What About Furniture-Free?

A while back I read this post about Furniture-Free Living.  It came at the end of a snow-day-before-an-already-long-weekend mini vacation, most of which I spent sitting on my couch.  And I felt, well, bleh.

You see, when I'm at school, I'm always moving around.  Or at the very least, standing up.  In fact, my students used to joke about how they had never seen me sit at my desk, and it became a sort of competition for them to see me sit down.  So after four days of lazing about on the couch, this article piqued my interest.

Though the article focuses on health benefits (i.e. more movement, better posture, fewer toxins, etc.), it also mentions how we have furniture specifically designed for certain activities in a particular room.  And I got to thinking about my classroom.  What are the activities I hope to see going on in my classroom?  And does the furniture in my room support those activities?

My classroom is filled with 30 traditional student desks - you know, the ones with those unbearable attached seats.  I've got my teacher desk, a couple of bookcases, a rolling cart for the projector, and a small square table with two chairs.  Plus my treasured window sill - a ledge that is large enough to act as a standing desk for the kids who need it.  But let's focus on the 30 student desks, because that's the furniture that my students use most.  What activity do those desks support?

Well, the article says you do work at a desk in an office.  And I'd agree that students do work at their desks in a classroom.  But is that the best purpose of our classrooms?  Shouldn't the main activity in our classrooms be learning, and not just working?

Now, working is not inherently bad.  Far from it!  It reminds me of this quote that comes to my rescue when I fall into the trap of doing too much for my students:

The ones who do the work are the ones who do the learning.

However, what kind of work is encouraged by these desks?  Independent and isolated come to mind when I see desks in rows like the picture above, though that may not always be the case.  Collaborative work comes to mind when I see desks arranged in groups.  But, as we all know, until we teach them to work together in groups, students often still treat their joined space as a place to work individually surrounded by some of the world's most fascinating distractions.

I'm not sure what the alternative is.  I'm not about to convince my principal that it's in the best interest of our students to remove all the desks from my classroom, because I don't believe it is.  But I do question how to use furniture to make learning the most obvious and most important activity to happen in my classroom.  I know furniture isn't everything, but it's part of it.