Healthy Approach to Digital Technology at the Minnesota Waldorf School
At Minnesota Waldorf School, we nurture our students’ capacity to live in, and love, the times they are in. Our approach is a “slow” learning method, from our early childhood classrooms right up into our Middle School. Through this, an unhurried lifelong approach to learning is developed. Our students are taught to seek connections and relationships with each other and with the world around them.
Digital technology is woven into the fabric of modern life. We recognize the importance of being able to navigate it with knowledge, imagination, and purpose. This is especially true for our Middle School students. For them, we introduce Cyber Civics in Grade 6. Through this digital literacy curriculum, middle school students from grades 6 through 8 are guided into the digital world through concepts such as: the internet as a useful tool, digital citizenship, and proper engagement with websites or social media.
MWS uses a low-tech approach to digital technology to foster curiosity, critical thinking, imagination, and healthy cognitive function. We do not use digital technology in our classrooms, encourage our families to be intentional and mindful about their screen use at home, and engage with our middle schoolers (Grades 6 to 8) around internet use to help them have a balanced, healthy relationship with digital media. In general, students are not allowed to have cell phones or other internet enabled devices at school. Medical and other exceptions are made on an as-needed basis.
At MWS, there is no rush to introduce digital technology into the classroom. Instead, we nurture cognitive functioning in all grades with recall, rhythm, the arts (visual, sculptural, and performing), and educational games for numeracy and literacy. We reinforce the importance of daily rhythms and habits that support executive skills. Our neurodivergent population is supported as well by this approach.
We take seriously our “responsibility to develop individuals capable of clear, creative thought and expression, who possess the self-confidence to meet the challenges of our rapidly changing world” (MWS/About Waldorf Education). It is clear to us that delaying entrance into the digital world until middle school does this. When they are introduced to digital technology, it is done intentionally and thoughtfully. MWS students leave our school fully prepared in body, mind, and spirit, for the world that awaits them.
“A child’s brain develops rapidly…children learn best by interacting with people, not screens.”
— American Academy of Pediatrics
Parent Resource: Slow Tech Media Diet for Children
Developed by Patti Connolly and Diana Graber, founder of cyberwise.org
0-2 Year Olds Needs:
To explore, learn to trust, and engage in “joint attention” with you.
No passive screen time – TV, DVDs, tablets, smartphone viewing.
Her parent(s) to put away computers and tablets when with her.
An introduction to how to participate with tech devices in a very limited, positive way by engaging in these activities with you, such as: Face Time or Skype with grandparents or extended family.
3-6 Year Olds Needs:
Uninterrupted time engaged in unstructured old-fashioned play (dress up, active outside play, creative, rough and tumble), playing with toys that require a “stick-to-it kind of attention”, exploring nature, listening to you read and tell stories.
Active social participation with tech devices in a very limited, positive way by engaging with you. Continue to Face Time or Skype with grandparents or extended family. Add a few more practical, social activities such as: your child dictating an email to extended family as she sits next you as you type or learning from or playing with age-appropriate, parent-reviewed apps with you. Maximum active media participation=5 minutes a day.
Strict limits on her passive screen time of age-appropriate programs – either none or with you co-viewing on Friday night-Saturday night, maximum viewing time per day = 1 hour total.
7-9 Year Olds Needs:
Uninterrupted time to play with other children and with open-ended, creative toys, to be actively engaged in real life experiences, to read and be read to, to pursue hobbies, to explore nature.
Co-participating with media through tech devices with you. See above for ideas. Add co-creating media (videos, music, stories, etc.) and co-viewing media that help your child learn how to make something new (like sing a new song).
An introduction to independently participating in media, such as: using interactive age-appropriate apps and playing creative, interactive, non-violent video games.
Maximum active media participation (co-participation and independent participation)=15-30 minutes a day.
Limited passive screen time with you co-viewing on Friday night-Saturday night, maximum viewing time per day=1 hour total.
Your firm guidance on how to move through boredom or feelings of peer pressure without engaging in screen time.
10-12 Year Olds Needs:
Uninterrupted time to play with others with open-ended, creative play materials, to be actively engaged in real life experiences, to read, to pursue hobbies, to explore nature.
Co-participating with media through tech devices with you. Add sometimes researching a question child has online with you, beginning to learn how to keyboard and how to program, and setting up an email account that you monitor and control the password for.
Independent participation with media. See suggested activities for 6-9 year olds and add creating media (videos, music, stories, etc.) with parent supervision, reading e-books, writing family and friends occasional emails.
Maximum active media participation=30-45 minutes a day.
Limited passive screen time with you co-viewing Friday night-Saturday night, maximum viewing time per day = 1 hour total.
Your firm guidance on how to move through boredom or feelings of peer pressure without engaging in screen time.
13-14 year olds need:
Time to engage in nature in new, challenging ways (rock climbing, mountain biking, etc.), to pursue hands on interests/hobbies, and to spend time being with friends in active, “real life” experiences.
Independent participation with media. See above suggestions. Add researching online for school or for own interests with parent support, completing homework on computer in common area of house, viewing media that helps her learn how to make something new, possibly having own cell phone to communicate with others. Maximum active media participation=60 minutes a day.
Clear agreements with you about tech use tailored to her age. It’s more about how she uses technology instead of how much she uses it.
To create code of conduct with you. Here is one from Janell Burley Hofmann: “Don’t be mean, don’t lie, don’t embarrass other people, don’t pretend to be someone you’re not, don’t go places you’re not allowed to go. Don’t post pictures that Grandma wouldn’t love.”
Limited passive screen time on weekends only.
Your firm guidance on how to move through boredom or feelings of peer pressure without engaging in screen time.