As deeply caring parents who are invested and engaged in your child’s education, the question of how is your child’s school preparing them for their future and where their education will take them is natural and reasonable. As you may know, some of our WSP faculty are Waldorf graduates as are several of our board members. This past week, Sarah Gillis, the child of a previous WSP School Administrator Sue Levine, took flight aboard SpaceX and played violin in space! You may be thinking that Dr. J has lost his remaining marbles, but read on. It is true! Her beautiful message of “unity and hope and highlighting the resilience and potential of children everywhere” showcased the promise of a Waldorf education, a century old education for today.
As school has returned to session all across California, there has been a nationwide conversation about whether or not schools should ban phones from campus. The following article, More California Schools Are Banning Smartphones, but Kids Keep Bringing Them, discusses this and the associated challenges in doing so. We feel fortunate to be part of a community that values a play based childhood that incorporates technology when developmentally appropriate.
Top image: Illustration by Adriana Heldiz/CalMatters; iStock
“It’s not where you go, it’s what you do there.” This is the advice of Dr. Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer at Stanford University and co-founder of Challenge Success, a non-profit affiliated with the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. She spoke to our community earlier this month for a workshop on “A Healthier Approach to College Admissions.” With humorous anecdotes and an engaging PowerPoint presentation, as well as her perspective as a parent who has gone through the admissions process with her own children, Dr. Pope emphasized that fit should be valued over rankings. Keeping a level head during the college search process is key for the well-being, engagement, and sense of belonging of all K-12 students.
One of my favorite parts of the evening was when Dr. Pope handed out forms with a series of criteria for choosing a college or university to everyone in attendance. The form had 29 categories. For each category, we had to determine whether each was ‘‘not important”, “nice to have,” or “essential”. Here are just a few of them: 1. Diversity of the student body/faculty. 2. Community service opportunities. 3. Mental health services & supports. 4. Small class sizes. 5. Undergraduate academic reputation. It quickly became clear that no two people had the exact same marks or criteria. This brought home the ‘fit’ factor. What might be the right place for one student might not be the right place for another student. Dr. Pope also shared that popular college rankings, such as US News & World Report, used just ten factors to create their rankings, and by a show of hands it was noted that within our group very few present had prioritized any of those particular factors (Morse & Brooks, 2022).
Dr. Pope also told attendees about her experiences when she was touring colleges and universities with her son. After a long car ride, they had arrived at one of the schools that her son had identified as a top match school. But when he saw the small size of the town, and had done a little research, he realized that the town only had three restaurants. Being a foodie, he could not fathom attending a school in an area with such limited cuisine options. He told his Mom, “I will not go to this school.” Taken aback, Dr. Pope reminded her son that there were several reasons this school had made it onto his college list in the first place. But she could tell her son’s mind was made up; the school was not for him. They quickly crossed it off his college list, got back into the car, and drove away because a good fit on paper may not always be one in person.
When I meet with one of our WSP students, my goal is for the two of us to identify schools where they can see themselves being happy; academically, socially, intellectually, mentally, and emotionally. We map out a plan for future success, not just in college, but in life. No stone is left unturned. We look at average classroom sizes, retention rates from freshman to sophomore year, but we also look at schools that have a cappella groups or choirs if a student has a love for singing. For another student on the Walbots, WSP’s robotics club, it could be making sure a college has a similar student group for them. College rankings are never discussed; personal fulfillment and happiness is our chief topic of discussion.
Dr. Pope reminded me that while the college search process is not an easy one, there are so many reasons to be hopeful that a student will make the decision that is right for them. As my high school seniors receive many of their admissions decisions over the next few days and weeks, I am excited for what lies ahead for them. Their best days are still to come!
A new study published in the JAMA Pediatrics suggests yet one more reason to manage tech at home. “Tempting as it may be to hand them a smartphone or turn on the TV as a default response, soothing with digital devices may lead to more problems with emotional reactivity down the road, a new study has shown,” writes Madeline Holcombein in a recent CNN article [link].
“‘Even slightly increasing a child’s emotional reactivity, that just means it’s more likely when one of those daily frustrations comes up, you’re more likely to get a bigger reaction,’ said lead study author Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician.” Read the rest here.
