CHIMACUM — An experiment that replaces standard school desks with lecterns has succeeded beyond the teacher’s expectations.
“It’s worked better than anyone would have guessed,” said Mitch Brennan, the teacher who developed the experiment.
“I was afraid that it would hurt the kids’ socialization, but it has really done the opposite.”
Brennan — who teaches a combined class of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Chimacum Elementary School — began the project during the past school year in order to help the students learn more naturally and in a more comfortable environment.
The 30 lecterns were constructed over the summer and were waiting for the kids when they began school in September.
The lecterns are arranged in a circle around the edge of the classroom, with the students’ focus directed toward the center of the room or each other.
Brennan’s lectern, one that was constructed as a prototype by the Boeing Bluebills group of retired volunteers, is part of the circle.
In this format, every student has eye contact with the other, and none of them is stuck looking at the back of another student’s head.
“I thought that if we took away the tables, kids wouldn’t get together, but that hasn’t happened,” Brennan said.
“They go to each other’s stations and have a lot more freedom to work the way they want.”
The lecterns were built in the school’s shop class and are available in four different heights.
Kids can stand behind the lectern or sit on a stool.
During class, they divide their time equally between those choices, Brennan said.
The kids spend part of the day in Brennan’s class and part in another classroom with traditional desks.
Confusing? No, said Brennan.
“It’s like you spend part of the time at your grandmother’s house and part of the time at your parents’ house, and they have different furniture,” he said.
Brennan plans to write a research paper gathering results from use of the lecterns over time, a project he has not yet begun.
The kids, however, already have conducted their own research and have drawn some unscientific conclusions.
“Some of them have come up with data stating that they can work faster standing up. They were saying, ‘We can do 40 math problems in an hour,’” Brennan said.
“There is probably a placebo effect, but this is what they feel. If they are more productive, I don’t care what the reason is.”
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
