Sit Down in the Lunchroom!

I was standing in the middle of the lunchroom, having an extremely regular conversation with a young man, it went as follows.

Me - "I need you to take a seat. This is probably the third time I've asked."

Scholar - "Why do I need to sit down?"

Me - "Look around. Your classmates are sitting down, you should too."

~ I heard myself loud and clear in that moment.

Scholar - "But I'm not everybody else. And I have been sitting all morning."

Me - "Okay. That's fair. Please stay by your table and make sure before you leave to take up your tray."

How often do we as adults go to an event where someone offers us a seat and we decline because "we have been sitting all day"? In fact, most adults have the luxury to work in offices where standing throughout the day is a part of the job. There are places that purchase standing desks for their employees just to make sure they have that option. Many people who work in metropolitan areas are accustomed to "walking lunches", where they find the best food truck in the area and eat while standing.

I know for a fact that I spend more time on my feet, moving around my building then I do sitting on my backside in my office. Furthermore, if I was asked to take a job where the expectation was to sit for hours on end I would lose my mind.

But then I look at our cafeteria. I'm sure that it looks similar to yours. The long tables with round plastic seats. The seats that have far too little space in between them, and they give you zero room to find comfort in your personal bubble. Even the tables themselves are pushed together end to end to conserve space and to tuck in as many kids as we can. And to the scholars back is just another row of the same thing, creating even less space for that scholar.

I sat down today in one of those seats and imagined myself as a 7th-grader. Even if I factor in the height difference (which isn't much!), I would be uncomfortable in that seat and would not have been happy to give up my own personal space. Additionally, I would struggle to sit in one spot and not move or engage in the conversations my middle school brain is crying out for.

Yet... Here I was, asking another 7th-grade scholar to go back, sit down, decrease the size of his personal bubble, and remove himself from possible social interactions in the cafeteria.

So what if we created a lunchroom with flexible seating, and didn't require scholars to sit down throughout the time in that space.

There has been a growing movement to rethink and redesign libraries to make them more inviting and ensure they are spaces scholars want to be. Schools have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove dusty old bookshelves and replace them with TVs, flexible seating, and multiple spaces to convene meetings.

An entire Twitter feed is dedicated to #Starbucksmyclassroom, encouraging teachers to reinvent how their classrooms look and to create more inviting and comfortable spaces. Loads of teachers have ditched the desks and went for couches, recliners, bean bag chairs, and more!

So why not in the lunchroom?

Our scholars are being asked to sit for far too long, and much too often. We are asking them to restrain their physical needs for an unfair amount of time. And the one setting in which social interaction can and should be encouraged is yet another space where scholar voice and need is often silenced. 

So - I approached my principal and made a pitch, "we need to have flexible seating in our building". My hope is that by this time next year our lunchroom looks and feels different. That we as a building are able to recognize the needs of our scholars and make a change in one of the most social settings they have all day!

The next time you ask a scholar to "sit down", ask yourself if them being in a seat is required for them to complete whatever task it is that you may have for them.