Schools that Don't Compute

The New York Times web site features an article about Waldorf School that don't compute... even those in Silicon Valley are places where kids don't use computers. The page with the story features a picture of a girl lying on the desks reading.

I am something of a Luddite-- I want technology to be used for those purposes for which it is useful and I want it to have a place in schools where students build and create, read and write, and play instruments and games. When we look to schools such as these and contemplate the minimum role of technology in them, we must think about why there is no technology and not assume that this is necessarily "better."

Recently, I was at a soccer game and saw a teacher in the audience who was correcting test papers... a stack of papers on which the students had answered questions and she was marking them with a red pen. I wondered back to the last time I corrected papers like that... it has been years. All of my students take test online, so we are all looking at the same questions and answers and my comments are their for students and parents to review indefinitely.

I think we need schools aligned with the Waldorf spirit of engaged learners who build knowledge... and even lie on desks reading books, but then who use technology when it is appropriate.