What is the thinking behind the recommendation that all forms of media be eliminated in the early years?
Throughout the Waldorf movement, one of our major goals is to increase the neural pathways in the brain, thereby optimizing overall brain functioning. This is especially important for areas of discrimination and critical thinking – lifelong skills. The TV screen, video games, movies, apart from the content on the screen, all lay down simple, repetitive neural pathways and actually shut down those areas of the brain that activate higher level thinking skills and powers of discrimination. Furthermore, for young children, their primary means of self-development is through healthy movement, active play, and fantasy, which arises out of an innate capacity to form images. This capacity of imagination, so strong in the young child, is what we at The Denver Waldorf School highly value, consciously cultivate, and see as the basis for critical thinking skills that emerge in the adolescent.
