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TAMING THE MEDIA MONSTER
By Thomas Poplawski
There is a warm and cheery feeling in the room for this, the first
meeting of the year for the new kindergarten parents. Sharing stories
about the little angels brings laughter, and when the teacher
reflects what a great step it is to send the little ones off to
school for the first time, there is a bittersweet tear here and
there. After a stern mini-lecture about hair lice and another laugh
over what parents tend to forget to pack in the mornings, Ms. Jeffers
takes a deep breath and continues: "And now I'd like to talk about
another policy here at the Waldorf School that all of you heard about
during your entrance interview but which is controversial for some-
the school policy about television and media."
Suddenly the room is quiet and tense. It is as if an arctic wind has
suddenly cut through the balmy ambiance that had moments ago filled
the space. A number of parents cross their legs or arms, and others
begin to squirm in their seats. Ms. Jeffers also becomes
uncomfortable. The sudden change in the room is apparent to her as
well-though not unexpected. Nevertheless, she forges ahead with
conviction, relating her own experience of the difference between
children exposed to the media and those who are not. She also cites
research findings critical of television viewing and computer use by
children and hands out reprints of articles and studies by respected
authorities. She concludes by strongly recommending that parents
protect their children from exposure to the media-in other words, no
television, videos, video games, and computer activities of any kind.
But the mood of the evening is ruined, just as it is every year when
this topic is brought up. Some parents leave feeling that the
school's policy is extreme. One parent chooses not to enroll his
child, saying, "No television and no white sugar-that's not for us."
Others feel that somehow their expertise and their commitment as
parents are being called into question because they do not agree with
the Waldorf "party line." Why, the teacher even hinted that if a
child talks about "Sesame Street" or sings tunes from a Disney movie
the parents would be called in for a conference. Goodness, is this
some kind of Inquisition?
Other parents who nodded their heads in approval at the teacher's
presentation also feel perturbed. They are indignant that some
parents are threatening what is perhaps their own main aim in coming
to a Waldorf school-to shelter their children from the culture (if
that is indeed the right word!) of television. They seek for their
children an environment characterized by spontaneous free play,
wholesome games, stories, and singing, one free of unsavory media
content, of "trash talk," violent and distasteful imagery, and the
adolescent "jive" and coolness of most so-called children's
entertainment. They hope that the school community agrees on
standards protecting the magical years from three to twelve.
The teacher goes home frustrated by the unsupportive response she has
had from a number of families on this issue. She has seen how
damaging media can be for the delicate unfolding of the young
children. Yet these otherwise caring parents close a door when the
topic of media comes up. She wishes there were a way to help them
understand.
The Media Society
For parents who have never had their family's media use called into
question, the idea of a media ban at home can seem extreme. This is
especially true if one, or both, parents enjoy watching television or
videos, or being on-line. A parent who makes a living from computers
or media entertainment is likely to react even more. "What do you
mean it's not good for my child?"
Almost all parents today have grown up with television. Of course,
the content of television programming has changed, the amount
children watch has increased, and the advent of video tapes, tape
players, and computers has thickened the brew. Studies show that
parents born after 1965 tend to allow their children more exposure to
media than parents born earlier, presumably because they associate
watching television with a warm, cozy family life. The television and
increasingly the computer are felt to be, like the family dog,
necessary parts of a household. Of course, everyone believes in
moderation, so limiting media to a couple of hours a night seems a
reasonable request. But, eliminate it entirely? Whoa!
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf Education, never experienced
television, but he did know about the silent movies popular in the
early part of the twentieth century. Steiner recognized the medium's
potential as a new art form and realized that technologically based
entertainment would develop and spread. But he was aware of the
negative effects and had serious reservations about such
entertainment. In a conversation with a stage designer of the time,
Steiner cautioned that film corrupts people's relation to time and
space and spoils their ability to have a real imagination. For these
reasons, he was concerned about adults who watch too many films.
For decades Waldorf educators have opposed all media use by children,
especially young children, but communicating this to parents is more
daunting than ever. The situation is analogous perhaps to that
surrounding tobacco use in the 1960s. The society as a whole accepted
cigarette smoking as benign, and the few people who warned about
possible negative effects were dismissed as alarmists and health
nuts.
