Have you’ve ever thought that sitting too much behind your desk for eight hours in the day might be the root cause of your lethargy in class? Well, it is.

Although other factors make students tired, sitting is a prominent one. Stand up desks will greatly benefit students at Regina. Standing up more during your day will give you a boost of energy, change your mood positively, help you stay focused, and even allowing your brain to function better, resulting in an overall healthier lifestyle.

According to standupkids.org, “Kids at standing desks burn between 15% to 25% more calories during the school day than the ones who remained sitting.”

Your body is built to stand and move around. Staying stationary doesn’t encourage movement. Currently, many schools and daily office jobs require lots of sitting. During school, the only time students normally stand up is during passing periods with a heavy bag, which is also not too healthy. Think about it, as you spend your day sitting, it becomes a bad habit.

According to educator Murat Dalkilinç on an education Ted talk, sitting damages the backbone. Generally a student sits with a curved back giving pressure on the spine causing wear and tear. Overall, sitting for long hours puts strain on muscles, shrinks chest cavity while making it harder to breathe. As a result, joints and ligaments are overworking. Moreover, your brain is designed to gain oxygen from your lungs allowing your brain to be more alert.

Generically speaking, sitting isn’t bad. The standing desk provides a stool as well, to use from time to time. However, too much sitting can cause many problems in the future like: cancer, heart disease, and kidney or liver problems according to an article in the Harvard Medical Hospital publication. Your body needs to sit but not as much as it needs to stand.

Likewise, this article mentions that your body is built for standing. You are a human organism composed of 360 joints and 700 skeletal muscles that allow fluid motion. Your elastic skin molds to the motions you make. Also, the nerve cells benefit from movement.

According to, standupkids.org, the following is a list of the results after the use of stand up desks:
1. Kids in standing classrooms are more engaged.
2. Classroom management is easier.
3. Children feel happier when they can move more and aren’t restricted to a chair.
4. Classroom behavior improves with active learning.
5. Children who move more have greater creativity.
6. Educational test scores improve.

Students who are standing up actively participate in class room activities and exhibit more energy than the average sitting student. In addition to using standing desks, I think teachers should incorporate more hands on/active ways of learning to encourage blood flow. Based on the study mentioned above, students would become better students. As a community, we should invest in materials that will save our bodies from negative outcomes of sitting.

Including standing desks at Regina will set a more learning friendly environment for students. Stand up desks may seem like a small adjustment, but will end up greatly benefiting students and their overall performance in school. Let Regina be one of the first few high schools to incorporate this life changing desk.