Digital Literacy
We help young people develop creative intelligence and emotional resilience, because the future requires innovative, ethical leaders.
In a tech hub like San Francisco, it's a given that many SFWS families work in the industry. They choose our school because they know that being fully human is the most important quality in an AI world.
Our school’s approach to digital literacy prepares students for all possible futures. Based on the principle that students must understand how the physical world works before they immerse themselves in the digital world, and informed by an understanding of children’s development, we embed digital literacy within a framework of human connection and critical thinking.
Through a hands-on, inquiry-based curriculum rather than AI tutors or coding classes for young children, Waldorf education develops the capacities necessary for navigating a rapidly changing world characterized by technological advances that require innovative leadership and an ethical orientation. These capacities include curiosity, imagination, flexible thinking, growth mindset, empathy, and creative problem-solving.
Our intentional approach lays the foundation for integrated, holistic, lifelong learning and moral discernment, giving our students an advantage when they begin to develop technical and technological skills, including digital literacy skills, as they mature. Many tech innovators are known for delaying their children’s access to social media and limiting their children’s screen time, out of a firsthand awareness of the neurological, intellectual, social, and emotional impact of the technologies they create, and we work closely with parents/guardians to introduce screens in alignment with healthy guidelines, in the context of an informed, engaged community. (See the Resources section at the bottom of the page.)
Digital Literacy through the Curriculum
Preschool & Kindergarten
Young children learn through imitation, imagination, movement, and play. Our teachers create beautiful classrooms, tell compelling stories with complex vocabulary and sentence structure, and offer activities filled with nourishing sensory experiences and opportunities for children to build confidence through the development of practical skills. Children are unencumbered by the passive consumption of fixed media images, which research shows are difficult to process at this age, and can hinder learning and limit the development of the imagination. Neurological research continues to indicate that free play, guided social interactions, music, and storytelling are foundational for the development of children’s cognitive capacities. (See the Resources section at the bottom of the page.)
Grade School
Media-free classrooms are places of human connection and experiential, creative lessons. An environment free of screens promotes concentration and deeper study while facilitating an approach to learning that engages the whole body and all the senses. The attention given to one another and to the task at hand builds the practice of presence and nurtures lifelong relationships, encouraging students to ask questions and pursue answers out of their own initiative and resources, with the support of their teachers.
Middle School
A Considered Approach to Introducing Technology
In the context of an education rich in human relationships, scientific observation, artistic experiences, project-based learning, time in the natural world, and daily physical activity – all designed to support the development of a balanced, resilient, capable human being – our students successfully transition into using digital technology beginning in Seventh and Eighth Grades, when they learn how to:
- Become ethical, safe, and productive digital citizens (through the CyberCivics curriculum available to faculty)
- Create curriculum-related online projects
- Conduct research on the internet (including how to vet and analyze sources and navigate AI)
- Develop their own writing voice
- Manage consent and boundaries
- Use library databases and conduct physical and online research
Middle schoolers explore questions of online behavior and digital citizenship, including learning how to conduct themselves respectfully and safely online. They learn about privacy and how one’s online choices are tracked. Families discuss class community guidelines for the introduction of personal tech devices, and SFWS strongly supports the choice to delay students’ reliance on personal smartphones, as well as access to social media and video games.
As part of our holistic approach, middle schoolers also participate in annual workshops led by a trained facilitator who answers questions about sexuality, body autonomy, consent, relationships, evolving friendships, and navigating online communication as the students move through the tremendous growth and change of the middle-school years.
High School
Technology as a Tool
In our High School, teachers cultivate critical thinking about technology through discussion-based seminars and inquiry-based exploration. In alignment with our philosophy and current best practices in education, student phones are checked in upon arrival to campus to create space for learning and social connection. The state is following the example set by schools like ours: California's Phone-Free Schools Act, signed in 2024, mandates that all California public school districts and charter schools must develop and adopt a policy to limit or prohibit student smartphone use by July 1, 2026, with exceptions for emergencies, education, or medical needs.
Our high school students’ use of technology includes:
- Access to our media center, laptops, and cloud-based resources (including Adobe Lightroom and Video / Animation Technology in arts electives)
- Analyzing data online
- Distinguishing between real and AI-generated images and documents
- Interacting with AI/LLM in an academic setting
- Using MySFWS online platform for resources, assignments, and evaluations
- Navigating and using a vast electronic library database for research
- Python Coding in Tenth Grade
- Using computers for essays and projects, and graphing calculators for Algebra 2 through Calculus
Our teachers and students use technology as a tool to promote and support their teaching, learning, and communication. They grapple together with the moral questions of authenticity, original expression, and the cultural origins of modern technology. SFWHS students understand the relationship between technology, geopolitics, and natural resources and we guide them to make choices that align with a commitment to land stewardship and human rights.
Learn More
Learn more about how our educational approach prepares students to lead in the age of AI.
Resources
Articles
From Forbes: Tech Execs On Smartphone-Free Childhood Debate: Real Evil Is Social Media
"The tech leaders I spoke with acknowledged that screens are a part of modern life. However, the message I heard loud and clear about smartphones and social media was ‘Delay, delay, delay.’"
From School Renewal Magazine: Thriving in a Future Driven by AI: A Tech Leaderʻs Reflections
Tech leader and AI entrepreneur, Rob Wray, weighs in on how we should prepare students for an AI-enhanced future. He says that key traits like resourcefulness, curiosity, emotional intelligence, and creativity are things no machine can replicate. Encouraging play, experimentation, and open-ended problem-solving lays the groundwork for thriving in a future driven by AI.
"In hiring for my companies, I’ve seen that it’s not about teaching specific technologies, but rather cultivating key traits that help people thrive in environments of constant change. Resourcefulness, curiosity, emotional intelligence, and creativity are things no machine can replicate yet. Interestingly, I see these traits coming alive in my own daughter’s Waldorf classroom—she started in the Parent-Child program and is now in first grade. The hands-on, imagination-rich environment means she’s developing exactly those ‘essential skills’ I believe she might miss in a more rigid educational setting. Her daily experiences illustrate how encouraging play, experimentation, and open-ended problem-solving lays the groundwork for thriving in a future driven by AI."
Rob Wray
From the National Institutes of Health: Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Child Development: An Updated Review and Strategies for Management
From New York Presbyterian Hospital: What Does Too Much Screen Time Do to Children’s Brains?
From The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University:
Books
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink (2006)
Experts agree that human creativity and imagination remain essential in the digital age. In this book, Pink lists six essential aptitudes necessary for education in the 21st century, all of which are built through Waldorf education, beginning in the early years of a student’s life:
• empathy
• story
• play
• synthesis
• meaning
• design (meaning "integration")
The Leader’s Brain: Enhance Your Leadership, Build Stronger Teams, Make Better Decisions, and Inspire Greater Innovation with Neuroscience, Michael L. Platt (2020)
Another business leader extolling the virtues of imagination: Platt says that the brain has an “innovation circuit that supports exploration, divergent thinking, and creativity”, pointing out that imagination (sometimes called “mind wandering”) is essential for dreaming up new ideas. Platt is a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor in the Department of Neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine, the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Marketing in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania