We all know that sitting too much is bad for our heath and waistlines. Standing desks have become a popular way to combat America’s sitting epidemic. And now they’ve become part of a movement to get school kids more active…
Vallecito Elementary in Northern California recently ditched the traditional school desks in favor of taller desks that allow students to stand and move around while they learn. They also have stools to sit on when they feel like it.
Taking A Stand For Better Education
The results so far have been great. The students report having more energy and being able to focus better, and the teachers have fewer disruptions to deal with. Now, many are pushing to have similar programs adopted nationwide.
Stand Up Kids, the organization backing Vallecito Elementary’s move to standing desks, has made it their mission to get kids moving all across the country.
The average U.S. student is sitting an average of 4.5 hours/day at school and (for kids ages 8-18) an additional 7 plus hours/day in front of a screen, regardless of socioeconomic status. Combine that with time spent doing homework, sitting at the dinner table, and driving to and from school, and our kids are spending nearly 85% of their waking hours in sedentary positions.
The problem is so bad that medical experts now equate sitting with smoking, saying that sitting as little as two hours continuously increases risk for heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, back and neck pain (among other orthopedic problems) and will literally shorten your life, just like smoking.It turns out that tacking on regular exercise (soccer practice, gymnastics class, etc.) to an otherwise sedentary life doesn’t overcome the negative effects of too much sitting. Accordingly, we must create ways for children to be continually moving more throughout the day.
Hopefully this is the start of a trend that will lead to more active and healthier children everywhere.