Fortunately, medical and psychological researchers have come to share
the concerns of Waldorf teachers. A steady stream of research has
indicated the ill effects of media exposure on the child and the
adult. The negative consequences include obesity, impairment of
neurological development, increase in aggression, desensitization to
violence, male/female stereotyping, a warping of the child's sense of
reality, and susceptibility to commercialism and materialism-all from
a few hours a day of watching "the tube."
As evidence has mounted, even the conservative American Academy of
Pediatrics has asked its members to inquire how much media the
children they treat are watching. Also, the Academy issued a policy
statement urging that children under two years old not be allowed to
watch any television at all and recommending that no child of any age
have a television in his or her own bedroom or watch more than two
hours a day. Some pediatricians feel that the position should be even
stronger and expect that with more research, the age at which it is
thought safe for a child to watch television, videos, and so on will
rise. One can see a battle brewing that may eclipse the current
struggle involving the tobacco industry. While tobacco use caused
many people to die prematurely, the effects of media exposure are
more subtle. They include the failure of children to realize their
full potential as productive and happy human beings.
The research that has most influenced pediatricians shows that babies
and toddlers need almost constant direct interactions with parents
and other primary caregivers. These are necessary to healthy brain
growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and
cognitive skills. As the child gets older, direct, hands-on
interactions with other human beings, the environment, and with
nature are critical. And it is just these interactions, necessary
throughout infancy and early childhood, that do not occur when
children are involved in the unnatural activity of sitting still and
watching electronic signals.
For Waldorf teachers, however, concern about media use is based less
on the scientific studies and more on their own experience of seeing
the difference between children exposed to media and those not
exposed. Celia Riahi, a Waldorf preschool teacher with many years'
experience, says she can recognize the "media children" in her class
through the chaotic and mechanical movements and sounds that they
make, in imitation of what they have seen on television. The play of
these children is impaired. They tend to get stuck in a story line or
get obsessed with one particular character-usually a television
character. To the preschool specialist such behavior does not portend
well for later development.
Some Waldorf teachers feel that allowing a child to be exposed to the
media undermines what they are trying to accomplish in the classroom.
Waldorf Education relies largely on the ability of the children to
listen to, observe, and absorb what the teacher is saying and doing
and also to respond sensitively to artistic stimuli. Media viewing
shortens attention span and dulls sensory sensitivity. Here not only
the activity of viewing but also of listening to electronically
reproduced voice and music is problematic. Thus parents' inability to
eliminate media exposure is a major problem.
Saying Farewell to an Old Friend
The Swiss physician Elisabeth K�bler-Ross is well-known for her
research with terminally ill patients. She found that patients and
their families go through a series of steps in dealing with the
crisis of impending death. Each stage must be worked through and
transcended if patient and family are to come to some peace before
the end. If they become stuck somewhere in the process there will be
no resolution even though death will occur. These stages pertain not
only to the loss that occurs in death but to every traumatic life
change.
Families seeking to swallow the seemingly bitter pill of unplugging
from media stimulation can expect a similar journey through the
stages of denial, bargaining, anger, and depression. At each stage
certain comments are typical.
Denial
"Television isn't a problem in our home. Our children never
watch . . . well, maybe once in a while. Just a little bit during the
week and then maybe on weekends a bit more."
"All the public schools are getting computers, so it must be the best
thing for keeping our children ahead of the game. I love the Waldorf
School, but sometimes these teachers are just too old-fashioned."
Bargaining
"How about if I limit it to one video on the weekends and give them a
little more freedom during vacation times?"
Anger
"Let those teachers come here some rainy day and figure out what to
do with my two boys."
"Do they expect me to stop watching television-which is the only way
I have to unwind-just so the children don't watch any?"
Depression
"I just feel so miserable. How do I let those Waldorf teachers make
me feel stupid and inferior and that I have already ruined my
children by what I have let them watch?"
"I can't take away the kids' TV and computer. They would just hate me
and think I am a horrible mom. Besides, I could never cook dinner if
they didn't have a video or something to keep them occupied."
An objective look at the growing evidence of the harmful effects of
media on the growing child should cause a caring parent to think
again about media use. In fact, probably almost all Waldorf parents
do try to cut back on media in the home. But they get stuck in one of
these stages or crumble in the face of pressure from children,
relatives, and friends. Holding out against a societal obsession is
difficult. Also, it involves time and energy to find interesting
things for a child to do and for a parent to do with a child. The
parent's own personal space and time will be compromised.
Parents may succeed in protecting a child from the media. There is
then the question as to how long this should continue. Among Waldorf
teachers, responses to this question reflect a continuum from a
purist position-that to some is impractical and unenforceable-through
levels of compromise in bowing to what is felt to be the unstoppable
force of popular culture. Almost all teachers feel that there should
be no media at all before age seven. Some put this at age nine. Many
then are willing to countenance judicious use of television between
ages nine and twelve, with parents selecting the programs and,
ideally, watching along with their children. Many teachers feel that
after the onset of adolescence, at around age thirteen, the young
person should have freedom in this area but also the benefit of
parental guidance. Individual differences should be taken into
account. For a very sensitive child of nine or ten, or older, even
relatively benign classic family films like "The Wizard of Oz"
or "The Sound of Music" may not be appropriate.
Waldorf parents who do struggle with their school's policy about the
media and do work out a reasonable compromise should not be overcome
by guilt or by fear of some impending disaster. There are many
wholesome influences working in the life of the Waldorf child.
Still, something quite subtle may be compromised in the development
of the child. Roberto Trostli is a Waldorf teacher and Waldorf
teacher trainer who has taken several classes through the upper
elementary grades. He comments that among graduating eighth graders,
he can tell which ones still have little or no exposure to media.
They are the students with the most capacity for imagination. They
are the self-starters and the children in the class with the most
initiative. Such an observation may be the most compelling reason for
parents to take a hard look at the media question.
Thomas Poplawski is a regular and popular contributor to Renewal and
has had more articles in this magazine than any other writer. A
psychotherapist who now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, Thomas
is also a eurythmist who trained in England. Thomas and his wife,
Valerie, have two young sons who attend the Hartsbrook School in
Hadley, Massachusetts. Valerie teaches eurythmy at the school and
runs the nursery program there. Thomas writes and lectures frequently
on Anthroposophy, Waldorf Education, and related topics. The
Poplawskis live happily without the benefit of owning a television or
computer.
There's More to Reading than Meets the Eye
By Barbara Sokolov
Everyone who comes in contact with Waldorf education is sure to
notice how beautiful it is, from the enchanting natural toys and
seasonal themes in the kindergarten rooms, to the incredible
chalkboard drawings in each classroom. Visitors and prospective
parents enjoy the amazing array of children's artistic creations --
the paintings and drawings, knitted dolls and animals, woven baskets,
beeswax figures, and wood carvings, just to name a few. The music
that the children play, their singing, and the wonderful plays each
class performs are truly impressive. They admire the main lesson
books written and illustrated by the students, books that
artistically reflect the rich curriculum of a Waldorf school. And of
course they can't help but notice the happy faces of the children in
a Waldorf school.
But invariably the question arises of how and when children are
taught to read in a Waldorf School. The growing anxiety in our
society over declining reading skills is so pervasive that suddenly,
all the wonders and beauty of a Waldorf education pale in the shadow
of the reading issue. "But Waldorf schools take a laid back approach
to reading," people say. "Waldorf students are not taught to read in
first grade like public school students."
As a mother of four Waldorf students, I have often heard such
remarks, and each time a cry of protest wells up inside of me. "Take
a deeper look," I want to shout. There's more to reading than you may
think at first glance.
People generally think of reading as the ability to recognize the
configuration of letters on a page and to pronounce the words and
sentences represented there. This is the mechanical outer activity of
reading that is easy to recognize. So, when people talk about
teaching children to read, they mean teaching them to decode the
symbols that stand for sounds and words.
I have taught for a number of years in public and parochial schools
that use this standard approach. In kindergarten, children as young
as four years and eight months, are required to memorize the
alphabet, a set of abstract symbols, and to learn the sounds that go
with them. This process, called reading readiness, is dry and
abstract, foreign to the very nature of small children.
