If you place a plant in a closed box, it will not have the things or be in the right place that it needs to flourish, grow, or inevitably reach its fullest potential. Now replace the plant with students and the box with chairs, would any student K-12, and beyond, thrive or be able to grow into healthy future leaders if they are confined to chairs that are connected to the desks, and are not helping support the back or correct bad posture? The answer is no. Students of any age or grade can not have the chance to grow to their fullest potential, or to be as healthy as they can be, if they are limited to the restricted mobility of the chairs that are connected to the desks.
Emma Vignolini ‘28 said, “It can be hard to get in and out of the desks when they are put so close together, and they are small which makes them more restricting and harder to face the teacher.”
School is a place to learn new things, be focused in the moment, and prepare for the future, but in order to be in a mindset that produces a productive outcome, the environment needs to be applicable. Not all students have the ability to focus or easily complete whatever work needs to be done, especially in certain situations where work needs to be completed in a timely manner. It is understandable that school may not be everyone’s cup of tea; there is not anyone that could like or even love everything. However, the small things, such as chairs and desks, can make a big difference when it comes to students having a more focused mindset for doing and completing their work in a more efficient way.
Abigail Gonzales ‘28 noted, “[I]f the chair is bothering a lot then it’s quite distracting because you’re trying to find a position that you can feel comfortable in.”
Chairs that are connected to the desks give students no room to adjust to their own comfort or overall best concentrating position. Not everyone, no matter if it is a student or not, can sit like everyone else. Sitting in a restrictive chair that is connected to a desk for an average of six periods that are about fifty-six minutes long, is not beneficial for growing teens who are still maturing. It is equally important to consider that the way students sit has a crucial impact on how they will perform during class and overall throughout the day. As of right now, the seating options in classrooms do not provide students with the right amount of general support, which impacts not only their school life, but their personal life outside of the classroom. There are students that do sports, have jobs, contribute to non-profit organizations, and more, who do not need more ‘pressure’ on their backs and necks on top of the school expectations that already weigh a ton.
As well as the lack of chair/desk flexibility, students constantly looking down, whether it is at a piece of paper, a book, a computer or a laptop, or a piece of school equipment, is not healthy for their necks which overtime can and have led to issues that have the chance to interfere with that student’s day-to-day life in the future. Teachers complain and even lecture to their students when they are in ‘weird’ or ‘improper’ positions whilst sitting in the chair, but let be honest, if you were a student in high school today, and the chairs were confining you to a very little amount of space or general mobility, would you be able to thrive meeting, and possibly exceeding, expectations while constricted to an outdated and non-ergonomic chair/desk that has not been ‘updated’ or ‘replaced’ since the early 1900’s?
