Screen-Free
Week: One Steiner School Confronts the Issue Head On.
`Dear
students, to remain in this school you will have to commit to zero
use of all screen technologies: no more TV, no more DVD's or cinema,
no more social net-working. Collect your contract from my desk and
return it, signed, to the office by the start of next week. Any
questions?`
They
didn't buy it for a second. The nonsense of such a `zero-tolerance`
Screen Policy was obvious to all. Beyond a smirk, an `in your dreams`
and an amused curiosity these teenagers knew they were being set up
for a discussion rather then being informed of the school's latest
attempt at shooting itself in the foot. But they were ready for the
argument and equally ready to share their concerns about how their
lives are constantly being channelled through screens.
The
debate, at the South Devon Steiner school, was not stirring up
anything new. Steiner schools have never been afraid to engage with
the debate on how technology impacts on children, and nor are they
alone in this. Mary Winn's The-Plug-In-Drug was published in
1977. Jerry Mander in 1978, Martin Large in 1980 and more recently
Aric Sigman's Remotely Controlled have given teachers plenty
of academic and populist back-up for endless parents' evenings on the
subject of TV. Aric Sigman, one of the speakers at the Steiner
Waldorf Schools Easter Conference in 2010 had awoken the indignation,
anxiety and sense of responsibility many educators are feeling as the
three `platforms`: mobile phone, lap-top and TV, fight it out for
supremacy.
Increasingly
parents are asking schools for guidelines and support as they attempt
to manage their children's exposure to screen time, and sensible
schools are taking the discussion and consultation to the older
pupils where interesting new perspectives emerge: `It's too late for
me` one pupil said after the above classroom discussion, `but I
wouldn't want my little brother playing computer games at the age I
did.` `You can't keep us away from films and stuff` said another,
`it's not going to happen. But at least we know how to talk about
them, what they are really about.` One group of thirteen year-olds
bemoaned the passing of books: `We want a library` they said, more
than they wanted internet access. `Energy use,` said another, `people
need to know about data centres and the carbon footprint of the
internet.`
More
than anything else these young people want to take their place in the
real world, both as digital residents and as free individuals. They
are on the front line of a compromise and feel it keenly. They also
know that a `zero-tolerance` approach is never going to work, and nor
do they want to sacrifice the benefits that screens bring to their
lives, but they do want to engage actively with the problems that
screen exposure brings. As one sixteen year old summarized it: `We
don't want to look back on all this as the "Screen Age" in the way
that people look back on the "Cigarette Age",
shocked by a level of harm that nobody really questions. But don't tell us it damages our heath, we already know. We
need to learn how to live with it.`
Alan
Swindell
An
earlier version of this article appeared in the SWSF Newsletter in
Spring 2010