Santa Rosa, California · Preschool–Grade 12 · Founded 1974
A Screen-Free,
Media-Free School.
Where Childhood Comes First.
Parents searching for a screen-free school, a media-free school, or simply a place where their child can grow up without a device in their hand — you are not alone, and you have found the right place.
Learn MoreSummerfield Waldorf School & Farm in Santa Rosa has been a screen-free, low-tech campus since our founding in 1974. Not because technology doesn't matter, but because we have always understood something research is only now catching up to: children thrive when their early years are rooted in the real world.
We are a smart device-free campus serving families from preschool through Grade 12 across Sonoma County, the North Bay, and greater California. Our classrooms contain no screens, no tablets, no Chromebooks in the lower grades, and no smartphones on campus during the school day — not because we fear the future, but because we are deeply committed to giving children the developmental foundation to meet it on their own terms.
Why We Are a Screen-Free, Media-Free School
We are often asked: why no computers in the classroom? Why do we recommend a screen-free and media-free home life for our youngest students? The answer is rooted in decades of child development research and in the lived experience of our graduates.
Technology can be a wonderful tool — which is why our high school students learn to use it thoughtfully, with context, critical judgment, and a foundation of real-world skills already in place. But the promise of technology as an educational shortcut has fallen far short of its aims. Study after study now warns of the harm that screens and media use pose for children, particularly during the critical early years of brain development. We are not contrarian. We are careful.
"Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy. There's not a single exception."
The Atlantic · "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?"
At Summerfield, our screen-free classrooms are backed not only by current research, but by fifty years of graduates — thoughtful, creative, capable young people who entered the world of technology on their own schedule and on their own terms, and thrived there.
What the Research Says
National survey data: more screen time, less happiness — across every demographic, without a single exception.
The Atlantic · "Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?" · September 2017America's public schools promote devices. The parents who build those devices quietly enroll their own children in tech-free schools.
New York Times · "The Digital Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids" · October 2018The founder of Apple chose a gadget-free home life for his own children. Many Silicon Valley peers did the same.
New York Times · "Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent" · September 2014At the epicenter of the tech economy: parents and educators have a message — computers and early childhood don't mix.
New York Times · "A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute" · October 2011Waldorf teachers can immediately identify which students have been using devices at home. The difference in classroom presence is striking.
Wall Street Journal · "Teach Your Children Well" · January 2016Premature smartphone use associated with Continuous Partial Attention, early consumerism, mental health struggles, and online bullying — all with measurable developmental effects.
American Academy of Pediatrics · AAP News · October 2023What a Screen-Free Education Looks Like at Summerfield
A screen-free school is not an impoverished school. Walk through our campus and you will find students cooking, farming, building, painting, performing, and arguing passionately about ideas — all without a screen in sight. Our approach is graduated and developmental, guided by a formal policy adopted by our College of Teachers, faculty, staff, and parent community.
Our earliest learners are entirely screen-free — on campus and at home. No screen — however educational it claims to be — can substitute for the developmental nourishment of hands, imagination, and real relationships.
Through Grade 6, Summerfield students are screen-free on campus. Children in these years are in a critical window of brain development — building capacities for deep attention, imaginative thinking, and genuine social connection.
Our campus remains screen-free for Grades 7 and 8, while faculty work with each class community to thoughtfully shape the measured introduction of technology at home — always developmentally, never by default.
Our high schoolers use Chromebooks and a computer lab for projects that genuinely call for them — research papers, coding, robotics, digital arts. Technology at Summerfield is a purposeful tool, not the default mode of learning.
An Important Nuance
We Use Technology. We Just Use It Intentionally.
Summerfield students are not afraid of computers, the internet, or technology. Our high school has Chromebooks and a computer lab that students use for projects that genuinely call for them — research papers, coding, digital art, robotics. Several of our students have built and programmed robots. Many go on to careers in science, engineering, and technology.
Technology at Summerfield is a tool, used in purposeful portions, when the task calls for it — not the fundamental mode through which all learning flows.
We are not anti-technology. We are pro-childhood.
Why Families Come to Summerfield
For some families, Summerfield is a return to something they already believed in. For others, it is a deliberate departure from a public school system where Chromebooks arrive in kindergarten. For many, it is simply the discovery that what they were searching for — a low-tech school, a media-free school, a place that limits technology and prioritizes human connection — has existed in Santa Rosa for over fifty years.
"One of the reasons we moved from the East Bay in the middle of the school year is because the use of screens in schools was so rampant. We are grateful for the connections we have made and appreciate being around families that are like-minded regarding media. We are fortunate to have found Summerfield."
Summerfield Parent · Grades 4 & 7
"When Ms. Pothof shared the no-screen policy with electrifying resoluteness — for first graders, there will be no TV, movies, video games, or shows, not even anything educational — I felt something I hadn't felt in years: that someone was actually protecting my child's childhood. We came for the no-screen policy. We stayed for everything else."
Dr. Jane, Psy.D. · Summerfield Parent, Grade 2
Will My Child Fall Behind Without Technology?
It is the first question most prospective families ask. The answer, borne out by fifty years of Summerfield graduates and thousands of Waldorf alumni worldwide, is: no. Emphatically no.
Our graduates enter the world of technology with something most of their peers lack: the capacity for deep attention, genuine creativity, independent thinking, and comfort in their own company. A significant percentage of Summerfield's alumni enter professions in science, technology, and engineering — not in spite of a screen-free childhood, but because of it.
"Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don't mix."
The New York Times · "A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute"
About Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm
Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm is a preschool-through-Grade-12 independent school on a working biodynamic farm in Santa Rosa, California. Founded in 1974, we serve nearly 270 students from across Sonoma County and the greater North Bay.
We are one of a small number of schools in California — and the country — that has maintained a genuinely low-tech, media-free educational environment from the earliest grades through high school. As the national conversation about screens and child wellbeing has intensified, we have not needed to change our approach. We have simply been here, doing what we have always done.
If you are searching for a screen-free school near you in Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sebastopol, Windsor, Healdsburg, or anywhere in the North Bay, we invite you to come see what a childhood without screens actually looks like.
Ready to See Summerfield for Yourself?
Campus tours are available in spring, summer, and fall. Come walk the grounds, meet our teachers, and see what a screen-free childhood actually looks like.
Schedule a Campus TourOr call us: (707) 575-7194