They learn 
to recite their prayers and hymns 
kneeling by the long benches, hands 
folded under their chins, the girls at 
one bench, boys at another. Rocking 
rhythmically, they recite very rapidly, 
the older ones doing so quite loudly. 
(This is the only occasion on which 
a kindergarten child may raise his 
voice.) No effort is made to explain 
the meaning of what is memorized. 
Children of this age are not permitted 
to touch any dangerous object. Until 
the age of six, they use only a spoon 
for eating and are not allowed to han- 
dle scissors, a knife, or a pencil. Sev- 
eral kindergarten children were 
strapped for playing with our five- 
year-old son’s hammer and saw. 
To the Hutterites, it is obvious that 
children have stubborn wills that must 
be broken; kindergarten helps teach 
the children not to be stubborn or 
willful. As one kindergarten mother 
explained when she swatted a child 
| terite) who comes within sight or ear- 
i I shot. They are taught to be aware 
1 1 of, and to respond quickly to, the 
l wishes of others, but they are also 
j taught not to initiate contact or disturb 
; them. It is difficult to know what fac- 
I tors influence a child’s development, 
i i but certainly Caleb, the house child 
Ij we brought to the colony, has turned 
(into an adaptable person who is com- 
Ifortable with people and intuitively 
| responsive to those around him. When 
I we returned to New England and he 
I began nursery school, he never spoke 
I above a whisper in front of strange 
I adults, but played happily with the 
■children. He was a master at avoiding 
quarrels. By the time he was in kin- 
dergarten, he still rarely initiated con- 
j act, but college student observers re- 
ported he was the most sought-out 
child in the group. Caleb, who was 
at a socially favorable age stage, re- 
sponded most positively to the Hut- 
terites. For months, he asked daily 
when we would go back to live in 
the colony, and he has enjoyed each 
return visit, stepping naturally into the 
proper age- and sex-determined niche. 
“Our kindergarten school is from 
three to six years. Here they learn 
to obey, sing, sleep, memorize, and 
pray together,” explained a Hutterite 
minister. “We need the kindergarten,” 
remarked a Hutterite kindergarten 
mother (teacher). “It helps the chil- 
dren and their mothers to realize that 
everyone should know his or her 
place.” The status of the kindergar- 
tener is low. The child has plummeted 
from a relatively desirable position to 
the very lowest. Kindergarteners are 
