[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 11/11/11 15:35, Tony Sumner wrote: > > The school, which enrols children of parents from Google, Apple, > Yahoo, ebay, and Hewlett-Packard, is the Waldorf School of the > Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that > subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and > learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this > approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human > interaction, and attention spans.... The schoolâs chief teaching tools > are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, > occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They > are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their > use at home. One of the problems though with Waldorf is that Steiner (the inspiration) wasn't very good at critical thinking, and came up with a load of spiritual mumbo jumbo. As a result the schools attract the hippy parenting fraternity with equally doubtful critical thinking skills. So even where they, and I include Steiner, have good ideas it tends to be hard to get them taken seriously because it is surrounded by a load of balmy talk. I suspect the ideas of teaching to children's strength, encouraging story telling, lots of outdoor (and indoor) play and exercise, encouraging baking and practical skills, encouraging/mandating parental participation, are all to the good. And these ideas are gaining traction in mainstream education as the psychologist find these things do work. On the other hand in California the Waldorf schools as a group had the lowest vaccination uptake rates of any of the types of school, which is a sad reflection on the quality of parenting. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq