wrong chair and its effect on students' behavior and performance

One of my strategies to understand people better is putting my self in their situation especially when "misbehavior" concerns from students are raised to me by the members of my team. For me, there is a deeper reason why kids "misbehave".

A teacher approached me and told me that she has a student who keeps on standing, sitting on the floor and doing his work on it. He constantly fidgets and complains whenever he is asked to write on his notes. She said that she exerted "all" her efforts to find out what is the problem but she met a dead end.

Determined to find out the cause of this student's "misbehavior", I observed the student and noticed that he's left handed. So I sat on a chair for the left-handed (I'm right-handed) and it made me feel so uncomfortable so I started to fidget from occasional to constant. So I told the teacher that maybe the child is not comfortable with his right-hand chair. She immediately asked the student to use a left-hand chair and his behavior improved, his performance improved, he's more concentrated and writes better.

My conclusion: we really can't just say a child has an "attitude", there is really a reason why they act the way they do. We should be observant and reflective before we react and judge kids (even adults).

I just feel sorry for the left handed kids in the public schools and in some private schools who have to endure the right hand chairs daily. I hope school administrators and even some gov't schools supply officers do something to help these kids because these can lead to medical concerns. This may also be a factor why these kids fidget, constantly stands or doesn't want to write on their notebooks. This may also lead to poor academic performance because prolong sitting on a wrong chair will definitely make a person uncomfortable thus concentration will be lesser because your body is too stressed to focus on your studies and is trying to endure a pain especially in the spine.

Giving a student an appropriate chair will help the child and the teacher achieve that teacher-learner balance. The student will be comfortable and more relaxed thus will be more focused and performance ready.

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