What Google Employees Teach Their Own Children
For parents questioning whether technology truly belongs in every classroom, the choices Google employees make for their own children might surprise you.
While tech executives create the digital tools flooding schools nationwide, many send their kids to computer-free Waldorf schools where students learn cursive with actual pens and knit socks instead of coding apps. This guide is for parents, educators, and anyone curious about why Silicon Valley insiders are choosing analog education for their families.
We’ll explore the Waldorf philosophy that draws tech parents away from screens, examine the hands-on skills these children develop without iPads, and unpack why executives who profit from educational technology seem to contradict their own products when it comes to their kids’ learning.
Why Tech Executives Choose Low-Tech Education for Their Children
Silicon Valley leaders send kids to computer-free Waldorf schools
The paradox that captured national attention in 2011 continues to fascinate: high-tech executives in Silicon Valley, the very people creating tomorrow’s digital innovations, are deliberately choosing computer-free education for their own children. The Waldorf School of the Peninsula became the epicenter of this story when The New York Times featured it on the front page, sparking widespread media coverage across CBS, NBC, and CNN.
This perceived contradiction struck a powerful chord with the American public, who were growing increasingly dissatisfied with the current educational paradigm. The story illustrated a hunger for alternatives to the status quo, where content is increasingly delivered through computers rather than teachers, academic learning is pushed down to younger children, and classrooms focus primarily on “teaching to the test.”
Google and Apple executives prefer old-school teaching methods
Tech industry leaders are making deliberate choices about their children’s education that may seem counterintuitive given their professional lives. A former Intel and Microsoft executive, whose three children attend a Waldorf school, explains the reasoning succinctly: “Engagement is about human contact, the contact with the teacher, the contact with their peers.”
These executives understand something crucial about child development that extends beyond their technological expertise. They recognize that for children under twelve, the focus should remain on hands-on learning of core subjects, combined with music training, play, outdoor education, cursive handwriting, storytelling, and art. The Waldorf philosophy resonates with these tech parents because it’s founded on developmentally appropriate curriculum that acknowledges children go through three distinct phases: infancy and early childhood (birth to 7), middle childhood (7 to 14), and adolescence (14 to 21).
Students learn with chalkboards, pen and paper instead of iPads
While schools across the country eagerly showcase smartboards, learning labs, and provided iPads as evidence of cutting-edge learning environments, Waldorf schools deliberately embrace traditional teaching tools. Students engage with chalkboards, write with pen and paper, and participate in hands-on activities that have been scientifically proven to support brain development when integrated into the curriculum.
This approach stands in stark contrast to the U.S. Department of Education’s advocacy for classroom technology use to “support thinking, stimulate motivation, promote equity and prepare students for the future.” However, research supports the low-tech approach. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s comprehensive 2015 study, “Students, Computers and Learning,” found that most countries investing heavily in education-related IT equipment witnessed no appreciable improvement in student achievement over ten years.
The study revealed a critical insight: “Computer use in classrooms and at home can displace other activities that are conducive to learning.” This displacement of proven learning activities concerns Waldorf educators, who prioritize movement, art, music, and handwritten note-taking—all scientifically validated methods for supporting brain development that are often underfunded in traditional schools.
The Waldorf School Philosophy That Attracts Tech Parents
Play-based learning and storytelling over digital apps
The Waldorf approach fundamentally prioritizes human creativity and imagination over digital stimulation. Rather than relying on educational apps or screen-based learning tools, Waldorf schools cultivate children’s natural creativity through hands-on experiences and rich storytelling traditions. This methodology recognizes that children’s minds develop most effectively when given opportunities for imaginative play and real-world exploration.
The curriculum consciously works to provide conditions that allow children to concentrate on challenging tasks that promote genuine growth. Teachers understand that children take their daily experiences and images into their sleep life, where these impressions mature and develop, ready to be further explored the following day. Screen-based media—including television, computers, video games, tablets, and smartphones—can actually prevent this natural developmental process from occurring.
