Tilda Swinton: My children go to a Waldorf Steiner School. I am very involved in trying to build a further program for the school so that they can stay in that project until they’re 18. That’s about as political as my life is these days … It’s a deeply political act to put one’s children into a Waldorf School. I’m very proud of our school and that particular movement. It works very well for my family and my children. It’s an alternative schooling which talks about soul values, a child developing at his own rate and developing a socially conscious attitude to the universe, and a feeling of social responsibility. No television, advertising, computers. They are great.

To read the full article Click Here 

Want to know a secret? Some of the tech world’s biggest gurus are sending their own kids to schools with no computers. They’re called Waldorf Schools, and they are unplugged on purpose. Fox, 29′s Karen Hepp visited a Waldorf in our area where they think children should explore without a tablet in their hands

Philadelphia’s Waldorf school is in Mount Airy, the philosophy isn’t just low tech, it’s no tech no computers, no batteries, nothing that beeps- it’s totally unplugged. One of the most obvious differences toys, no electronics, no beeps, felt, real wood, pinecones, nature table, play station, marble roll, balance beam, arrange furniture hang out in. The absence of media, not even technology kids are relentlessly marketed to from the time born, supermarket, movies on yogurt, this school had none of that. The Waldorf philosophy is to let the natural world be the playground to explore and create and imagine put the good stuff in get the good stuff out literally.

Waldorf is becoming especially popular in tech savvy communities. The parents aren’t haters, they just think young children learn best without all the bells and whistles. So what’s it all cost? Waldorf Philadelphia about $12,000, half of their kids get financial aid. There are also schools in Kimberton, Chester County, and Princeton, N.J.

This article is from myfoxphilly.com and was first published on 4th February 2012

Click here to read and watch the full Fox Story

In November following a New York Times feature on Waldorf Education, Karen Hepp from Fox 29 News visited The Waldorf School of Philadelphia. The story will air on February 3rd, on Channel 29′s 10.00 p.m. news show. Hepp interviewed teachers, parents, parents and students during her visit. She was particularly captivated by the beauty and quiet hum of the Early Childhood classrooms, and curious about the grade school curriculum that does not include the use of computers. To read the full New York Time article that piqued Hepp’s curiosity Click Here

To read recent media articles related to Waldorf Education Click Here

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Interesting interview on Marty Moss-Coane earlier today about “Modern Childhood and the Brain.” Toward the end, the author/psychologist has some nice things to say about Waldorf Education. Here’s a link to the podcast: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/

In the effort to give kids a leg up in life, parents bombard them with educational toys, rush them to chess, fencing, and piano lessons, and place them in preschool programs that stress academics in the earliest years. But is any of this stuff really good for kids and what does it do to their growing brains?  Psychologist GABRIELLE PRINCIPE has written a new book on the subject. In it she writes, “If you wanted to design a way of life that was exactly counter to the needs of developing brains, you would invent something like modern childhood.” Principe is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Ursinus College and the author of Your Brain on Childhood: The Unexpected Side Effects of Classrooms, Ballparks, Family Rooms, and the Minivan. She talks with Marty about the disappearance of good old fashioned play in kids’ lives.

Radio Times | WHYY

From the very beginning of first grade, students at The Waldorf School of Philadelphia study a rich and balanced range of subjects grounded in the stages of child development. These include all the recognized subjects of the national curriculum as well as some specific to Waldorf Education. Core subjects are taught in thematic blocks (Main Lessons) with a balance of artistic, practical and intellectual content, with engaging, real world learning experiences. This inspiring and nourishing education aims to develop well-rounded, imaginative, capable young people with a strong sense of self-belief, motivation, responsibility and purpose.

The Gift of Learning Video

Tonights news on NBC included another story about Waldorf Education. Check out the latest.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/

http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/30/9118340-the-waldorf-way-silicon-valley-school-eschews-technology

Intrigued by our schools approach to technology, news anchor Karen Hepp from Fox 29 visited yesterday. She interviewed teachers, students and parents and visited many of our classrooms. A representative at Fox News tells us to expect to see the story sometime in December or January. More details to follow.

Read the latest in the NYTimes “School That Doesn’t Compute” thread.  An Op-Ed piece by Greg Simon entitled “Invitation to a Dialogue: Computers in School” was written in follow-up to the October 23 article on Waldorf Education: A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute. This article describes why Silicon Valley, Google, and other high-tech parents choose to educate their children in low-tech Waldorf schools.

In his letter Mr Simon’s writes -

“From 1993 to 1997 I was the chief domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore, and oversaw the Clinton administration’s program to connect classrooms to the Internet.

How did I reconcile this? I asked Waldorf teachers when they felt computer learning was appropriate. Answer: around sixth grade, the same grade that the Clinton program aimed to connect.

And here’s why. Waldorf education holds that children learn best “in through the heart, out through the mind.” Let children experience the world through their hands, hearts and bodies, not just their minds.

When overzealous parents brag that their preschoolers can use a computer or iPhone, they are elevating intellectual/technological achievement over child’s play. The irony, of course, is that success in life depends much more on children developing imagination through play than on learning a soon-to-be-obsolete technology, which is why schools are wasting money and failing our children when they spend millions on technology and cancel play time. By sixth grade children are moving out of play and into more intellectual pursuits; hence computers are more appropriate.

I wish that the parents who surround their children with technology and adult-created graphic images as early as 2 years old would realize that they are robbing their children of their greatest treasure and skill — being a child.”

The New York Times invites readers to respond to this letter for their Sunday Dialogue and plans to publish responses and Mr. Simon’s rejoinder in the Sunday Review.

Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics’ longstanding recommendations to the contrary, children under 8 are spending more time than ever in front of screens, according to a study scheduled for release Tuesday.

The report also documents for the first time an emerging “app gap” in which affluent children are likely to use mobile educational games while those in low-income families are the most likely to have televisions in their bedrooms.

The study, by Common Sense Media, a San Francisco nonprofit group, is the first of its kind since apps became widespread, and the first to look at screen time from birth. It found that almost half the families with incomes above $75,000 had downloaded apps specifically for their young children, compared with one in eight of the families earning less than $30,000. More than a third of those low-income parents said they did not know what an “app” — short for application — was.

“The app gap is a big deal and a harbinger of the future,” said James Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, which had 1,384 parents surveyed this spring for the study. “It’s the beginning of an important shift, ….”

This article appeared in The New York Times on 25th October 2011

For the full article go to - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/screen-time-higher-than-ever-for-children-study-finds.html

January 2010 and Aditi Roy of NBC 10 visited WSP intrigued by our no-tech approach to education.

Click Here to view the segment