File under “What took them so long?” The New York Times this morning has a story about ergonomic furniture that allows students to sit, stand, perch, wiggle and jiggle. You can read “Students Stand When Called Up, and When Not” here.
The children in Ms. Brown’s class, and in some others at Marine Elementary School and additional schools nearby, are using a type of adjustable-height school desk, allowing pupils to stand while they work, that Ms. Brown designed with the help of a local ergonomic furniture company two years ago. The stand-up desk’s popularity with children and teachers spread by word of mouth from this small town to schools in Wisconsin, across the St. Croix River. Now orders for the desks are being filled for districts from North Carolina to California.
It’s one of those things that makes one wonder why someone didn’t think of this ages ago. I mean, what adult would put up with the hard chairs and awkward desks that students have used for decades?
I still am eternally grateful to M.’s third grade teacher, who was completely fine with the fact that she liked to stand over her chair, legs apart, and leaning over her desk. She just put her toward the back of the room, where it wouldn’t bother anyone, and that was that.