Who hasn’t been there? Especially while trying to work and school at home during COVID. And if you haven’t, a long break from school filled with extended family and friend visits and extra tasks to complete might send you there.
Sometimes these habits can be hard to break. I recall when my, now 21-year-old, son was in kindergarten, a teacher telling us “A lot of televisions seem to ‘break’ during kindergarten.” Our TV didn’t actually “break,” but throwing a cloth over it did wonders. However, as we all know, it just isn’t the TV in the corner seeming to allure us for some temporary peace and quiet anymore; everywhere you turn there is a tempting device, especially if you turned to them during the last few years.
I always found rather than taking something away from my children, it was easier to instead give something new or different. Even waaay back when I was a child, my mother had a plastic tub of rice with cups, measuring spoons, and sieves in it; kept away only for rainy days. I may not have enjoyed that if it had always been available, but it certainly made the rare indoor rainy day very exciting!
An interview with Pierre Laurent on the new film #KidsonTech
by Kora Feder | WSP Writer
We all know how challenging it can be to limit our children (and honestly, ourselves) from overusing technology. #KidsOnTech, a new documentary film co-produced by WSP’s very own School Administrator Pierre Laurent, is a powerful exploration of the great experiment that is technology’s effect on our children’s brains. The film features international educators, neuroscientists, New York Times journalists, and parents, all diving into the science of how we can prepare children for today’s digital world.
Pierre’s interest in this topic wasn’t immediate. He didn’t grow up with computers, but taught himself coding at the local library and later became a Silicon Valley tech executive. Since he didn’t grow up with iPads in classrooms, he figured his children didn’t need that kind of tech either. “Initially I was like any other Waldorf parent, making a choice for my children,” he says.
But in 2011, a reporter contacted the school about doing a piece on the fact that while two thirds of parents at WSP work in tech, the school doesn’t use computers. Pierre realized there was something fascinating about that choice. That article, A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute, ended up on the front page of the New York Times, sparking mass curiosity and a press frenzy for years to come. “It was very very surprising for me, how far the article went and how many people read it, and the comments from parents,” Pierre recalls. “Many seemed to be torn. They didn’t want their children to be exposed too much, but at the same time they felt they had to do it. They were living in that tension.”
This onslaught of tension and concern from parents and journalists alike enticed Pierre to dig deeper, and a journalist suggested he make a documentary about the school. In collaboration with Emmy- and Sundance-nominated filmmaker Paul Zehrer, Pierre produced Preparing for Life, a short film that focuses on WSP’s story. But Pierre and Paul were interested in tackling the quandary of kids and tech on a grander scale, finding that the press was only telling a narrow version of a much deeper story. “If misusing or overusing screens can change human capacities, and then we do that in every child, then we are actually kind of changing humanity. Is that good or is that bad? It becomes dystopian,” Pierre muses of his and Paul’s early conversations. “We first compared it to climate change; you drive your car and you don’t really feel it, but then you put all the cars together and it has a real effect on the planet,” he says. “It became a very big topic that took us probably a year and a half of talking to start being able to grapple with.”
Ultimately, their musings led to years of gathering data, collecting interviews and insights from parents and experts from India, Germany, and beyond. “Initially we were really going to go all around the world, but a film like that always lacks funding, which is something I learned! […] We still did something pretty international that shows that the scope of these issues is not just about rich countries or poor countries or just Silicon Valley or anything like that; it’s worldwide and across many cultures.”
Indeed, the film is impressive in its scope, taking viewers not only to various cultures and countries, but both private and public schools in the Bay Area. “It’s not about telling everybody to join a Waldorf school,” Pierre points out. Although the film includes many Waldorf-inspired speakers and educators, it focuses more on the impact of screen time on a child’s relationship to the world, regardless of that child’s situation.
That tension that parents and journalists spoke of after the 2011 article is eerily present in the film, leaving viewers with a sense of urgency on the topic. Pierre hopes that urgency can inspire action instead of guilt. When it comes to teaching children to use technology deliberately, instead of without restraint, “parents and educators at large need to be re-empowered to make decisions and understand their role,” Pierre says. “We should not blame them, because it’s really hard. We just want them to know that they have that power.”
We hope you’ll watch and share the film, as we feel that its message couldn’t be more universal and necessary. Learn about watching or hosting a screening at kidsontech.film.
