Time To Rethink the School Desk?

theodp writes "As part of its reimagine the 21st-century classroom project, Slate asks: Is the best way to fix the American classroom to improve the furniture? While adults park their butts in $700 Aeron chairs, kids still sprawl and slump and fidget and dangle their way through the day in school furniture designed to meet or beat a $40 price point. 'We've seen in adults that if you put them in the right chair, their performance increases,' says Harvard's Jack Dennerlein. 'Is the same true for children? I can't see why not.' For school districts with deep pockets, there are choices — a tricked-out Node chair from IDEO and Steelcase can be had for $599."

SURE! Why not??

[metamechanical]

My school district just declared that their budget is going to increase by 40% over the next 4 years, to over $180 million! Why not throw some of these in there too?? They already announced those numbers so they can let us know that unless we pass gargantuan levies over the next three years, they'll be $70 million in the hole by then - why not throw in some incredibly expensive chairs, too?

Let's start with bad ideas first:

[eepok]

For a classroom, here's things we can't have:

Wheels that enable the desk to slide --- Two words: Bumper Cars
Swivel seats --- Because it's just an excuse to fidget
****Better yet... NO MOVING PARTS****
Required specialist maintenance --- Because it won't be provided
Real, non-particle board wood --- It's too expensive and warps.
Any plastic aside from the seat and the chair back --- They're too easily carved, melted, bent, broken, etc.
Arms/Wings --- Because they're always too sharp and not good for fat kids

The chair presented in the article is a triumph of design, but it won't work for anyone with any internal child. Yes, that means college students down to kindergartners. It's a Ferrari of desks when schools (ALL schools) look for steel-block engine trucks that require little maintenance beyond a wash and an oil from time to time.

They should have designed around the restrictions of the user instead of trying to redefine the user with design.

Re:Hmmm

[Samantha Wright]

I take it you've never heard of apprenticeships? For humour's sake, here in Soviet Canada at the high school I went to, there was a for-credit cooking class that actually produced the specials that the cafeteria sold, and most of the regular cafeteria staff were also students.

Re:Return on Investment

[Anonymous Coward]

It depends on where the school is. One of my kids goes to the high school that is closest to us. It is about 1.5 miles - not far at all. She walks. It is a pretty safe route. My other kid goes to the high school all the way across town (to attend a "magnet school" program with an engineering focus). He can't really walk in a timely manner as it is about 7 miles or so. He could ride his bike, but it is a very dangerous ride (both in terms of the traffic and in terms of the neighborhoods in between). I am not having him ride his bike to school. There is also no bus for this situation because "there is a school by you; use that school". I leave for work - 3:45 AM. My wife leaves at 4:15 AM. Obviously we don't drop the kids off. For this, there are often programs that the school can help coordinate. We are in a 4 kid car pool where other parents pick up and drop off. My wife rotates schedules and is sometimes off during the week and will do some of the driving then. Other times we have the other parents do it (and we pay them something for it). But "ride your bike" is not always a good answer.

Re:Return on Investment

[EvanED]

The chairs attached to a small writing pad (like the one linked to) are just horrible for a lecture or class. You can fit no more than a small notebook on the surface: want to get out your other notebook, a handout, or your laptop, and take a look at both at the same time? Tough luck!

You think those are bad for most people? Try one if you're left-handed. I've been in rooms with desks like that bolted to the ground where it's about equally comfortable to use the "desk" attached to my chair as it is to use the desk attached to the chair to my left.

The ones with desks that actually stretch across you the whole way aren't too bad, but still noticeably worse if you're a lefty, and a lot worse for everyone than an actual desk.

Sometimes you'll even get a room with lefty desk-chairs. Of course, there may well not be enough of them, and you may well be stuck at the edge of an aisle instead of being able to sit where you please, but that's what you get for being a southpaw.

(I'm not bitter. Not at all.)

Re:Return on Investment

[SimonInOz]

No we don't - at least not in the high school my daughter goes to, nor any of the other schools I've heard of.

(Nor, by the way, do schoolkids ride to school on kangaroos - I just thought I'd confirm that).

That said, the 10-5 regime sounds a really good idea - except for just one thing. They'd use that as an excuse to go to bed even later.

The problem seems to be the adolescent brain being determined to stay awake as long as possible, but the adolescent body needing sleep. Result - late to bed, real trouble getting up.

Now, back to my didgeridoo

Re:Hmmm

[Grishnakh]

Woodshop? Metalshop? We're talking about the USA here. We don't have those things here any more. They're too dangerous; some kid could lose a finger, and then the school would be sued for millions. Besides, why would kids need those skills? They're not going to use them after they leave school and either work in an office or in a service or retail job. American kids don't need to know anything about how to make things; that's for people in countries like China to do for us.

Re:Return on Investment

[apoc.famine]

When I was teaching HS science, I was happy every day that I had 5' tables in my classes instead of desks. 2 students per table, chairs got put up on them at the end of the day so the custodians could sweep under them. (Which was easy, since they had 3' of space to get a broom under.) As needed, I could arrange them well spaced out, (tests, eg.) in pairs to make square tables of 4 students each, in a big circle so everyone was facing each other (debates, eg.) push them all aside for demonstrations, in L shapes so that I had groups of 4 with no students having the board behind them...it was awesome.

When I was told we'd be meeting in the rooms with the stupid-ass chair-desks, I generally requested we move the meeting elsewhere. I'm sorry, but those aren't good for anyone. I don't know how the hell they became the standard - it can't be cheaper to buy them than it is to buy a truckload of plastic chairs on metal frames and flat, featureless wooden tables with big square legs. The tables in my science classroom were 5 major pieces and a bolt - a big flat piece with a 2" deep square cut into it underneath, and 4 big solid legs attached with a 3/8" bolt. "Maintenance" involved sanding off the graffiti every couple of years, and me tightening the bolt with a wrench when a leg got wobbly, about once a month or two.

I can't work at the traditional school desk. I never thought students could either. Comparing the classes I taught on plain tables vs the ridiculous chair-desk-spawns-of-hell, the classes with tables were far better. (And one year I had a class moved 3 times - the classrooms without tables were the worst for student morale, performance, and behavior.)