Student Life
Media Policy
“Television, radio, and all the sources of amusement and information that surround us in our daily lives are also artificial props. They can give us the impression that our minds are active, because we are required to react to stimuli from the outside. But the power of those external stimuli to keep us going is limited. They are like drugs. We grow used to them, and we continuously need more and more of them. Eventually, they have little or no effect. Then, if we lack resources within ourselves, we cease to grow intellectually, morally, and spiritually. And we cease to grow, we begin to die.”
Media Impact
Peace Terrace Academy is dedicated to nurturing each child’s capacity for spiritual growth, creative imagination, independent thinking and physical growth. The school’s efforts to foster students’ healthy emotional development and meaningful relationships with their environment are undermined by encounters with media that separate children from authentic experience, over stimulate, and promote a distorted, developmentally inappropriate and consumerist view of the world.
Educational research has provided the following information:
- The eyes and auditory mechanisms of the ear are two powerful sense organs, vitally important for perception, communication and interaction with the rest of the world. These organs need proper exercise, just as other systems in our bodies, and need to have protection from the overly bright lights and loud sound effects of television, computer, and video. The constant viewing of screens does not allow for development of peripheral fields, not to mention the spiritual ramifications of the content being viewed on handheld devices.
- The ear is related not only to listening but also to the sense of balance. It needs movement in all planes in order to develop properly and to do its job. Sitting artificially still in front of screen media interferes with healthy development.
- When children become overly stimulated for prolonged periods of time, the body responds in many ways. Research has shown that a stress related hormone is released during screen watching, contributing to a shortening of breath, quickening of pulse and reduction of the myelination of the nerves.
- Large motor development requires physical movement, and in movement children gain self control and confidence. Time spent in front of screens replaces the valuable time needed for healthy physical development.
- All movement systems work together, and when exercised with practice they begin to integrate. This movement integration is fundamental to learning.
Media as a Tool
The deeply human experience of hearing and responding to the human voice is essential to learning. The startle effect of flashing lights or loud sounds programmed incrementally to hook the attention are not used in a Peace Terrace classroom. Students learn to use electronic media as a resource and tool when these media are introduced after children have developed a rich experiential foundation. Media thus becomes a supplement to, not a substitute for, the richness of direct experience.
All members of the Peace Terrace community depend on parents to create a home environment that supports and reinforces wholistic-Islamic Education. The impact of media exposure in one’s home is passed on to other children, affecting play, attitudes, language and imaginative capacities.