ABSTRACT
Mechinot (singular: Mechina) means in the present context preparatory environments of the kind Feuerstein (1971) conceptualized. The task is cognitive and academic upgrading of adolescents so that they may return to the usual schools and continue normal progress. Although the gains in the Mechinot often have been dramatic—on the order of three-four years of academic achievement in a single school year—Israeli specialists have contemplated with some trepidation the prospect of "graduates" immediate return to the previous environment. As an alternative they placed the "graduates" of Mechinot in kibbutz youth groups (See Wolins, Chap. 15) for several years, thus maintaining them in a group environment for up to five years. Rapaport and Arad evaluate the impact of this tandem group care arrangement in which academically oriented youth village life is followed by a more socially demanding period in a kibbutz.
