Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Pearson presentation TODAY: outing ADHD fakers

Honestly, blackcat, that arrangement sounds like a recipe for distraction for about the bottom half of kids in that age group-- just from a normal development standpoint.

What is the teacher THINKING??

I don't know, but so far my kids (4th grade and kindergarten) have been in exactly this arrangement for every class in elementary school, both public and private. So she may not be "thinking" at all - just doing what everyone else does.

Also-- fwtxmom's executive summary of the neurobiology and neuropharmacology is not entirely correct, nuanced, or complete-- from my perspective as a neuroscientist with a great deal of experience IN that particular dopaminergic system, I mean.

I don't want her to feel attacked, though-- and truthfully, her assertions are not nearly so inaccurate as many I've seen over the years--

so I'm keeping my mouth shut and not deconstructing the post. But I do want to be clear that my lack of response does NOT signify complete agreement with that summary.

I've posted it upstream and previously for those who are interested, though, and I'm not likely to change anyone's mind by belaboring the points.

(truly not trying to be hurtful or argumentative about this point)

Well, I guess it's fine if all you expect of "school" is social learning. Maybe that's it.

Yup. If I could I would home school but I can't so my kids get public school and day care. It is not ideal but it is life now. I should have emphasised i was a childof the70's in NZ so probably comparitive to the 50's in the US. And a lot of stuff has changed for the better just not that bit (although not having the option to work was pretty bad).

Just out of curiousity what would an American say (in case I visit), mundane things like that are not covered in TV programmes. Also that sort of question is probably common to many such forms in many countries.

and that sort of seating arrangement is the norm here. When we were kids our desks were in rows with spaces. You could poke your neighbour or anything without attracting attention. The main reason for the change seems to be it looks less old fashioned and more friendly to visiting parents and it makes it easier to share limited resources. I once watched kids do handwriting in a table for six kids - one of them was jiggling the table and preventing the others from writing properly. The teacher couldn't see from where she was. Another classroom I was in didn't have seating for all the kids, half of them sat on the floor with lapdesks for handwriting. A little difficult for the teacher who probably didn't supervise the one where she was required to crouch down ad much as the others. Our senior school (year 5/6) have just got "a modern learning environment". Ds6s teacher reckons it will suit him because he will be able to move round more, lounge on beanbags etc. I think half the kids will spend half their time moving around getting distracted but we will see. I need my own space so it would drive me crazy.

A metal shopping container with wheels is a "cart" in most of North America, but can be a "basket" in some regions.

That is a great question.

For the cultural differences in uses of the word "trolley", I believe the American expression in this context would be "cart" or "shopping cart". As in ... "someone physically unable to push a shopping cart."

To many Americans, a trolley is a mode of transportation. One might hear the terms trolley, trolley bus, trolley car, or cable car. Here is one of many possible links with pictures: http://www.cablecarclassics.com/

Often there may also be local differences in word usage. As an example: in some areas a carbonated soft drink is "soda", in other areas, "pop".

Hope this helps.

This is great, it shows she is being creative and also working in a problem-solving mode.


Excellent point, this type of desk arrangement is said to be for cooperative/collaborative work.

There have been studies on various desk arrangements including rows, clusters, circles/horseshoes(semi-circle or "U"), each for different purposes. You may wish to use a search engine to find examples of studies.

Way off the original topic, but DS' classroom is arranged in groups of four and it seems to be working quite well. The teacher also does a great deal of differentiated teaching, so my guess is that this arrangement makes it easier to go work with a small group without moving kids to another area of the room. She does rearrange kids every so often, which has me wondering what prompts the change (one boy is almost always with DS, but the others have varied).