ADHD-Approved Classroom Furniture

A big thank you to Jeff for highlighting this New York Times article in his blog, Jeff's ADD Mind: .

The article focuses on fidget-friendly classroom furniture developed by Abby Brown, a Minnesota sixth-grade teacher. Ms. Brown's classroom boasts stand up work stations with--get this!--swinging foot rests, and adjustable height, optional-use stools. Students can sit or stand, shift their weight from one foot to the other, or sit and swing their legs, all in the name of better learning. Best of all, using this furniture isn’t a special accommodation for kids with ADHD. It's being used by the whole class. In fact, ADHD, with its known "fidget-to-focus-factor," wasn't even mentioned in the article.

Can you imagine how much better school life would be for our special needs children if more teachers thought as creatively and were as open to non-traditional ideas as Ms. Brown? I'd love to see Natalie's school try out this innovation, but I can think of a million reasons why they wouldn't (money, space, resistance to change among them). Ms. Brown, wouldn't you like to move south, to, say...Iowa? (And bring your classroom furniture with you?)

Better yet, let's send Ms. Brown to Washington to work with Obama's education team! Let's give her a million dollars; a free trip to Hawaii; the Nobel Prize! Let's crown her prom queen! Let's start a revolution! (In our spare time.)

Well, I can at least forward a link to the Times article to a few teachers and school administrators. Will you do the same?