In the primary grades, children continue to work on the outer
mechanical aspect of reading. Students spend long periods of time
reading simplistic texts that correspond to the level of their
decoding abilities. Readers and textbooks contain stories and
information written with restricted vocabularies and simple sentence
structure. There is little to ignite young imaginations, to evoke
wonder, or to stimulate appreciation for the beauty and complexity of
language.
By the time such students reached my fifth and sixth grade classroom,
they were all capable of decoding the words on a page, with varying
degrees of fluidity. Some were good readers, but for many of my
students, the words and sentences did not come together into a
coherent whole. They had difficulty understanding or remembering what
they read. On the surface, these children appeared to be reading, but
with such limited comprehension, can it really be called reading?
Clearly, there is more to reading than meets the eye! Besides the
superficial process of decoding words on a page, there is a
corresponding inner activity that must be cultivated for true reading
to occur. Waldorf teachers call it "living into the story." When a
child is living into a story, she forms imaginative inner pictures in
response to the words. Having the ability to form mental images, to
understand, gives meaning to the process of reading. Without this
ability, a child may well be able to decode the words on a page, but
he will remain functionally illiterate.
Of course non-Waldorf teachers recognize the importance of the inner
activity of reading too. They refer to it as reading comprehension
skills. In the middle and upper grades of elementary school,
tremendous effort is spent trying to expand students' vocabularies
and to somehow work on comprehension. This is an arduous task,
largely because reading is being taught in a way that is out of sync
with children's natural capacities. The teacher in the upper grades
must address reading comprehension problems and also deal with the
tremendous antipathy children with difficulties feel towards reading.
It is very difficult to teach fifth or sixth graders, who have
trouble with reading comprehension, how to create mental pictures.
This inner capacity seems to have never properly developed in many.
In contrast, kindergarten and primary grade children, left
unhindered, are naturally busy creating imaginative inner pictures.
They love listening to stories and actually live in the visual realm
of imagination. How tragic that, in most schools, kindergarten and
primary grade students are diverted from developing and strengthening
this inner capacity so essential to true reading, in favor of
learning dry abstract symbols and decoding skills.
The same thing can be said for vocabulary enrichment. Everyone knows
how effortlessly young children develop a sense for language and how
quickly and unconsciously their vocabularies grow. They hear new
words in stories and conversations and somehow have a sense for their
meaning. They may not be able give dictionary definitions, but
somehow new words fit into the images that flow through a child's
mind when she hears stories. How unfortunate it is that in the early
grades most children are not exposed to rich complex language, simply
because such language would not be compatible with their limited
decoding skills. Just at the time when their minds are most open to
language acquisition they are working with artificially limited
vocabularies in school! Of course, vocabulary building is an ongoing
process throughout the school years and beyond. But it is much easier
for older children to learn new vocabulary if they already have a
well-developed sense of language, and a large pool of words and
mental images to build upon.
It is apparent that the growing illiteracy problem in this country is
not caused by the lack of technical decoding skills. For most of the
children with reading deficiencies, it is a crisis in comprehension,
a crisis largely brought about by the early introduction of abstract
decoding skills and by ignoring the powerful tools of imagination and
artistic activity that are the natural avenues of learning for young
school children. Ironically, the only cure put forward by the
educational establishment is to work harder and earlier on decoding
skills, which only exasperates the problem further.
The conventional method of teaching reading must be turned inside out
in order to take advantage of children's naturally developing
capacities for learning. And this is precisely what happens in
Waldorf Schools. On the very first day of kindergarten, children in a
Waldorf school begin learning to read. True, it is not the technical,
dry, outer aspect of reading that they are asked to work on. Instead
they are engaged with the far more important inner aspect of reading.
Working with a real knowledge of the developing child, Waldorf
teachers begin teaching reading by cultivating children's sense of
language and their inner capacities to form mental images. Vivid
verbal pictures and the use of rich language are constantly employed
in the classroom. Difficult vocabulary and complex sentence structure
are not held back in the telling of tales. Children sing and recite a
vast treasury of songs and poems that many learn by heart. Children
live into the world of imaginative inner pictures, totally unaware
that they are developing the most important capacities needed for
reading comprehension, for reading with understanding. They learn
naturally and joyfully.
