In my life I have been fat and thin and through it all one thing remains the same. I have a hard time sitting in most chairs. The flatter the chair, the worse. I have used wheelchair cushions for car seats, desk chairs and even new, padded, dining room chairs. I've never found a bike seat that is really comfortable. I have a boney butt with a nerve that is sort of sideways. And it occurs to me that I could have had much more profitable school days if only I'd had a cushion.
Back in the day, we wore crinolines and hoop skirts. Not the 1860's, the 1960's! I literally couldn't sit on a scratchy crinoline slip and it was damn hard arranging the hoop around me on the chair. And once sitting, the chair was either cold and hard or sweaty and hard. One leg under, then the other, up, down, up, down. It was amazing anything got done.
I was a volunteer in a daughter's second grade class. That teacher, a large woman, used to get down on the carpeted floor for reading groups. If the kids were more comfortable on the floor and could more easily learn there, she joined them. All over the room kids were lying on their tummies filling out papers or kneeling and using chairs to write on. There was concentration.
I know I have some attention deficit disorder and have a hard time staying on task. But I wonder how many children could benefit using a padded chair or cushion. Maybe if they weren't trying to get comfortable all the time they could concentrate. What if we provided a comfortable testing venue, would scores rise?
Just a thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment