# Schools banning all TV and computer use **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 5, 2016, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970 "2016-05-05T06:49:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/21 "2016-05-05T13:02:42Z")
The article didn’t say, but what’s their stance on children listening to music? Especially since the primary playback devices tend to be cellphones, PCs, tablets and games consoles… ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/22 "2016-05-05T13:28:40Z")
Vinyl or GTFO. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/23 "2016-05-05T14:34:45Z")
I think it’s an interesting experiment and I’m curious to see how it turns out. I couldn’t tell you whether it’s a good or a bad idea, but I kind of like the idea that somewhere in the world are some kids who are growing up “the old-fashioned way.” And yeah, simply due to my age I grew up without computers or the internet as a kid, and I never had any trouble with computer/internet skills when I needed them in college and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/24 "2016-05-05T14:42:43Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Vinyl or GTFO. [del]Wax cylinders[/del] Live chamber music or GTFO. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/25 "2016-05-05T16:12:32Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > I used Commodore 64’s [looks weird without the quote]. I thought the correct plural was “Commodores 64”, like “Attorneys-General” or “Courts-Martial.” ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/26 "2016-05-05T19:34:01Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Vinyl or GTFO. Vinyl is too mainstream 2015. It needs to be 8-track or nothing! Now someone pass me a PBR, ironically. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/27 "2016-05-05T20:48:29Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > Does it really disadvantage a youth if they weren’t very knowledgeable about the latest pop stars, etc, in their younger years? They can catch up when they are a teenager. BTW I’ve learnt a lot about popular culture like 80’s stuff, etc, when I was in my 20’s and 30’s. > It could be better in an educational sense to be interested in geometry or woodwork, etc, in your younger years than being a popular culture expert. > The woman who was talking about Steiner schools yesterday (a family friend) also talked about how an English teacher had very controversial poetry in class. Perhaps they’re similar - controversial content in English can expand the mind in a educational/personal development sense which I think is in the spirit of the Steiner schools. Not using computers in the classroom is not the same thing as banning them at home. Ditto movies. It appears to them paintings of poker playing dogs are allowed but watch “Our Town” on TV is not. They seem to still have the snooty “vast wasteland” mentality decades after it was valid. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/28 "2016-05-05T20:52:06Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > BTW I grew up in the 80’s. I used Commodore 64’s [looks weird without the quote] a bit in primary school and read about computers and programming in books. I learnt BASIC but in University they said that BASIC isn’t a very good language for beginners to learn so they initially taught Haskell. I only was introduced to the Internet when I was about 16. Anyway now I’m extremely computer literate. I did use DOS/Windows 3.1 computers in grade 8 at home but now I’ve had to learn Linux/Mac OS X, etc, and what I learnt earlier on didn’t really give me an advantage. Computer literacy no longer means ability to program. When I taught CS 101 in 1979 I taught Pl/1. When my daughter took it the only thing resembling programming she got was fill-in-the-blank Javascript. It was mostly html, ftp, stuff like that. It is just like woodworking. While my woodworking shop class was fun, unless it is a profession or a major hobby done for enjoyment most people will do better buying not making. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/29 "2016-05-05T20:53:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I thought the correct plural was “Commodores 64”, like “Attorneys-General” or “Courts-Martial.” Commodore was the company, and there was only one of them, so the s should be after 64. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/30 "2016-05-05T21:04:47Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > OK, they don’t ban all computer use. It seems they ban _internet_ use below the age of 16, and they don’t use computers in the classroom until the age of 14. If the newspaper report is accurate, there is not ban on computers at home for purposes other than the internet. > > Realistically, of course, small kids are not going to be that interested in using word processing apps or spreadsheets, or doing basic coding, or doing any of the myriad other things that you can do with a computer that don’t involve the internet, but if and when they are interested in engaging with these things they are free to do so. And of course they can e-mail away to their hearts’ content once they have mastered the basics of typing. I was writing stories by fourth grade - a word processor of my own would have been great. Not just ease of typing - it could teach revision and self-editing, which is the hard part of writing. > [@](#): > > What they won’t learn until their later years - or what they will learn only to a basic extent while in the homes of friends who go to other schools - are (a) use of the internet for research or plagiarism (or anything else) and (b) how to navigate the social spaces of the internet. I’m open to being convinced that this will not result in any educational disadvantage by the time they get to college, and could possibly result in an educational advantage, since they may have developed more rigorous reading and research skills without the internet in their formative years (much like the theory that children learn basic calculation skills better if they can’t use calculators). I think it would be easier to catch plagiarism in young kids, and they could be subject to much milder punishments than high schoolers or college students. Actually getting caught is more instructive than thinking you might get caught. When I was in high school I had to go down to the main library for research. You used the Encyclopedia, you used the Guide to Periodical Literature, in NY you used the Times index, and you saw what was on the shelf. Good web research - which must be taught - is harder and makes you more sophisticated. Anything in a library is probably a reasonable source, but learning to do web research should force you to exercise more critical judgement. Let’s teach our kids to get info from the CDC not from some anti-vax hack. And let’s do it before college. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/31 "2016-05-05T23:22:31Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Which gets into the question of the value of popular culture and social interaction. Is popular culture inherently worthless and detrimental to the mental and emotional function of a human being? > > I also wonder what else they ban, especially with books, and how parents have enough time to enforce such bans. People have been saying things along these lines for decades about homeschooled children, and virtually all of them turn out just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/32 "2016-05-06T02:22:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > The one I looked at sending my kid to (which a couple friends’ kids go to now) doesn’t allow any plastics. As in, no plastic lunchboxes or waterbottles… > > They’re overall the germ of a good idea, but the more Fundie Steinerist they are, the nuttier - that man was a great illustration of having your mind _too_ open. [You might also want to look into the “racist as fuck” side.](http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/steiner-teachers-and-racism-tale-of-two.html) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/33 "2016-05-06T05:19:13Z")
> [@WilyQuixote](#): > > I’d like to hear the reasoning behind this. I’m sure its nonsensical but i’d like to hear it. The reasoning is that they’re hippies, no more, no less. It’s just the one Cape Town Waldorf school that does this, the others are much more bourgeois. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/34 "2016-05-06T05:21:07Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > [You might also want to look into the “racist as fuck” side.](http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/steiner-teachers-and-racism-tale-of-two.html) Oh, I knew that. bThe schools aren’t all like that NZ one, though - the local one is too hippie to be racist. Quite the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/35 "2016-05-06T12:37:33Z")
Sounds like a cult to me. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/36 "2016-05-07T00:00:22Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Oh, I knew that. bThe schools aren’t all like that NZ one, though - the local one is too hippie to be racist. Quite the opposite. I dunno, [Steiner believed some pretty dodgy things.](http://www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=480) ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/37 "2016-05-07T06:50:07Z")
Rudolf Steiner also “gave a series of eight lectures in Germany in 1924, which became the essential bible of biodynamics” - “the best way to think of it would be as a magic spell cast over an entire farm” > **[Biodynamic Agriculture](https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4026)** > > Biodynamic agriculture is not a modern innovation, but rather a throwback to the Dark Ages. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/38 "2016-05-07T20:31:15Z")
[QUOTE=Rudolf Steiner] But the people that didn’t develop their id, that was too exposed to the influence of the sun, they were like plants: They produced far too much carbon under their skin – and became black. That is why the negroes are black. [/QUOTE] Hand me my science bat. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/39 "2016-05-07T22:24:17Z")
This seems pretty extreme . . . . . . on the other hand, I find the current panic about making sure kids are immersed in technology throughout their education so they will “know how to function and succeed in the modern world” to be just as off the wall. Every moment spent using one tool for work or play is a moment not spent using a different tool. Why is the choice to use tools other than television or the internet so obviously wrong? What makes the screen so obviously the right and better tool for living happy and successful lives? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970/40 "2016-05-08T11:23:08Z")
My current go-to newborn gift is a case of diapers and a “baby’s first cellphone” toy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schools-banning-all-tv-and-computer-use/753970.md?page=3)