Why do we want kids to “sit still” in class?

Bored Kids As normal 12-year-olds, the sixth-grade students at Marine Elementary School near Minneapolis tended to squirm, slump, kick, and fidget in their seats—they had an abundance of energy, and controlling it required them to focus so much on sitting still they had trouble focusing on their schoolwork. Their teacher Abby Brown wondered: What if they didn’t have to sit still? Brown learned from the latest research at the Mayo Clinic about “activity-permissive education,” which advocates letting kids move as they learn. Brown then helped design a new kind of school desk with a raised seat that puts the user in a semi-standing position and allows more freedom of movement. With the new desks, her students’ school work immediately improved—and Brown’s creation is being looked at as a model for other classrooms.


» Want still more? Click on this graphic to read all the articles on this site about Kids & Questioning, and check out my popular Edutopia article “5 Ways to Help Your Students Become Better Questioners.”

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How can we keep the questioning going as adults? See this fast-click blogshare…

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About the Author

Innovation expert and questionologist Warren Berger has studied hundreds of the world’s foremost innovators, entrepreneurs, and creative thinkers to learn how they ask questions, generate original ideas, and solve problems. He is the author or co-author of 12 books, including his three books on questioning: A MORE BEAUTIFUL QUESTION: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas; its follow-up THE BOOK OF BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead; and BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS IN THE CLASSROOM: Transforming Classrooms Into Cultures of Curiosity and Inquiry. Warren’s writing has appeared in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and The New York Times, and he writes the “Questionologist” blog for Psychology Today. He lives in Mount Kisco, New York. Follow him on Twitter at @GlimmerGuy and subscribe to his blog posts

3 Beautiful Comments

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  1. Mark Ford says:

    Teaching is wonderful experience especially when it is related to kids. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful post.

      

  2. Warren Berger
    Twitter: GlimmerGuy
    says:

    On a related topic, I just noticed this interesting desk, mentioned in Fast Company: http://www.fastcoexist.com/3050523/world-changing-ideas/a-standing-desk-for-kids-to-help-change-sitting-culture-theres-an-adult

      

  3. Abhilasha says:

    I always want to help my children to come out with their questions, so that they become bold and raise the habit of answering. The PPT is very nice and perfectly defined.

      

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