Thanks to reader Linda for reminding me of this article in the New York Times about the school that Silicon Valley high-tech entrepreneurs choose for their own children. It is a Waldorf school. It has no computers.
The school has 196 students. Three-quarters of them are from high-tech families, deeply involved in the creation and design of computer technology.
But this school doesn’t believe that computers have a place in the classroom and it discourages their use at home:
This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.
I don’t want my readers who specialize in teaching technology to freak out. Just think about it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As one who concentrates his study on the intersection of technology and culture, I see schools like Waldorf as an extremely positive development. We who have not grown up with computers fear that our children will not know how to use them if we don’t teach them… which is, if you look at computers today and at children today, a completely unfounded fear.
Yes, there are those who see computers as the tool of the future for education but, here too, a quick look will show that computers will never succeed as the center of education. They never have… and computer-assisted learning has been around for fifty years (the programmed instruction and teaching machine people may not have had the sophisticated hardware of today, but many of the concepts were the same).
Just because computers are part of our lives we don’t have to make them the center of our education, or even part of it. Personally, I do see a role for computers in schools, but I would rather get rid of them completely than make them the driving force.
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So are the public schools the King’s tasters for the technology industry?
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I think one concern here, which the article does point out, is that the students in these schools will have plenty of access and opportunities to use tech later on because of who their parents are. But I’m not sure this model would work with low-income communities. School might be one of the few chances to learn how to use various technology, access the Internet and most importantly, see how it can be incorporated effectively in their learning.
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Technology is ubiquitous. One of the comments from Huntsville–where the city purchased 22,000 computers–said that most of the kids had better computers of their own.
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I completely agree with @freeroar. Most of my middle school students do not have access to computers with Internet at home. Many of them use their phones as their main source of technology, but clearly there are a lot of limitations. Students will struggle as they progress in life if they do not have basic computer skills like typing, registering for and managing email, and Internet research. The digital divide is a real problem. For many students, school is the only place they can expect to learn how to use computer technology.
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Of course students should learn how to use computers. But something else is afoot here. The long-term game plan is to put the kids on computers all the time so as to reduce the number of teachers. It’s “for the children” in name only.
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I’m a Yankee but I’m under the impression Huntsville is not a very typical Southern town. It has a relatively large high-tech sector, including a NASA center.
In my midwestern city, the public library considers providing computer access to those who don’t have computers at home one of its most important services. This tells me that there is indeed a digital divide and that there remain many households without internet access.
Still, there are a lot of stupid ways to use computers in the classroom.
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The Broad-trained superintendent is not closing “the digital divide.” He didn’t need to buy 22,000 laptops to do that. This is prelude to outsourcing instruction as cost cutting measure.
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The cost of tuition at a Waldorf, or really any private school inhibits the attendance of low-income families. I attended a Waldorf school and learned how to use a computer at school, in high school. I continued to use them in College with no trouble at all, and now I can build a one! When subjects are learned during the appropriate developmental period of the child then they are absorbed more deeply and often understood faster. Waldorf isn’t about not learning things, it’s about the timing and process of learning.
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I hope people will read my book “the deliberate dumbing down of america”, 1999, 750 pages, which is now out of print but is a FREE download at my website: http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com. The documented history of education and the introduction of computers and dangers of use of Pavlovian software is covered extensively in that book. An Updated (2000-2011) abridged, very user-friendly version of the book (same title) is available at Amazon.com which includes original chronology, etc. plus most recent developments related to school choice/charter schools and use of computers (getting rid of books!).
I served as Sr. Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Dept. of Education, under President Reagan, from 1980-1982. I blew the whistle (leaked to the press) a technology grant (Better Education Skills Through Technology: PROJECT BEST which went into all states. I was subsequently relieved of my duties (fired). However, before leaking the technology grant I removed the most incriminating documents from my office. Many of those documents, including ones related to publicly-funded school choice, are in both the original and updated versions of my book.
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I’ll be reading your book and viewing your videos as well. Thank you!
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School worked fine without computers for generations. I typed my papers for graduate school on an IBM Selectric and considered myself blessed when I could use the one with the correcting feature. Computers are a tool. I did not use a computer until 2002. I love them and think they are a very good tool and you have much broader horizons with them. I think for kids who don’t have technology at home or even who just have phones, computers are necessary for a full education today and close the gap between the well off and the poor. Kids who have access at home don’t necessarily need it at school.
Personally, I love computers although I only have intermediate skills at best. But kids do need to learn keyboarding because this two finger typing needs to go. It limits their self expression. They should be able to touch type so their thoughts will flow. I considered Personal Typing the most valuable class I took in high school. Still do.
At the same time Waldorf had a good reputation in Atlanta. I think they were the school that taught kids to play the violin. They had waiting list and were quite expensive.
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In my city, ironically, many of the Waldorf schools (especially the newer ones) are charters.
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I typed my papers with carbon paper and correction tape. I love being able to compose on a computer. Keyboarding gives me a degree of fluency that allows me to devote my energy to thinking about what I want to say rather than to locating keys . That being said, my husband was never subjected to touch typing and has his own very efficient system. As an engineer, speed is seldom a criterion that is applied to his computer skills although he can type as fast as needed. He knows ways to use a computer that I will never master. He used them when they were room-size.
What does it mean to be computer literate and what do our children need to know if we want them to be able to use technology as a tool for learning? How do we as educators reclaim the debate from the high tech industry?
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Waldorf? I guess they need students with their minds wide open for their introduction to the occult.
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