Canberra Weekly article featuring Orana: Creating Islands of Coherence Part 2 - Unplugged

One way of dealing with this unstable and chaotic world is to unplug from it. 

Unplugging from the online world has physical benefits and can be helpful for our mental health. As adults, when we are overloaded with information and stimulation from screen technology, we feel relief from switching off and spending time in nature. Sometimes it is hard to make that switch due to the lure of the screen and its content. With young children, it is even harder to exercise self-control and we know it is our 
responsibility to make the decision to remove the temptation on their behalf. We know all this, the evidence from multiple research studies is clear, and yet you still see young children in public with heads in screens. We know the physical effects of screens on children’s eyesight and the negative health effects of sedentary lifestyle. We know that screen use exacerbates anti-social behaviour and is causing serious harm to young people’s mental health, unprecedented in human history. We are faced with decline in literacy levels where politicians and the media blame our education system, when the elephant in the room is that there are more children coming to us, with lower levels of speaking and listening skills seen since the mass introduction of screens being used as a form of childcare instead of conversations with real people. 

(Example of a Year 4 Classroom at Orana Steiner School)

(Example of Year 6 Main Lesson work)
As educators, we are acutely aware of the harm that growing up with high screen use and screen addiction can cause young people. We are now tasked with educating parents and assisting them in remediating the problem. However, it is very hard to turn around the damage done on a developing brain and body, and the content that has been seen on screens skews their view of the world and their bodies’ natural responses.  

So, what can be done? The Australian government is taking steps in the right direction with social media regulation for young people. However, more needs to done for our young children as it seems that many parents don’t see the harm being caused. 
In some countries, there have been bans placed on screen use in early learning centres and schools due to the negative impact on eyesight, and physical, social and intellectual development.  

Australia has a history of early adopting of digital technology, individually and system wide. The mass roll-out of screens in Australian schools in the naughties was applauded by most and adopted, not just for secondary students, but primary students and even early learning centres.

But, not in Steiner schools. 

(Signs at our Early Childhood gates at Orana Steiner School)
Steiner educators have stood firm in their belief that young children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development needs no screen time. This approach, of moving away from screens, has now been adopted by many schools and systems outside of Steiner education, many of whom adopted screen technology early and have seen that it is having a negative impact on their development. 

Steiner schools have, in the past been seen as luddites in their approach but this is not the case. Digital technology is used when students are ready, in later primary and early secondary school, and is consciously used as a tool for learning.

If you would like to see how students are engaged in learning and interaction without screen use, please come on a tour of our Early Childhood and Primary School. 

Submit this Enrolment Enquiry to receive available School Tour bookings.