Petition closed
Eliant, the Alliance of Initiatives for Applied Anthroposophy, and the Alliance for Humane Education have closed the petition for freedom from screens in early childhood.
The Europe-wide petition for screen-free kindergartens and elementary schools (Anthroposophy Worldwide 11/2020) aims to retain choice regarding the use of digital media in the first twelve years of life in order to enable the developmental potential specific to that age to unfold appropriately.
The petition was launched in the spring of 2018 not least with a view to the EU Commission’s ‘Action Plan for Digital Education, 2021 to 2027’, aiming to add civil society’s support to the lobbying of the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education and the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens. The petition had almost achieved its goal just as the Commission’s action plan for digital education was about to be voted on. However, the parliamentary debate has been postponed for a month and therefore signatures are still being collected in the hope of reaching the 100,000 originally aimed for.
The petition’s initiators hope to be able to have a positive impact on the outcome of the vote in the European Parliament. The requests formulated by representatives of Waldorf Education, which focus on developmental factors and age-appropriate media use, have been submitted to the members of the European Parliament. Michaela Glöckler, the president of Eliant, points out that “Eliant and the Alliance for Humane Education will continue to observe, on behalf of civil society, the implementation of the EU’s action plan for digital education and to stand up for a media use that takes child development into consideration.”
Web: Eliant