Forget 'Sit down!' Students now standing up to learn
By Kelly Wallace, CNN
Updated 1259 GMT (2059 HKT) December 10, 2015
(CNN)Juliet Starrett and her husband were running the sack race at their children's school field day when they noticed something was wrong -- the kids couldn't get into the sacks.
"A lot of kids at our school literally lacked the hip range motion to get into the sack and then were having difficulty jumping," said Starrett, who lives in San Rafael, California and has two daughters, ages 7 and 10.
The couple's company educates corporations, athletes and professional teams on movement, mobility, mechanics and injury prevention, and that day at the sack race "really freaked us out because we realized the only thing that could cause that kind of dysfunction in kids was sitting too much."
They'd been recommending people minimize sitting and use standing desks for about seven years. The desks are no longer an anomaly in workplaces, especially after studies showed prolonged periods of sitting can be horrible for our health. But the sack race was the first time they'd considered using the desks in schools.
Last August, Starrett and her husband worked to get 25 standing desks in their daughter's fourth-grade classroom in her public elementary school. After they raise $150,000, all 450 students in the school, even kindergartners, will be standing by January, Starrett said.
"We weren't really sure if the parents would conclude that we were torturing their children or if the teachers would be interested and engaged, so we really didn't know what to expect ... and it was a success times 1 million," said Starrett, who founded a nonprofit called Stand Up Kids, with the goal of getting standing desks in every public classroom across the country. "Educators are really seeking alternatives to the current environment and with all the technology and the amount of time that kids are sitting, teachers often bear the brunt of that in terms of behavior issues (and) attention problems in school."
Schools moving away from 'sitting all the time'
While the concept of standing desks is still a new one in education, there are examples across the country of schools moving away from the traditional "sitting all the time" approach to a standing and moving environment.
Alexandria Country Day School in Alexandria, Virginia, appears to be one of the first schools in the United States to provide adjustable standing desks in every middle school classroom. Students can use the desks to stand, sit or even kneel. The school's head, Scott Baytosh, has been using a standing desk himself for six years, so when the school received a $3 million anonymous donation and was able to renovate every classroom, he wanted to consider other options for his students.
"Kids at this age need to move and so often in education, we tell them to stop moving, sit still, sit up, pay attention. Here we are, allowing them just enough movement to be more comfortable and focus so that they can focus their mental energy on what the lesson is asking them, not thinking, 'I'm really uncomfortable. I wish I could move right now,' " he said during an interview at his school.
In West Caldwell, New Jersey, two years ago, teachers Jennifer Emmolo and Jaclyn Ginex wrote a grant to get standing desks at their public school, Wilson Elementary School. They were looking to find a way to deal with disruptive behaviors such as students going to the bathroom when they didn't really need to go or banging their pencils and disturbing a neighbor, and at the same time, give students an outlet for their energy that was not disruptive to anyone else in the class, said Emmolo.
Their research led them to standing desks. In the first year, they received three desks for each third grade classroom and rotated the students through the desks weekly. The next year, they received five additional desks for each third grade class.
The results have been stunning, said Emmolo, who works with teachers to help them integrate technology into the classroom.
"Things like talking when you weren't supposed to be talking, fidgeting with some kind of object on your desk, standing around the room and moving at not great times, all of those undesirable behaviors decreased by incredible amounts," she said. "It was pretty amazing. Kids that you might have to talk to sometimes on more than an hourly basis to refocus them or redirect them, you no longer had to do that," she said.
One of the most popular features of some standing desks, including the ones at Wilson Elementary, are so-called fidget bars on the bottom of the desks, which, as the name implies, give the kids a chance to fidget or swing the bar without affecting anyone around them.
"I kind of get my energy out with the fidget bar," said Enzo, a third grader at Wilson Elementary School.
"We love that students can swing their feet back and forth ... and be in perpetual motion and can do that without bothering anyone else," said Emmolo.
Today, the school has more than 30 desks with fidget bars, which students can use to stand or sit, said principal Scott Keena. His teachers would love more, he said.
"The teachers are now coming to me and almost saying they'll do anything for more of these," said Keena. "I'd almost argue it's as exciting for the staff as it is for the students because they're hearing from their colleagues about all the benefits their colleagues next door are having and they want the same."
