This article is the first of two which will give an account of the history of the education departments of the kibbutz movements in Israel and highlight their uniqueness and achievements. They dealt with all types of educational activities at all ages and in all spheres: kindergarten teachers, teachers, "metaplot" (plural form of "metapelet"--housemother-educator in the children's house), youth leaders, parents and the children as well, and also with the relationships with educational institutions outside the kibbutz. The term "kibbutz movements" relates to three movements founded in the late-1920s, after the establishment of the first kibbutz, Degania, in 1910: "Kibbutz Artzi", the most left-wing movement, later caught up in revolutionary Marxism and the class struggle; "Kibbutz Meuhad", Zionist-activist, but also influenced by communism; and "Hever Hakvutzot", preferring smaller settlements, social-democratic and pluralistic in nature. The education departments were set up as soon as the movements were founded and the three "founding fathers" of kibbutz education, Shmuel Golan ("Artzi"), Mordechai Segal ("Meuhad") and Yehudah Ron-Polani ("Hever" and later "Ihud"), were the dominant figures from the very beginning. This article cannot deal with all three education departments, nor with all their activities in the various age groups from the early 1930s until the end of the century and the millennium; a considerable part of that rich and varied endeavor was analyzed in the book "The History of Kibbutz Education: Practice into Theory" (Dror, 2001). This article focuses on one significant example: the history of formal education in the schools of the "Kibbutz Artzi", under the leadership of Shmuel Golan and his followers in the Movement's education department and with the help of its "Educators' Movement"--and the influence of the espoused theory and practice on the environment. (Contains 64 notes.)