Monday, March 31, 2014

"Why Do We Make Students Sit Still in Class?" - Camille Farrar

            This article chronicles Carolina Blatt-Gross’s struggle to find a school that her sons would do well at. Her sons are extremely high-energy and move around a lot. She knew they wouldn’t do well in a traditional school setting, and searched for a place that would be able to accommodate their seemingly endless energy. Eventually, she found Hess Academy, which incorporates dance, music, yoga, and other physical activities into the students’ daily routines. They go to the playground during the day to look at the things they have been studying in the classroom. Students are allowed to sit wherever they like in the classroom during lessons. Blatt-Gross said that she has done lots of research and has found that most students do better when they are able to move around when they please.
            I thought this article was very interesting. Education and how we learn is one of the most important subjects. The advancements that schools such as Hess Academy are making in students’ performance are amazing. Hopefully, more schools will model themselves after Hess Academy so as to help students overall. I think that movement incorporated into the school day is extremely important for the development of children because children are naturally energetic and drawn to movement. It’s very hard for most small children to sit still for an entire day at school, meaning that they tend to zone out and lose interest after a little while. Those afforded the privilege to move around during the day are usually more engaged and interested in the subjects at hand. Hopefully there will be many more improvements to the education system like this in years to come.


2 comments:

  1. That interesting to hear about. I do agree that there should be a few schools that cater to the needs of highly active students, but recently there has been a debate over children's shortening attention spans. I feel as though we should educate children and work on lengthening their attention spans, because when they get to college and they can't sit wherever they want to, what will they do?

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  2. The attention span of a child is certainly short, so I'm sure this really helps a lot of children. Even now in high school, I sometimes feel restless after sitting in the same position all day long. Concentration and sitting still aren't exactly the same thing, so hopefully by the time they are in college, they will be able to maintain a longer attention span.

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