Starrett夫婦在孩子學校的運動場上比賽布袋競賽時，發現有些不對勁：孩子們沒有辦法跳進布袋。
「學校裡有好多小孩子都逐漸缺少彈跳進去布袋裡的能力，無法跳躍。」Starrett本身有兩個小孩，7歲跟10歲。
這對夫婦的公司主要是提供企業，運動員及專業隊伍有關運動，力學，訓練器材及傷害防護的訓練，那天的布袋比賽「著實嚇到我們，我們才了解原來造成這種功能妨礙的主因只是因為小孩子坐太久了！」
他們七年來建議大家減少坐下的時間，並使用高腳桌。這種桌子不再另類，尤其在研究顯示長時間坐姿導致對健康的傷害後。不過布袋比賽是他們第一次想到要將高腳椅推廣到學校裡。去年8月，Starrett夫婦成功將25張高腳椅放進他們女兒就讀小四的公立小學中。Starrett說，等他們募資到美金15萬元，1月前450位學童甚至是幼稚園小朋友都可以站著上課了。
「我們不知道家長們會不會認為我們在虐待小朋友，或是老師會不會有興趣加入這活動，所以我們實在沒有什麼期待......而他總算成功了，」Starrett說有一個非營利組織叫Stand Up Kids，正有這個目標將站立桌放進所有公立小學裡。「教育人士正在想辦法改變現況跟技術，來面對小朋友長時間坐著的問題。在學校，老師則常常要承擔影響孩子最大的行為教育和注意力集中。」
學校避開「長坐」
當站立桌在教育觀點來看還是頗新的觀念時，已經有幾個學校開始遠離長坐傳統，建立可移動的教育環境。
維吉尼亞州一個日間學校，亞歷山大國家學校是美國第一個使用可調整站立桌的學校。學生可站可坐甚至是屈膝。校長Baytosh使用這方式已經6年，當初是因為學校收到匿名者捐贈300萬元美金可以整修每一間教室，他才考慮這種可以用在學生身上的選擇。
「在教育過程中，這個年紀的學生經常需要走動，而我們卻叫他們別動，做好，專心！這下我們可以讓他們用足夠的移動方式覺得舒服，更能專心，這樣一來專注在課程上要他們思考的問題，而不是只是覺得”我真的不舒服，我現在好想動“。」Baytosh在學校受訪時說道。
兩個月前有兩個學校老師對紐澤西州寫了請願書，希望可以在他們的學校用站立桌。對小朋友不想上廁所卻一直吵著要去廁所，或是用鉛筆猛敲，擾亂隔壁等脫序行為，他們一直在找方法試圖處理，同時可以給他們抒發精力的出口，不再打擾任何人。
他們研究讓學生站著。第一年他們收到3張椅子給三年級教室使用，並讓學生每週輪流使用。第二年他們又收到5張椅子。
結果滿驚人的，老師說，這些椅子幫助他們將技術融入在課堂之中，「你不需要在那短短一小時內不斷提醒他們回座位或注意他們的動向，不該說話卻說話，該做好卻一直站起來動來動去，那些你不喜歡看到的行為都減少了！」
最受歡迎的站立桌特徵是在桌子底部的「扭動吧」，顧名思義就是給小孩自由的空間擺動身軀而不影響其他周遭的人。
「我都在那裡盡情釋放活力！」小學三年級的Enzo說。
「我們可以一直在那，不用擔心打擾其他人，好喜歡看學生在那裡來回擺動雙腳喔！」Emmolo說。
威爾森小學校長說，今天學校裡擁有超過30張附扭動吧的站立桌，供學生站或坐，老師應該更愛。
「老師們現在都來找我，說為了能有更多這種桌子他們願意做任何事情。我可以斷定現在老師喜歡站立桌的程度不亞於小朋友了，因為他們都聽到別的同事也有，好處超多，讓他們也想要一張一樣的。」
sack (n.) 布袋
anomaly (n.) 反常的事物
prolong (v.) 延長
brunt (n.) 主要的影響
renovate (v.) 修復
disruptive (adj.) 引起混亂的
integrate (v.) 使成為一體
fidget (v.) 坐立不安
perpetual (adj.) 一再反覆的
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