Struwwelpeter 2.0

16 Media competency and Waldorf education
or watercolours. This is built on in the
early years at school when children
only gradually become capable of developing
an aesthetic sense. The children
now learn to distinguish and
aesthetically judge various shades of
colour. As they grow older, the pictures
and drawings become more differentiated
and varied. At about the age of 12
(class 6), an introduction to the laws of
projection and the theory of light and
shade is also very useful. The children
learn to handle the laws of perspective
in a practical way through concrete
drawing problems. In class 11 such
practical understanding can be taken
up and mathema tically deepened in
projective geometry.
From class 9 onwards is the time for
the young people to become acquainted
with the language of photographic
and film images, once again
by means of concrete projects. The
aim should be for them to be able to
analyse and understand the procedures
of professional film-making
through the production of their own
films. In this context the adolescents
should also understand the structure
and function of advertising.
Understanding media carriers
It is one of the basic impulses of
Waldorf education, something we can
already find expressed in Steiner, that
children and young people should
learn to understand their technical
environment.
A key main lesson in class 3 has as its
subject the basic principles of house
and ship building, of various trades
and food production. In the same way
children should have practical experience
of how paper is made. In the
spirit of such a curriculum, doing book
binding themselves in class 7 or 8 is
also an educationally productive
project.
There has long been a consensus in
Waldorf schools that computer technology
should be introduced from class
9 onwards and that this should be done
by starting with the practical use of
electronic components and devices. 1
This means that as part of a practical
main lesson in class 10 or 11 basic
computer circuits (NOR, OR, NAND,
AND, half adders, full adders, flipflops,
etc.) are built using relays and
transistors and examined before investigating
the way that microprocessors
work. In class 11 many schools
have included practical programming
in the curriculum. Finally, the Internet
and the way it is built in principle
should be dealt with in class 12.
The overall aim is to show how the
machine we call a “computer” implements
formalised human logic in a sequence
of physical changes of state.
In looking at the way this is implemented,
it becomes clear that only
human thinking can meaningfully
interpret these interlinked states and
their end state.
Using the media landscape for
learning and presentations
In order for pupils to be able to use
computer technology meaningfully
also for their studies, they have to
learn how online resources can be
sensibly utilised alongside books,
journals, etc.