Flexible Seating

Flexible seating has been a really popular trend lately in education. Teachers have realized that expecting a seven year old to sit in a metal chair for hours at a time isn't really realistic. Many teachers have implemented a new way of arranging their classrooms under the term, "flexible seating." With flexible seating students are given a range of options of ways to sit and do their work within the classroom. Some teachers have included this to mean sitting on yoga balls, laying on yoga mats, sitting on cushions on the ground, sitting at high top tables, evening allowing students to stand at their desk. At the school in which I work after school child care, one of the third grade teachers has a huge range of options and the children LOVE it. It makes a lot of sense because as adults, even we get bored and fidget when we have sat in a spot for too long.

To fight off the criticism of concerned parents and administration, teacher's have implemented things like flexible seating contracts where students sign, and if they break their contract they are not allowed to select their seat anymore, the teacher will do it for them. Simply having a classroom meeting and explaining that choice is a privilege, and why a teacher has chosen to allow students to pick where they sit, should encourage good behavior. It's important to try something like flexible seating because it could be so beneficial for so many different children. It's wrong to not implement something in a classroom just because a teacher thinks that a certain student or couple of students can't control their behavior. Instead of stripping that choice away from everyone, it is important to work with that individual student and give them the tools to control their own behavior.