Big Tech CEOs choose tech-free education for their children
Tech billionaires like Zuckerberg protect their kids from screens in private schools, while Big Tech harvests public schoolchildren’s data for algorithms and profiling.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, was recently caught running an illegal private Montessori school at his Silicon Valley mansion. Though he said it was just a homeschool pod born out of the need for pandemic-related stability, it was a full-on operation for 14 kids, including his daughters, with teachers, an administrator, and a tech-free, hands-on Montessori curriculum.
The Montessori educational philosophy was pioneered by Italian Dr. Maria Montessori, emphasizing independence, mixed-age learning, and, get this: no screens.
Seems ironic, right? The guy whose empire thrives on addictive apps keeps his kids in a tech-free bubble.
Worse yet, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recently pulled funding from their charity school for low-income kids while their own get the VIP treatment.
Turns out this isn’t new.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s late visionary, famously banned iPhones and iPads for his kids, prioritizing books and real-world experiences.
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk started a Montessori school in Texas, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is building Montessori-inspired preschools. These tech titans know their products are addictive and invasive, so they opt out for their families.
Meanwhile, children in North America’s public schools are used as data mines for these kinds of tech giants.
Google’s Chromebooks, Gmail, and Classroom have dominated education, used for everything from assignments to grading. Yet hundreds of millions in lawsuits reveal Google’s been illegally harvesting kids’ data—web activity, location, even voice recordings—to sell to advertisers or train AI and build character profiles for future consumers.
New Mexico’s attorney general called them out years ago for spying on millions of school kids, and research from Internet Safety Labs shows that 96% of ed-tech apps share kids’ personal info with third parties, without parental consent.
Tech industry leaders protect their children’s privacy and education while their companies profit from widespread data collection.
It’s time for parents to demand robust privacy protections and education systems independent of Big Tech’s influence.
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