Waldorf Schools: Where Technology Isn't King

Waldorf Schools: Where Technology Isn’t King

The Washington Waldorf School differs from your average public school in one rather obvious way. While it’s common nowadays to be greeted by the sound of electronics as soon as one enters a school hallway, the corridors of Washington Waldorf are eerily quiet. That is because rather than embracing technology, the school is innovating by [...]

That is because rather than embracing technology, the school is innovating by moving further away from it. Instead of introducing classes on web design, programming and computer modeling, students here learn with their hands. When anyone mentions “digital” in this – and most other Waldorf schools across the country and the world – they mean strictly fingers.

It seems like this message of strictly-offline education is striking a chord. There are now more than 120 Waldorf schools in the United States with more than 1,000 are operating globally. In the estimation of Waldorf supporters, it is a true educational revolution in the technology-driven world.

Waldorf’s approach caters to paying attention to learning, instincts and the world — tough skills to teach in the distracted era of texting, friending and tweeting. The classes are small — with only 264 students in the entire school — and teachers use hands-on learning in lieu of computing.

Washington Waldorf Faculty Chair Natalie Adams says the seminar teaching format with frequent adult interaction benefits students.

Adams describes what passes for person-to-person interaction in the world of smartphones and social media as “sad.” She said that this constant human contact encouraged by the Waldorf ethos makes students comfortable with themselves and with others — and that comfort is a necessary condition to learning, she implies. Whatever benefits technology could bring to education will be more than offset by its ability to distract.

Adams isn’t alone in feeling this way. Two recent reports – released by Pew Research Center and Common Sense Media – clearly show that this is a belief shared by a majority of teachers. Far from seeing incursion of digital tools as a boon, many believe that they turn students’ attention away from learning — in addition to the number these kinds of gadgets do on an average student’s attention span.

In the Pew survey, 87 percent of 2,000 middle and high school teachers said the Internet and digital technology have caused an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” Common Sense Media researchers found that 71 percent of 685 K-12 teachers surveyed say the media – including TV shows, music, video games and the Internet — interferes with attention span, followed by concerns for writing skills, homework preparation and face-to-face communication skills.

Comments

Bob Rose

January 11, 2013 at 2:32 pm

The best form of “hands on” teaching involves teaching K-1 students how to hold and move a pencil.

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Sue

January 11, 2013 at 3:48 pm

Technology is these children’s future. Rather than removing it, we need to teach them how to use it and WHEN it is appropriate to use it. At the moment children are allowed to play with their toys where-ever and whenever they want. That is what is different to the past. Technology is a tool, just like the pencil and pen, but we are not teaching children how to use these tools properly. And this is not doing that any better than anywhere else.

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Distractible? Or Desperate? | A Stick in the Sand

January 12, 2013 at 11:52 am

[...] Again, I’m hearing that the web is creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans. [...]

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Ben Sorrell

January 14, 2013 at 12:26 pm

As they say, “the proof is in the pudding”. My daughter’s 2003 Austin Waldorf class of 20 was offered more than $2 million in grants and academic scholarships from some of the best private and public universities and colleges in the U.S. From kindergarten through 8th grade they had no computer training or use in school, and the use of computers and hi tech games at home was discouraged. They had computer classes and limited use of computers in high school. Yet some of these students now have advanced degrees in technical fields, and are very successful in their careers.

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Chris Carter

January 14, 2013 at 5:50 pm

Well, here it is. Tech isn’t the goal. It is a means toward higher order thinking, or should be. When tech is seen as the silver bullet, solving overcrowded classrooms, we’ve failed as a society to understand the use of technology in the classroom. Philosophically, I believe that human beings are drawn toward what is easy, drawn to stasis. It takes effort to break that habit, but breaking that pattern is rewarding, both intellectually and socio-emotionally. Waldorf school do that through non-tech project-based, student-centered learning. Sure, a school can teach higher-order thinking skills without current technology. This is a better model than using tech as a placebo for small class sizes and hands-on education. What is not as obvious is the reality that the same focus on student centered, project-based education, with the added training in, and use of technology, can and should facilitate even greater higher-order thinking and enhanced, “deep” learning. The argument that digital communication distracts is a chimera. Tech is PART of the cloud of communication forms, NOT a replacement for face-to-face interaction.

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Some Schools Say ‘No’ to Technology for Students | Citelighter

January 17, 2013 at 2:16 pm

[...] Maryland news outlet (via Education Week) ran a fascinating article last week on this subject, highlighting one of the more than 120 Waldorf [...]

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