Imaginative stories, songs and poetry do not end in kindergarten.
Rudolf Steiner points out that children between the age of about
seven to fourteen have, above all, the gift of fantasy. So it only
makes sense that children learn best if the curriculum is brought in
such a way that it captivates their imaginations. In his book,
Kingdom of Childhood, Steiner says, "We should avoid a direct
approach to the conventional letters of the alphabet which are used
in the writing and printing of civilized man. Rather should we lead
the child in a vivid and imaginative way, through the various stages
which man himself has passed through in the history of civilization."
My own children experienced the joy of learning the letters of the
alphabet through imaginative stories and through the painting or
drawing that accompanied each one. The letter "K", for instance, may
be introduced by telling a fanciful story about a king. Then the
teacher may draw a picture of the king standing in a pose that looks
similar to the letter "K." This process hearkens back to the picture
writing of early man, and gives our modern symbols real and living
qualities to which children can relate. Although it took the entire
year of first grade to present the alphabet in this way, my children
were never bored. They were living into their fantasy, living with a
wellspring of imaginative pictures. They were, in fact learning
reading comprehension, long before they learned decoding. Amazingly,
Waldorf children learn the hard part first without even knowing it!
They live into the stories, they create inner pictures, and they
understand the words. Then comes the easy part, learning to decode
letters that are no longer so abstract and foreign, and to read the
printed word
So, the first book that my daughter, Anna, read when she was "finally
taught to read" was not a dull primer, but beautiful prose by E. B.
White, Charlotte's Web. True, she learned to decode later than many
of her public school counterparts, but she learned to read fluently,
with understanding and enjoyment, much sooner than most. Take a look
at the sophisticated novels and poetry that upper grade Waldorf
students are reading. Take in an eighth grade production of
Shakespeare, and you will see the wisdom of the Waldorf approach to
reading
Working with a true knowledge of the human being, a true
understanding of the stages of child development, the Waldorf teacher
is able to educate children in ways that enable them to blossom forth
with joy. As Rudolf Steiner says, "It is indeed so that a true
knowledge of man loosens and releases the inner life of soul and
brings a smile to the face.
Rudolf Steiner, The Kingdom of Childhood. Introductory Talks on
Waldorf Education
Anthroposophic Press, 1995, p. 23
2 lbid, p. 22
From Renewal: Spring Summer 2000, Volume 9 Number
The Handwriting Is on the Wall
Researchers See a Downside as Keyboards Replace Pens in Schools
By Margaret Webb Pressler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006;
The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand, and now it's threatening
to finish off longhand.
When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the
class of 2006, just 15 percent of the almost 1.5 million students
wrote their answers in cursive. The rest? They printed. Block letters.
And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of U.S.
students who no longer get much handwriting instruction in the
primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result,
more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.
Many educators shrug. Stacked up against teaching technology, foreign
languages and the material on standardized tests, penmanship
instruction seems a relic, teachers across the region say. But
academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it's
important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children
without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter
compositions, from the earliest grades.
Scholars who study original documents say the demise of handwriting
will diminish the power and accuracy of future historical research.
And others simply lament the loss of handwritten communication for
its beauty, individualism and intimacy.
"It's like so many other things in our society -- there's a sense of
loss for what once was," said Laura B. Smolken, a professor of
elementary education and early childhood development at the
University of Virginia.
At Keene Mill Elementary in Springfield, Debbie Mattocks teaches
cursive once a week to her gifted-and-talented group of third-
graders -- mainly so they can read it. All their poems and stories
are typed. Children in Fairfax County schools are taught keyboarding
beginning in kindergarten.
"I can't think of any other place you need cursive as an adult other
than to sign your name," she said. "Cursive -- that is so low on the
priority list, we really could care less. We are much more concerned
that these kids pass their SOLs [standardized tests], and that
doesn't require a bit of cursive."
Older students who never mastered handwriting say it doesn't affect
their grades. "A lot of kids have just awful handwriting. . . .
