
How Standing Desks Can Help Students Focus in the Classroom - shill
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/10/how-standing-desks-can-help-students-focus-in-the-classroom/
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pbreit
Ikea has recently begun offering a pair of electrically adjusting sit/stand
desks:

[http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19022530/](http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19022530/)

[http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49022270/](http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49022270/)

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JDiculous
They're ~$500 and ~$600...

Anyone know where I can get a standing desk (don't care if it's adjustable)
that isn't insanely expensive?

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epoxyhockey
$500-$600 is actually cheap! I haven't been able to find a motorized sit stand
desk for less than $1200.

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possibilistic
I don't know why the GP poster is being downvoted. For most of the world's
population, $500 is not cheap.

I find it difficult to categorize the desk, a tool for productivity, as a
luxury. I know that's just personal bias speaking, though.

The market supplies alternatives of varying degrees of quality, functionality,
and design for ordinary desks. I wish there was equal demand for standing
desks. Nothing ever seems to bring down the prices for them.

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pbreit
For $100k/year workers (the main HN audience), it's cheap. Especially
considering it, along with a chair and a computer, is by far the most
important tools for said audience.

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vorg
> For $100k/year workers (the main HN audience), it's cheap

So you don't believe the tale that the primary audience for Hacker News are
actually working on startups?

If someone can't afford US$500, they can make a desk out of a plank of wood on
top of some bricks or old furniture. A standup desk is a minor modification.
One can then put a bunk bed for sleeping above the desk, and thus share the
room with co-founders. Co-founders can then take turns sleeping in the car.

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MrZongle2
Speaking as a parent: do you know how you help students focus in the
classroom?

Stop preventing them from socializing during lunch. Allow them to get outside
for more than 15 minutes so they can work off some of that excess energy, both
physical and mental. Stop helicoptering around them on the playground and _let
them be kids._

Everything else (aside from diagnosed learning disabilities) is just treating
the damn symptoms caused by "experts" attempting to "fix" what hasn't been
broken in schools for decades.

But don't take _my_ word for it. Talk to a few involved parents of elementary
school children. Are the kids forced to be quiet during their 15-20 minute
lunch break? Have some traditional recess games such as tag been banned? Are
troublesome students punished by being kept in during recess?

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Broken_Hippo
I agree completely: It isn't standing desks that are needed, it is more actual
movement and breaks from sitting. I'll admit I would have used it some as a
student, but I'd have been just as happy with a space on the floor I could
move about on. Recess and down time is important, not just movement, which the
article tends to overlook. Finland does this already - less lecture and breaks
more often and have had fantastic results.

In fact, recess and free time are something I noticed quickly after moving
from the US to Norway. The nearby elementary almost always has children
outside playing. Actually playing. In wet sand, in puddles, climbing, running,
soccer... so many things kids do that they would forbidden to do in the
states.

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judk
Remember how Agile invented the "standup meeting" specifically to leverage the
fact that no one wants to stand still for over 15 minutes?

Maybe the problem is that demanding students focus in the classroom for 5
hours of lecture per day is a stupid goal.

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iancarroll
No...

When I was in 5th grade, we did not have chairs or anything for our violin
class. It wasn't fun, we had to stand for the entire class (which to 5th grade
me was very annoying.) We got to sit down for 30 seconds in the middle of
class as a "rest period"

That didn't make me want to go to the class. If this gets implemented you
might end up making kids dislike the classroom even more.

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momokatte
If you pair a tall shop stool with a standing desk, like the Stand2Learn desk
and stool shown in the article, you don't have to stand 100% of the time and
the desk doesn't have to be adjustable between a sitting and standing
position.

I had this kind of setup in a drafting class in high school and a few art
classes in college, and now I've spent the last 5 months with a similar setup
for computer use at work and home. I probably stand 2/3 of the time and sit
1/3 of the time, and sometimes I hop up and down to really get the blood
flowing or pace around when I'm frustrated with something or trying to wrap my
head around an abstract concept. I feel significantly healthier these days
than I did when I was sitting in a desk chair 11-14 hours a day (combined work
and home).

Just as an aside, if you're going to stand and read a book or use a tablet or
phone, you'll want an angled platform to avoid neck strain.

