
Spreading salt on the snowy road of our kids’ lives
Israeli mom, entrepreneur and military veteran: Parents aren’t responsible for ploughing all obstacles out of their children’s path in life.
Inbal Arieli was a lieutenant in the elite IDF intelligence 8200 unit and later took leading roles in the Israeli high-tech sector. She is a senior advisor to Start-Up Nation Central and is currently co-CEO of Synthesis. You can follow her on her blog or on Twitter, Facebook and Medium.

Israeli mom, entrepreneur and military veteran: Parents aren’t responsible for ploughing all obstacles out of their children’s path in life.

Order is fragile and has well-defined boundaries, disorder is flexible and brims with opportunity.

On top of military service, many Israeli teens do a year of volunteering or preparatory studies. It’s a valuable transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Every individual youth, regardless of background, has a chance to be selected for the most prestigious and elite Israel Defense Forces units.

From the moment they can raise their heads, we encourage our sons and daughters to explore the world around them without fear or constraint.

Combine an immigrant population with a collectivist society that fosters individual creativity and you have the foundation for a startup nation.

Join us on an inspiring journey through some of Israel’s unique social activities in which teenagers take a central role.

Israel’s Scout movements place the responsibility of leadership on very young shoulders.

Israeli youth age 12-18 have a clearly delineated period where they are afforded an opportunity to act stupidly without harsh consequence.

It’s true that Israeli kids lag behind in standardized tests. But that’s not where the genius of Israeli education lies.

The Israeli attitude was summed up best in a children’s TV show: ‘Kids, no need to worry; Yatzek always falls and gets back up.’

‘If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?’ — Albert Einstein

Instead of toys, kindergartens across Israel often furnish their play areas with junk in an effort to help children test their abilities, learn to cooperate, and be creative.

in Israel we wake up every morning and continue our routine, knowing that anything can happen, any time. It’s one of the things that makes Israelis such great entrepreneurs.

Guest blogger Inbal Arieli says Israeli moms foster risk-taking and adventurous play: On Lag B’Omer, it’s the children who build the bonfire.