Students experience literature, math, and science developmentally
Waldorf education carefully balances academic, artistic, and practical activities to stimulate and develop imagination in age-appropriate ways. This developmental approach ensures that students encounter subjects when they’re naturally ready to absorb and understand them, rather than rushing through digitized curricula.
The philosophy emphasizes that abilities and self-sufficiency skills increase when children engage with real-world materials and experiences. Students gain confidence and competence in knowing how to do things and how to make things, rather than becoming dependent on virtual environments. This hands-on learning extends across all subjects, from mathematics concepts explored through movement and art to scientific principles discovered through direct observation and experimentation.
Focus on deep concentration and human interaction skills
Central to the Waldorf philosophy is the cultivation of deep concentration abilities and meaningful human connections. The schools create educational environments that thrive on person-to-person interaction among students, teachers, staff, and families. This emphasis on human connection stands in direct contrast to the isolated, screen-mediated interactions that characterize much of modern childhood.
Research has demonstrated that smartphones, social media, and internet gaming can lead to addictive behaviors, decreased empathy, and increased anxiety and depression. By protecting children from these adverse effects of screen time, Waldorf schools create more opportunities for social interaction, creativity, and genuine problem-solving. Students develop the capacity for sustained attention and deep engagement with tasks—skills that become increasingly rare in our hyperconnected world.
Skills Tech Kids Develop Without Technology
Traditional crafts like knitting teach math and patterning
Traditional handcrafts like knitting serve as powerful educational tools that naturally introduce mathematical concepts and pattern recognition skills. When children engage in knitting, they work with counting stitches, understanding geometric patterns, and developing spatial reasoning abilities. Each row requires careful attention to numerical sequences, while complex patterns demand the ability to recognize and predict mathematical relationships.
The repetitive nature of knitting creates muscle memory while simultaneously engaging the analytical mind. Students learn to follow intricate instructions, translate two-dimensional patterns into three-dimensional objects, and understand concepts like symmetry, proportion, and scaling. These activities develop the same cognitive skills that underpin advanced mathematical thinking, but in a tangible, engaging format that makes abstract concepts concrete.
Students master critical thinking and problem-solving abilities
Now that we have covered the mathematical foundations, the hands-on learning environment fosters exceptional critical thinking capabilities. When students encounter challenges in their projects, they must analyze problems, consider multiple solutions, and make reasoned decisions about the best approach forward. This process mirrors the analytical thinking required in technology fields, but develops organically through physical manipulation and real-world application.
The problem-solving skills that emerge from this educational approach are particularly robust because they develop through trial and error, experimentation, and direct feedback from materials and processes. Students learn to troubleshoot, adapt their methods, and persist through challenges—all essential skills that technology professionals value highly in their work environments.
Creative and artistic skills through hands-on activities
With this foundation of analytical thinking established, hands-on activities cultivate deep creative and artistic abilities that complement technical skills. The tactile engagement with materials—whether through woodworking, painting, sculpting, or textile work—develops fine motor skills while encouraging innovative thinking and creative expression.
These artistic pursuits teach students to envision possibilities, experiment with different approaches, and refine their work through iterative processes. The creative confidence built through these activities translates into the kind of innovative thinking that drives technological advancement, enabling students to approach problems with both analytical rigor and creative flexibility.
The Apparent Contradiction in Tech Parents’ Choices
Leaders who profit from technology avoid it for their own children
The most striking aspect of this phenomenon lies in the fact that the very people who have built their fortunes creating addictive technology are the same ones implementing strict limits on their own families. Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft, implemented screen time caps when his daughter developed an unhealthy attachment to video games, later establishing a family policy that prohibited phones until age 14 – significantly later than the average American child who receives their first phone around age 10.
Steve Jobs, the visionary behind Apple’s revolutionary devices, revealed in a 2011 New York Times interview that he prohibited his children from using the newly-released iPad. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home,” Jobs stated, despite being an avid fan of his own technology. Even current Apple CEO Tim Cook follows similar principles, refusing to allow his nephew to join online social networks and later conceding that Apple products “aren’t meant for constant use.”