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yzzxy
I think a better solution is one of the several pedal desks available
today[0]. Kids who are tired can relax without disrupting class or their
learning, and those who have energy to get out can pedal all day.

Standing in class all day would be a nightmare. I'm transitioning to a
personal standing desk right now, but I would NEVER want to use one in class -
school is physically tension-inducing and uncomfortable for a myriad of
reasons and forcing students to stand up would only exacerbate that problem.

[0] [http://www.gophersport.com/item/kinesthetic-classroom-
pedal-...](http://www.gophersport.com/item/kinesthetic-classroom-pedal-desks)

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deskamess
Off the main topic, but perhaps relevant.... based on personal experience,
exercises like biking (esp stationary) and rowing (leg part) can cause
piriformis syndrome[1] if not complemented with a set of actions targeting
orthogonal actions/muscle movement.

During the winter I knew I would not go to the gym, so I purchased an exercise
bike and used it religiously every two days. I was exercising but there was a
pain in the buttocks and it was getting worse and I finally had to stop.
Sitting at work caused pain after 1 hr, then 30 minutes, then 15. Driving to
work caused pain. Stopping the bike did not help alleviate the problem. Went
to the Dr who referred me to a physio. None of the exercises given to me
helped. It took me a while to diagnose what I was experiencing - googling
symptoms finally led me to a set of exercises that has helped incredibly. I am
not fixed yet; I have to do the exercises ideally twice a day or at a minimum
once every two days. It is much much better but it was torture when
undiagnosed.

So if you have pain in the "middle of each or both buttocks" when sitting for
a small amount of time, consider piriformis syndrome. If you feel you are
constantly clenching your buttocks read up on it as well. The exercises to get
relief are very simple, can be done lying down, and start showing promise
after about 2 days. The exercises I do are on Youtube.

Which reminds me... I need to call my physio and let her know... hopefully
this information helps someone else.

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piriformis_syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piriformis_syndrome)

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j_s
Can you link the exercises? That would probably be the most helpful
information.

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eli173
In the latter part of high school, I began standing in the classes where I
both knew the teacher fairly well and didn't think I would bother anyone else
by doing so. Since there weren't any standing desks, I would either stand
myself near a wall or an unused desk I could lean on and carry a clipboard, or
I would occasionally grab a music stand or an unused lectern. I had never felt
particularly uncomfortable in a normal desk before, but for the first time I
really felt unconstrained by my environment. I'm naturally somewhat fidgety,
and gaining the ability to readjust my body comfortably without bothering
anyone and to pace around the classroom (even in a very small area) really
allowed me to get my blood flowing more easily and prevented me from being
distracted from any discomfort I had in a desk built for people who were both
smaller than I was at the time and who were not left-handed. Talking to the
teacher (or even to other students) feels much more intimate, as your vision
isn't obstructed by the back of someone's head. Something I didn't expect was
that when participating in class discussions, I felt more expressive, as I
tend to move my hands and arms when I speak, something I couldn't do easily in
a sitting desk.

I wonder, though, whether or not some of both the student's and my
improvements were caused by being on a different plane from the rest of the
class. I also wonder what effect having some standing students in a classroom
would have on the seated children. I was once told that I was somewhat
intimidating when I was the only one standing in the classroom.

I don't know whether standing desks are the best option for everyone, but
they're certainly a better option for some, and I'm glad to see standing desks
being given greater consideration nowadays.

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Scribblenaut9
Is there any reason we need to buy a special desk just so kids can stand? IMO
you could get the same result by allowing kids to stand up if they need to or
even better: stop killing recess, defunding gym, and banning dodgeball.
Besides that, I don't think I would like the standing desk thing. I'd want to
sit sometimes and lean back in a chair.

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nnnnni
I used to get trouble in school for standing at my desk rather than sitting...
They thought that I wasn't paying attention because of some behavioral
problem.

It turns out that I was finishing/understanding my work early and getting
bored.

I think that the standing desk with bar stool combination that someone else
mentioned would be a great idea for schools!

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jesserwilliams
I use a standing desk for work, the majority of the time I sit on my chair.
But around 2:30pm, the ability to stand up for the rest of the day is a life
saver. I know if I had a standing desk thorough high school, my 5th & 6th
block classes would have been much easier to stay awake through.

