Waldorf education is dedicated to nourishing and nurturing each child’s innate creative, emotional, intellectual and physical capacities. The full development of these capacities is of profound importance to each human being’s ability to resolve life’s riddles, to take up the task of destiny, and to grow and live in a spirit of fulfillment and positive contribution. They influence the young child’s ability to work with others, to problem-solve, to picture, to envision, to see inwardly, and respond creatively and positively to life’s challenges. These capacities are, in short, crucial elements of a child’s development.

Such capacities are established and enlarged in the early years through a combination of creative, unfettered “free imaginative play” coupled with age appropriate classroom work of a rhythmic nature. Such activities can imbue young children with energy that will later become intellectual energy, tempered with a strong sense of beauty and goodness.

The debilitating effects of media on children’s developing capacities are increasingly apparent to Waldorf teachers and are well documented by independent researchers. “Media” includes the full array of visual and aural electronic devices, including but not limited to videos, DVDs, video games, television, CD walkman units, computers and computer games, and radio. Of equal concern are large-screen movies, whether in the theatre or at home. We fully recognize the prevalence of media in our culture and the need that many adults have for this in their vocation and leisure time. We must also recognize, however, that the adult has the ability to absorb and consciously process these experiences. This a child cannot yet do.

The critical but delicate impulse for free imaginative play is deadened by the constant bombardment of media images from television, movies and video games. This is primarily due to the powerful rapid-fire image-forming nature of electronic media, which places the viewer in a semi-hypnotic state. The “TV child” also adopts a more passive relationship to the world – outer stimulation and inner emptiness – which makes them at risk for drug and alcohol addiction later in life. These powerful media reduce attention spans and expose the children to much that is not appropriate to their age. Recent studies also show the debilitating and distorting effects of television watching (regardless of content, including so-called “children’s programming”) on the nervous systems and perceptions of growing children and its contribution to learning disabilities. Indeed, the vivid and powerful images in much of today’s children’s television programming and computer video games override and severely limit the child’s naturally occurring imagination and higher-order neural development.

In these ways, television, movies, videos and computer/electronic games work directly to counter the aims of Waldorf education. Therefore in the highest service of the children, we ask that before fifth grade, ideally eighth grade, this interference be eliminated. After that, exposure should be kept to a minimum (especially not on school days). It is important to review movies beforehand, watch with them and discuss the content afterwards. Even through high school, media influences should be carefully monitored and regulated. For older students, a Waldorf school works with parents to bring some of the forms of media to them in a healthy way, to educate them in being knowledgeable, productive, and discerning users of media in our world.

Computers
Computers are carefully introduced into the Waldorf curriculum at the high school level (grade 9 and above). They are not introduced sooner because the type of thinking required to operate a computer is highly abstract, and physically, socially and emotionally disconnecting. Computers impose on the user what Valdemar Setzer refers to in his paper on the subject as a “shrunken thinking environment,” making them an impediment in the actively developing feeling and soul life of younger children.

The age at which a child is physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually ready to work with a tool that imposes such limitations is approximately 14 (grade 9). Before that, research is finding that young children, after using so-called educational computer programs for six months, experience a dramatic reduction of creativity, ability to answer open-ended questions or brainstorm with fluency and originality. By waiting until age 14 to introduce computers, however, the proper foundation has been laid in thinking, feeling and willing and abstract thinking and critical judgment has begun to mature, making the introduction to computer technology in high school less damaging and more fruitful. Delaying exposure to the computer until adolescence not only mitigates the potential dangers, it allows the child the come to the computer from a position of emotional and intellectual strength.

Since basic computer skills are vocational in nature, delaying their use until the child is developmentally ready to handle it poses no disadvantage to the child, and is in fact an advantage. Effective use of the computer as a tool is completely dependent upon the imagination and thinking skills of the use. The intellect is born with adolescence – this is the appropriate time to introduce computers.

The aim of a Waldorf education is to nurture and enlarge the child’s multiple capacities. Computers, by imposing restrictions and distortions on the still developing emotions, minds, bodies, and egos of preadolescent children, work directly counter to the aims of Waldorf education for children younger than grade 9. We urge you to consider eliminating computers from the lives of your young children, and significantly limiting older children’s access to them.

Some Resources

Marie Winn, The Plug-In Drug, and, Unplugging the Plug-In Drug
Jane M. Healy, PhD, Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think & What We Can Do About It, and, Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds For Better or Worse
Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Biology of Transcendence
Keith Buzzell, The Children of Cyclops: The Influence of Television Viewing on the Developing Human Brain
Martin Large, Who's Bringing Them Up? How to Break the TV Habit
Jerry Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Frances Moore Lappe, What to Do After You Turn Off the TV
Russel Sage Foundation, New York, Sesame Street Revisited
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
www.tvturnoff.org
www.wholehumanbeans.com