These tech leaders understand something their consumers don’t: the deliberate engineering that goes into making their products irresistible. As former Google employee Vijay Koduri explains, “The tech companies do know that the sooner you get kids, adolescents, or teenagers used to your platform, the easier it is to become a lifelong habit.” This mirrors strategies used by tobacco companies, which spend nearly $9 billion annually marketing to create lifelong customers, except as Koduri notes, “The difference is, they don’t think of themselves as dangerous.”
Parents have luxury of teaching tech skills at home later
Now that we understand why tech executives limit their children’s exposure, it becomes clear that these parents operate from a position of unique advantage. Unlike families who may lack technological literacy, Silicon Valley parents possess intimate knowledge of how digital systems work and can confidently introduce these skills when they deem appropriate.
Many of these parents don’t completely avoid technology in their children’s education – they simply delay and control its introduction. Koduri’s children, for instance, share a MacBook Air for homework and use Google Chromebooks at school, but their home environment remains largely tech-free. This selective approach allows parents to maintain control over when and how technology enters their children’s lives.
The strategy reflects a deeper understanding that technical skills can be rapidly acquired when needed, but the foundational abilities developed through screen-free childhood – creativity, attention span, social interaction, and problem-solving – require years to cultivate. As one parent noted, these families can afford to wait because they have the expertise to teach their children technical literacy later, without the accompanying addictive behaviors that early exposure often creates.
High college acceptance rates prove academic readiness without early tech
With this controlled approach in mind, the academic outcomes speak volumes about the effectiveness of delayed technology introduction. Schools like the Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, California, where children use chalkboards and No. 2 pencils until eighth grade, continue to demonstrate strong academic performance and college preparation.
These low-tech educational environments produce students who are fully capable of succeeding in higher education, contradicting the common assumption that early technology exposure is necessary for academic competitiveness. The success of these institutions proves that children can develop critical thinking, research skills, and academic discipline without constant screen interaction during their formative years.
Research supports this approach, with studies showing that after just five days on a tech-free retreat, children demonstrated significant improvements in empathy levels and emotional intelligence – skills that prove invaluable in college admissions and beyond. The apparent contradiction resolves when we understand that these parents aren’t anti-technology; they’re pro-intentional development, choosing to prioritize human cognitive and emotional growth during the crucial early years when these foundations are established.
The choices made by Google, Apple, and eBay executives reveal a profound understanding of child development that extends far beyond their professional expertise in technology. By enrolling their children in Waldorf schools that emphasize hands-on learning, creativity, and human interaction over digital devices, these tech leaders demonstrate that they value skills like critical thinking, concentration, and problem-solving above early tech proficiency. Their children learn math through knitting patterns, develop fine motor skills through cursive writing, and build communication abilities through storytelling—all without touching an iPad.
This apparent contradiction between their professional lives and parenting choices isn’t hypocritical—it’s strategic. These parents understand that technology skills can be learned quickly when developmentally appropriate, but the foundational abilities fostered through tech-free education create lifelong learners. With 94 percent of Waldorf graduates attending college, the results speak for themselves. Perhaps the real lesson here isn’t about choosing technology or avoiding it entirely, but about understanding when and how to introduce it meaningfully into a child’s educational journey.
Works Cited
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Nilsen, M. et al. “Evolving and Re-mediated Activities When Preschoolers Encounter Digital and Analog Games.” Learning, Media and Technology, vol. 46, no. 4, 2021. Taylor & Francis Online
Siok, W. T., et al. “The Impact of Using Digital Devices on Children’s Reading, Writing, and Thinking Skills.” PMC, 2020. PMC
Swider-Cios, E., et al. “Young Children and Screen-Based Media: The Impact On Parent-Child Interactions and Development.” ScienceDirect, 2023. ScienceDirect
“Media Use and Screen Time – Its Impact on Children, Adolescents, and Families.” American College of Pediatrics, 2019. American College of Pediatricians
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