Class Clowns Beware

I read this news teaser and initially thought it was something from Jay Leno. But, seeing it was the The Times of London, I clicked ahead and discovered the follow:

A British teacher who developed a classroom chair that can't be rocked onto its rear legs already has received orders from 18 schools in the three weeks since launching the product. "It seems that it's a problem that touches everyone," inventor Tom Wates said. "For me, this started out as a way of combating the irritation of the children rocking. But at nearly every school I've been to teachers relate a story about an injury. It is a danger issue."

I have vivid memories of one or more of my more colorful classmates rocking in their chairs when I was in seventh and eighth grades. In prior years we had those one-piece "prison desks" that couldn't be turned over without a forklift. The adult versions of those student desks were used in my high school. When I eventually started working in public schools, I was a bit amazed to find the separation of chair and desk. In all my years observing students, I saw quite a few take a tumble. And yes, it just about always the student I was there to observe.

Anyway the problem is now solved by simply arching the legs of the chair. Class clowns on both sides of the Atlantic will now need to find a new way to create a distraction. Read the whole article in the Times

~John Brandt