Standing Up For Students In The Caldwells: New Desks Find Footing At Wilson Elementary

It used to be that making students stand up for an entire class was a form of punishment.

But a growing movement for “standing desks” – adjustable desks that allow students to remain upright while working – has begun to make its mark at Wilson Elementary School in West Caldwell.

A recent CNN report interviewed Jennifer Emmolo and Jaclyn Ginex, two teachers at Wilson Elementary School who wrote a grant two years ago that eventually made 30 standing desks available to their students.

Emmolo and Ginex told CNN that they were looking to find a way to deal with disruptive behaviors and at the same time, give students an outlet for their energy that was not disruptive to anyone else in the class.

The results have been “stunning,” Emmolo told CNN.

“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 told CNN. “It was pretty amazing.”

Read the full article here.

ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF STANDING DESKS?

“The average U.S. student is sitting an average of 4.5 hours/day at school and (for kids ages 8-18) an additional 7 plus hours/day in front of a screen, regardless of socioeconomic status,” according to StandUpKids.org.

“Combine that with time spent doing homework, sitting at the dinner table, and driving to and from school, and our kids are spending nearly 85% of their waking hours in sedentary positions,” the organization claims.

File photo via http://www.stand2learn.com/home.html

What do you think, Caldwells? Are standing desks a good idea? Take the Patch reader poll below and share why you voted that way in the comment section.