What About Computers?
While computers are essential tools in our modern era and we recognize their importance, the Waldorf approach holds that premature exposure to computers, video games, television, and other screen time contributes to many of the attention, learning and behavioral issues afflicting so many children of our modern era.
So while we expect our students to fully engage computers later in their academic careers and lives, we strive to establish a deeper and stronger foundation for critical thinking through emphasis on person-to-person oral teaching, writing and reading in the lower elementary school. To this end, computers and other screens are not used in the classroom until around seventh grade.
Waldorf and Television
Television and other screen time are discouraged because their hypnotic influence leaves children sitting passively when they would otherwise be moving and actively creating their own play, closing down the creative pathways and processes within the child that Waldorf education nurtures.
The School does ask families to refrain from television, video watching, and computer activities in general, and from listening to the radio during the car ride to and from school.