WIDN blog

On top of the steady swivelling, I’m kicking my right foot. For most of my life, while sitting down, I’ve kicked one of my feet. I don’t notice that I’m doing it until someone points it out, usually in complaint.

All that being said, a new classroom trend could not hit closer to home (well it could if it hopped on interstate 94 and took exit 208 an hour later).

A school in my home state of Minnesota has introduced adjustable stand-up desks into its classrooms and others across the region and nation. Local teacher Abby Brown thought of the idea while watching her students work, but couldn’t find a suitable product on the market. She brought it to local ergonomic office furniture manufacturer Sunway Inc. and asked it to make the desks, paid for with grants.

It looks mostly like any other student desk, but elevated to a standing height. There is the standard cubby and then a second shelf lower down. They are completely adjustable, and there are stools so students can choose whether to sit or stand as the day goes on.

I don’t want to discredit Ms Brown’s idea, but essentially, this is bringing the desk and stools of shop class into a fourth grade classroom. However, the key component that will set me into a where-was-this-during-my-13-years-of-grade-school-education rant is a swinging foot rest.

Students and teachers have said that the swinging foot rest helps kids concentrate. And the children have plenty of energy to stand around while working on math problems. With the growing percentages of obesity in children, this seems to be a sort of classroom cure-all.

Darting in and out of regional media in the past year, the New York Times did an article on Tuesday, bringing it national and international attention. You can see the desks in action on You Tube in a report by ABC News.

The obvious message here is to make sure more educators, and students of all ages, are involved in the design process. But I’d like to take this opportunity to shell out my own advice to the education design community. How about hiding the quadratic equation in the wood grain of desk tops? Or a carpet pattern that vaguely resembles the periodic table of the elements?

I applaud both Ms Brown and Sunway for this venture. And I’m waiting with baited breath for more fabulous classroom design elements to send me into fits of I-could-have-been-a-better-student rants.