🧠 Issue #27 – Where Silicon Valley Sends Its Kids (Hint: No AI Allowed)

🔍 The Spark

At the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains, tucked away from the buzz of venture capital meetings and machine learning breakthroughs, is a quiet revolution in education.

The Waldorf School of the Peninsula, a private school in Los Altos, doesn’t allow students to use screens—let alone AI—in the classroom. Yet its student body includes the children of tech execs from Google, Apple, Meta, and yes, even OpenAI.

The curriculum? No coding bootcamps. No digital whiteboards. Just chalk, play, storytelling, handcrafts, and imagination.

This made news a decade ago but I found myself thinking about this all day.

It raises a fascinating paradox: Why are the people building our AI future choosing a radically unplugged education for their own children?

💡 The Insight

This isn’t just about nostalgia or elitism. It’s about intentionality.

Many of these parents understand a truth the rest of society is only beginning to wrestle with:

Tech execs know the seductive power of technology—because they’ve helped design it. And they know that giving children too much of it, too soon, can blunt imagination, inhibit deep thinking, and create dependencies before autonomy has developed.

These parents aren’t anti-tech. They’re pro-human development.

They’re betting on a model of education that delays automation in favor of cultivating originality, empathy, grit, and wonder.

🤯 The Realization

There’s a deeper question here for all of us:
If the creators of AI are giving their kids a childhood without it…
what should that tell the rest of us?

When tech insiders turn to slow, screen-free, emotionally rich education, they're modeling something radical:
🧠 That what makes us most human must be developed before it can be augmented.
🧱 That foundational thinking happens through struggle, curiosity, and tactile experience—not just shortcut efficiency.

And it’s not just about kids. It’s a signal to adults, too.

In a world rushing to automate every task, the ability to think slowly, creatively, and empathetically might become a superpower.

🔗 Curiosity Clicks

1. Why Silicon Valley Parents Are Raising Tech-Free Kids – CBS News
   An investigation into how tech industry parents limit their children's screen time at home and choose schools like Waldorf that favor physical activity and art over technology, with computers not introduced until eighth grade.

2. The Waldorf Way – Association of Waldorf Schools of North America
   A comprehensive guide to Waldorf education's holistic approach that addresses the whole child—physical, social, emotional, intellectual, cognitive, and spiritual development through experiential and kinesthetic learning, emphasizing human interactions and unmediated learning experiences.

3. How Should We Approach the Ethical Considerations of AI in K-12 Education? – EdSurge
   An exploration of the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI in classrooms, examining concerns about algorithmic bias, student data privacy, and the need for foundational education on what AI is and how it works, especially for traditionally underrepresented populations in STEM fields.

💬 Quote That Hits

🤔 Worth Considering

Maybe the most progressive move isn’t acceleration.
It’s discernment.

AI is here to stay—and that’s not a bad thing. But there’s a growing hunger for balance. For seasons of slowness. For human foundations strong enough to hold what’s coming next.

What we protect in childhood reflects what we value in adulthood.
And what we model in adulthood might just determine whether AI makes us more human… or less.

Until next time — stay thoughtful, stay human.

— Jesse