{"id":74664,"date":"2026-10-08T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=74664"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:00:25","slug":"digital-whipped-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/digital-whipped-cream\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Whipped Cream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the \u201970s, Udo J\u00fcrgens sang \u201cAber bitte mit Sahne\u201d [But please with whipped cream] about the crowd at the cake buffet and their rush for cherry and cream meringue. The song ends tragically for the sugar addicts and cream lovers. Today\u2019s \u201cwhipped cream\u201d is digital, served up by Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In March, Meta was fined $375 million by the U.S. state of New Mexico after being found guilty of \u201cfailing to protect children on its platforms.\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Facing further potential fines of $200 billion, the company agreed to a settlement with 29 U.S. states in late August that included a fine of $18 billion and requirements designed to ensure that the \u201cwhipped cream\u201d would be made less addictive. In the future, children under 13 will no longer have access to the platforms. For 13- to 17-year-olds, usage will be limited to two hours per day. Will this succeed in curbing the allure of the digital cake buffet? Some scientists have doubts. In a study published in Nature<\/em>,<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> they demonstrated that intensive social media use is consistently associated with psychological harm and depression. Social media has an important negative effect through its association with depression, much like the automobile is associated with injuries from crashes and pollution. The social pressure and the addictive effects are so great, that only a minimum age requirement\u2014similar to that for a driver\u2019s license\u2014and intensive, early education would make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers are no less alarmed and point to the latest PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) study, which was conducted with 70,000 15-year-old students in 91 countries: The result: \u201cThe overall performance of OECD [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries declined, with the lowest average levels of performance ever observed in science, reading, and mathematics.\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> European countries performed especially poorly. Headlines in the Nordic countries read \u201ca catastrophe\u201d and \u201cserious education crisis.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The sentiment in France was similar: \u201cThis is an earthquake for our country, which is drifting toward intellectual decline.\u201d<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Hesse\u2019s Minister of Education said, \u201cThe PISA results for Germany are alarming.\u201d<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> While in Switzerland, where the results were somewhat better, the NZZ still noted that \u201ca quarter of Swiss children suffer from reading difficulties.\u201d<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing is more urgent than making our school once again a place that nurtures and empowers.\u201d<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Of course, everyone agrees with this statement by French presidential candidate Gabriel Attal, but it\u2019s the same old story: more standardized tests, more school hours, stricter supervision, and earlier academic learning. French politician Bruno Le Maire takes the cake by calling for compulsory schooling starting at age one.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The researchers behind the PISA study take a different view. Their recommendation reads like an endorsement for the Waldorf approach: schooling \u201crequires more than strong academic proficiency. As lifelong learning, upskilling, and reskilling become increasingly important, students need the motivation, agency, and learning strategies that enable them to take ownership of their learning throughout their lives.\u201d<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a teacher in a Waldorf preschool, I provide the children with an appropriate space, stimulating materials, and sufficient time in which they can allow their own creative and learning initiatives to unfold through free play. Free from theoretical explanations, such experiences are emotionally profound because they are self-initiated and not overcomplicated by analysis. During the following school years, educators and teachers then build upon these joyful experiences. Here, too, independent activity is key. Textbooks are made by the children themselves; they draw and write first, then they read; they explore first, then they understand. What begins as corporeal effort then awakens in the soul as something else. Children connect more deeply with what they subsequently discover on field trips or through visual aids at school because they have previously made an effort to create an inner image themselves. The fact that teachers build long-term relationships with children and parents aligns with another observation by the PISA authors: \u201cStrong relationships with families and teachers also play a critical role in supporting both engagement and achievement.\u201d<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> A recommendation from a German teachers\u2019 union aligns with the idea of thematic instruction: \u201cWhat we must painstakingly teach students\u2014and, incidentally, ourselves as adults as well\u2014is how to slow down and engage deeply with a subject, because that is the only way we learn.\u201d<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sugar and fat provide quick pleasure and energy without requiring any digestive effort. Social media is the same: One gets used to reading, understanding, and learning things without making any effort. Books already sounded the alarm in Udo J\u00fcrgens\u2019s day; now, everyone is aware of the problem. The German Federal Government\u2019s Drug and Addiction Commissioner, Hendrik Streeck, asks, \u201cHow much more scientific evidence do we actually need before we take action?\u201d<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> And Le Monde<\/em> writes in an editorial: \u201cGood science scores are correlated with less use of AI and a controlled use of digital devices for learning purposes.\u201d<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Whipped cream shouldn\u2019t be banned, but it should be consumed in moderation. For education and culture, much depends on whether we can \u201cconsciously moderate\u201d our use of digital programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum is organizing a World Teachers\u2019 Conference on the theme \u201cFor Learning and for Work,\u201d<\/a> 30 March to 3 April 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Translation<\/strong> Joshua Kelberman
Image<\/strong> David Trinks \/ Unsplash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the \u201970s, Udo J\u00fcrgens sang \u201cAber bitte mit Sahne\u201d [But please with whipped cream] about the crowd at the cake buffet and their rush for cherry and cream meringue. The song ends tragically for the sugar addicts and cream lovers. Today\u2019s \u201cwhipped cream\u201d is digital, served up by Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. In March, Meta was fined $375 million by the U.S. state of New Mexico after being found guilty of \u201cfailing to protect children on its platforms.\u201d Facing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9239,"featured_media":74491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8812,8789],"tags":[11842,11844,8824],"class_list":["post-74664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pedagogy","category-research","tag-ausgabe-39-40-2026-en","tag-english-issue-41-2026","tag-spotlights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74664"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74692,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74664\/revisions\/74692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}