In Silicon Valley, information technology industry workers are increasingly sending their children to schools that do not use digital devices. They worry that the technology they developed could negatively impact their children’s learning, emotional growth, and interaction with teachers.
Recently, the UK Guardian reported that Silicon Valley parents are attempting to ban the technologies they helped develop from their children’s schools. Some parents are paying high tuition fees to send their children to private schools that minimize digital device use, while others with children in public schools are demanding changes to educational policies to reduce screen time.
German Hill, a software engineer who has worked at Netflix and Facebook, sends his fourth-grade daughter, Victoria, to the San Francisco Waldorf School. The annual tuition for the school’s 2026–2027 elementary grades 1 through 4 reaches $41,600 (approximately 59 million KRW).
The reason Hill sends his child to this school despite the high tuition is that the Waldorf School emphasizes dynamic learning, such as making books by hand or playing outdoors in nature, rather than static learning through computers or tablets. Hill told the Guardian that he spends most of his day looking at a computer screen, but wanted to provide a different educational environment for his child, hoping she could experience a childlike childhood.
This preference for private schools has led to an increase in actual admissions applicants. Lauren Smith, the administrative director at San Francisco Waldorf School, stated that applicants for the early childhood education program have noticeably increased recently, with a large number of new parents coming from the IT industry.
The phenomenon of avoiding digital-based classes is also appearing among public school parents. Jillian Colongoski, a parent living in San Mateo, California, said she was shocked when her five-year-old daughter came home with a Chromebook for math practice. She expressed bewilderment that computer-based learning has become a natural educational method even for young children.
The problem is that unlike private schools with abundant financial resources from high tuition, public schools have limited budgets and personnel, making it difficult to lower their dependence on digital learning programs. John Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, pointed out that the tighter budgets become, the harder it is to resist the temptation to replace humans with technology.
Despite these constraints, as parental demands grow, some public schools have begun reducing digital device use. Public schools in the San Mateo-Foster City district decided not to individually issue Chromebooks to students in second grade and below starting from the August 2026 academic year, using them jointly only when needed during class. They also decided to utilize physical textbooks more actively. Schools in the Mountain View area are also reducing the use of ‘i-Ready,’ a digital learning program previously used for math and reading education.
Some point out that the solution should be found not just in limiting digital device use, but in changing how education budgets are spent. Margaret Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, advised that it is necessary to closely examine the costs poured into educational technology to reduce unnecessary spending and prioritize the secured financial resources for teachers and face-to-face education.
