Yesterday, I read a very interesting news article about schools in the Silicon Valley that were using the Waldorf Method of education. It's a good article, but if you don't have time to read it, here's the gist. Waldorf schools reject the idea that more technology = better education, and take the opposite tack. No computers. No electronics. No smartboards or smartphones or document cameras or iPads. These Silicon Valley tech moguls, sensing that their children face an oversaturation of technology, pay about $24,000 a year to send their kids to a school where gadgets are nonexistent. We're talking chalkboards, not even whiteboards. Pencils and paper, not laptops. Books, not movies. They include knitting, woodworking, eurythmy, and music as an integral part of the curriculum. According to the article, "those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans...the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains." This article is sticking in my head like a great novel or an unsettling dream. On the one hand, I love my technology. I'm not the highest-tech teacher out there (I have neither smartboard nor -phone, for example) but I love my LCD projector, my computerized gradebook, my class website. I love being able to pull up YouTube videos to illustrate or enrich a point. I love having typed papers turned in, or being able to have papers submitted digitally. But on the other hand... I can't help but believe, as the Waldorf school patrons do, that technology is doing less to help education than it is to undermine it. Reliance on spell check and grammar check has rendered many students unable (through laziness and "why should I-ism") to spell or use correct grammar on their own. The use of computers to generate papers has negated the need for legible handwriting. Cheating is not only easy in the age of SparkNotes, Wikipedia, and paper mills - it has gained an aura of acceptability as well. Students have learned not to strain themselves to figure something out; after all, they can just ask Yahoo Answers or Facebook, and are happy to accept the answer without further verification. That's just surface stuff, though, things that have changed education but maybe not ruined it. More worrisome are the students who can't focus in class because they're so distracted waiting for their cell phone to vibrate, or because they're so intent on texting under their desk or hiding their headphones behind their hair. MUCH more worrisome are the students who can't stay awake in class, or who are falling into a pit of depression, as a result of playing video games late into the night. If you ever want to have a real eye-opener, look up articles about the correlations between inadequate sleep and teen depression, between video game addiction, endorphin desensitization, and school performance.... Waldorf schools "frown on" the use of electronics outside of school as well. Imagine what your classroom would be like, if none of your kids played video games or had a cell phone. Imagine what it would be like if the only TV they were allowed to watch was educational or news programs. Imagine what it would be like if they turned to books and physical activity for entertainment. But, you say, part of education is preparing students for the real world - and if you graduate a student without any knowledge of technology, they'll be crippled! Supporters of this method argue that modern tech is deliberately SO easy to learn how to use - in order to reach as many customers as possible - that their kids will be able to pick it all up very quickly. They'll have a leg up in that they actually have background knowledge and self-driven work ethic, which they can use to make the most of the tech once they adopt it. Additionally, after 8th grade, Waldorf students are gradually given "rights" to use limited technology, and so begin building those skills before graduation. I looked it up. The only Waldorf school in my state is a good eight and a half hours away from here. It looks like they tried to start up one in my town ten years ago, but it has long since faded away. I could totally teach this way. I mean, I'd have to have a whiteboard. I can't STAND chalk. :) But just imagine... all the books... all the opportunity to really dig in and learn how to think and how to work... Then again, I would probably have to learn how to make good bulletin boards. Comments11/18/2011 22:30
I can't stand bulletin boards. Mine are empty most of the time. 04/09/2012 23:04
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