Teachers don't take off points for poor handwriting," said Matt
Paragamian, a 10th-grader at St. Albans School in Northwest
Washington. Many of his classmates take notes in class on their own
laptops and do homework on computers.
Until the 1970s, penmanship was a separate daily lesson through sixth
grade, said Dennis Williams, national product manager for Zaner-
Bloser Handwriting, the most widely used penmanship curriculum. At
its peak in the 1940s and '50s, most teachers insisted on as much as
two hours a week, but a 2003 Vanderbilt University survey of primary-
grade teachers found that most now spend 10 minutes a day or less on
the subject. To adapt to this new reality, the Zaner-Bloser method
has been changed to a 15-minute daily plan.
In Montgomery County, schools "don't have separate handwriting
instruction for handwriting's sake," said spokesman Brian Edwards.
Only a handful of schools in Prince George's County teach
handwriting. Fairfax educators struggle to include penmanship.
"It is hard to fit it in," said Pat Fege, the county's language arts
coordinator. The goal now is only to produce legible handwriting,
Fege said. "It's just not the vehicle it once was."
There are those who say the culture is at a crossroads, turning
permanently from the written word to the typed one. If handwriting
becomes a lost form of communication, does it matter?
It was at U-Va. that researchers recently discovered a previously
unknown poem by Robert Frost, written in his signature script.
Handwritten documents are more valuable to researchers, historians
say, because their authenticity can be confirmed. Students also find
them more intriguing.
"They feel closer to that person as an actual human, that somebody
actually wrote that just like me," said Jim Mohr, a professor of U.S.
history at the University of Oregon at Eugene, who wrote a book on
diaries from the Civil War. "There's a kind of personal authenticity
to individual writing that's hard to capture any other way."
The loss of handwriting also may be a cognitive opportunity missed.
The neurological process that directs thought, through fingers, into
written symbols is a highly sophisticated one. Several academic
studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can
help children express their thoughts better -- a lifelong benefit.
Children who don't learn correct technique find it harder to write by
hand, so they avoid it. Schools that do teach handwriting often stop
after third grade -- right after kids learn cursive. By the time
computers are more widely used in classrooms for writing, perhaps in
fourth or fifth grade, many children already have decided they don't
like to write.
In one of the studies, Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham,
who studies the acquisition of writing, experimented with a group of
first-graders in Prince George's County who could write only 10 to 12
letters per minute. The kids were given 15 minutes of handwriting
instruction three times a week. After nine weeks, they had doubled
their writing speed and their expressed thoughts were more complex.
He also found corresponding increases in their sentence construction
skills.
But Graham worries that students who remain printers, rather than
writing in cursive, need more time to take notes or write essays for
the SAT. Teachers may say they don't deduct for bad handwriting in
class, but research tells another story, he said.
When adults are given the same composition written in good
handwriting and poor handwriting, "they still give lower grades for
ideation and quality of writing if the text is less legible," he said.
Indeed, the SAT essays written in cursive had slightly higher average
scores than those written in print, according to the College Board.
It doesn't take much to teach better handwriting skills. At some
schools in Prince George's County, elementary school students use a
program called Handwriting Without Tears for 15 minutes a day. They
learn the correct formation of manuscript letters through second
grade, and cursive letters in third grade.
In a recent daily exercise, the second-graders at Yorktown Elementary
School in Bowie carefully formed letters on individual chalkboards --
first with a wet sponge, then with a tissue, then in chalk and
finally in pencil in a workbook. In the future, these kids will
produce far more legible letters than kids without this kind of
specialized instruction, said Lynne Maydag, the school's handwriting
coordinator.
There are always going to be some kids who struggle with handwriting
because of their particular neurological wiring, learning issues or
poor fine motor skills, teachers said in interviews. For those kids
in particular, the growing dominance of typing is liberating because
they can write without stumbling over letter formation. Educators
often point to this factor in support of keyboarding.
Paragamian, the St. Albans sophomore, was never great at handwriting,
and says he can barely read or write cursive even now.
It doesn't bother him. "These days it doesn't matter," he
said, "because any important thing you turn in is typed."
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