In most public and private schools across the nation,
Chromebooks, iPads or Windows devices are everywhere.
But things look very different at the private Sacramento
Waldorf School in California where technology isn't used
at all through eighth grade and is scarce even in high
school.
Instead of just turning to my phone to answer a question
to ask a teacher for help or to ask a friend.
I just never really knew what it was like to play video
games as opposed to running around and having fun
outside.
We don't have many screens here but I can still use a
screen really well.
You don't have to be on the screen all the time to
know how to use it well.
So I would whip stitch this on.
I find that even in my own experience, in my own life
that when I'm using a device it divides me from those
who are around me.
So I find that the community experience of being in a
classroom without those devices that comes only from
one-on-one human interaction.
And the screen tends to divide that.
Good morning.
Morning. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the
Waldorf teaching philosophy is used at more than 1,000
institutions in 91 countries, including 136 schools here
in the U.S.
The screen policy differs at each Waldorf School but
it's known for its holistic instructional style which
promotes artistic expression, experiential learning and
yes, limited technology use.
For students at the Sacramento Waldorf School, screen
time is highly discouraged at home too.
The lower-school parent handbook recommends no media at
home through fifth grade and limited access accompanied
by clearly defined family policies and monitoring for
older children, stating none is the optimal condition
for young children and less is better than more in high
school. Computer use at Sacramento Waldorf School is
restricted to just six desktops in one small lab and 20
MacBook Air laptops used in just a few classes.
Mobile devices can be brought by high schoolers who all
sign a pledge to limit use to outside the classroom
only. Tech in schools is big business, expected to hit
$43 billion this year with 46 percent of that growth
happening in K through 12.
So Apple, Google and Microsoft may not be thrilled to
know the Waldorf approach represents a growing trend in
Silicon Valley where low-tech education is becoming
increasingly popular among parents who are apprehensive
of the devices they themselves helped to invent.
The private Waldorf School of the Peninsula, which has
campuses in Los Altos in Mountain View, is highly sought
after. Three quarters of the student's parents there
have a strong high-tech connection.
In fact, many big names in tech like Bill Gates and
Steve Jobs gained notoriety for the strict bounds they
placed on device usage in their homes.
Gates reportedly didn't let his kids get phones until
age 14 and Jobs didn't let his kids use iPads.
The tuition at Waldorf Schools varies by grade and
location. High school tuition at the Waldorf School of
the Peninsula is more than $35,000.
And elementary school starts just under $26,000.
In Sacramento, high school is over $19,000 and
elementary starts just under $13,000.
There is an interesting thing that's happening and that
it's become a real sign of kind of status and privilege
to be tech free.
Children from low income families spend about three more
hours on average on screens per day.
So we're seeing that kind of differentiation where it's
not about the access to the device but it's really about
making sure that children from all kinds of households
have access to positive opportunities and experiences in
online spaces.
For families that can afford to send their kids to
Waldorf Schools, it's likely that they do have the
resources to craft a responsible media environment for
their kids at home.
If you're lucky enough to be born into a family with that
kind of privilege and resources you're gonna have a lot
of different learning opportunities.
So I don't think that we can condemn one type of
teaching practice over another.
It's really about the mix of learning experiences that
we create for our kids and we know within privileged
families those learning experiences are deep and vast
and constantly coming in.
By the time they're seniors I don't think there's
anything different from other kids necessarily other
than they've maybe had a little more of a balance.
At the Sacramento Waldorf School students in the lower
grades aren't taught any computational skills at all.
Instead they learn through tactile immersion handwork is
a subject that is only in really Waldorf Schools.
So all of our children learn how to sew and knit and
crochet and when they come through my class they know
how to fix a button.
They know how to fix a tear in their clothing.
Right now, after I leave you I'll be taking them out on
our hike day and so the children have been able to
watch how the landscape changes and what animals are
there during different seasons and what plants are there
and you can't get that same experience from watching
that on the screen.
Students here also learn how to grow their own food care
for animals on the school's farm, paint and garden.
We have a full working farm on campus and from second to
10th grade they come out twice a week and have gardening
class with myself.
But some of our favorite friends are Atticus the llama
and Paddy the cow and we have a whole bunch of chickens
and a few ducks and a small flock of sheep.
Students are used to working with their hands inside the
classroom as well.
Most of their assignments are handwritten.
This type of hands-on practical education appeals to a
lot of parents broadly concerned about the growing
influence of tech in everyday life.
They're raising some of the first kids to grow up with
access to smartphones tablets and social media.
And many educators and academics alike have begun to
raise the alarm.
One of the things that the research makes clear is that
there is a huge impact of cell phones and social media
platforms like Instagram and Snapchat and other
platforms on kids brains and on their social and
emotional development.
There's also links to addictive compulsive behavior to
attention distraction issues and many other concerns.
Teen depression anxiety and suicide are also on the rise
at the generational level studies show that kids today
spend less time hanging out with their friends than they
used to.
Some recent studies have linked these concerning
statistics with smartphone use so it's no wonder parents
and even kids themselves are worried.
Well I have a few friends of mine who went to law school
and then I know they go to public school.
I know they spend their entire day pretty much on a
screen. I hang out with them and they'll just be like
this all the time.
We go to social meetings whatever and everyone is just
beep beep beep.
They wouldn't talk.
How are you.
Oh good.
They wouldn't have a complete conversation.
Portillo says his classmates at Waldorf aren't like
that. Even though high schoolers like him are allowed to
use their phones during breaks.
After being raised with Waldorf's policies many of his
peers are also on board with the low-tech approach.
When you don't have a phone you kind of are forced to be
social with people you're forced to go out and have new
conversations with people and meeting people.
And that's a really valuable skill to know how to do in
an environment where computers are with you all the time
when your phone is there in every class.
You tend to turn to your phone or your device instead of
to a teacher or a friend.
And so you don't build those skills, those social skills
you also don't learn to ask for help when you need it.
While few would dispute the benefits of real world
interactions and experiential education, Odgers does
take issue with the popular narrative that an uptick in
tech usage is making kids more anxious and less social.
We're seeing a lot of panic among parents and teachers
and that panic is coming from a very good place.
We all want the best for our kids but the evidence is
very consistent at this point we're not seeing these
large effects or large associations between screen time
and digital engagement and decreases in well-being or
lower well-being.
It's simply not there in the way that common perceptions
in the media are common beliefs that we hear just
talking amongst ourselves would lead us to believe.
While rates of smartphone adoption and teen depression
have increased in tandem these studies can only prove
correlation, not causation.
That correlation often disappears if you control for
other factors in our lives.
Digital device used in excess might be a signal or a
marker of something that might be going awry off line.
Basically she says it's more likely that unhappiness is
leading to unhealthy device usage rather than the other
way around.
So when analyzing Waldorf tech policies, Odgers says the
most important thing to consider is how devices are
being used, not necessarily how often.
For me it's a question of how can it how can we use these
as tools.
They're great tools so that we're not tools of our tools
but how can we own them as opposed to their owning us.
And school staff say their students are not deterred from
pursuing careers in technical fields.
Out of each graduating class of about 40 students, 35
percent choose science or math as a major.
The last few years, we've definitely seen an uprising and
STEM majors so a lot of students are going into premed
or computer science.
So given the choice between a modern classroom full of
screens and education apps or a nature oriented,
back-to-the basics experience there may not be a right
answer.
The real magic happens when we can leverage the good
parts of technologies with the great parts of what good
teachers and good parents and good invested adults can
do to really allow children at all stages of development
and learning to reach their optimal potential.
That's not really whether you shut tech offer you to
keep it on.
The question is really how you scaffold learning using
technology when it's appropriate with the right
supports.