Why Desks?

Why do we sit in desks during class? Is there a rule in the handbook that says we have to? And if there is a rule what’s its purpose? What’s wrong with sitting on the floor or standing or sitting in a beanbag chair?

Some instructors might argue that desks are beneficial for students, but they’re wrong.  I swear these desks must have been used as a form of torture in medieval times because they’re as uncomfortable as anything. In the winter the seats are cold as ice and in the summer they’re sticky as hell making them almost impossible to get off of. And for five classes of 67 minutes students of MHS are forced to surrender their tailbones to these rock-hard contraptions and hunch over the adjoining tabletop that’s all of 2 ½ ft tall as they try to hurriedly take a quiz or jot down notes. And clearly this furniture was not made for all walks of life because anyone over the height of 5’6’’ can’t cross their legs under the desk without whacking a knee on the constraining bars that adjoin the front and side supports.

In addition, the MHS’s school desks are just a plain nuisance for students: They squeak, have graffiti written on them, tilt from side to side when one leg is shorter than the other, and always have at least one piece of gum underneath them. But one of the most annoying things about the desks are that they make students look like fools when they have to stretch across the floor, fingertips extended to maximum length, as they try to grab that eraser that rolled itself down the slanted desk and onto the floor.

So again I ask, what is the point of having us sit in these pieces of furniture that drive us students crazy? Is it just that you teachers enjoy watching us suffer in these instruments of torture?...because if you do then your succeeding. But seriously, why desks? Why the need? Why does a child’s education have to come at the cost of a bad back and a sore bottom?