Let the children move - Moving around - Articles about Education

In some schools the children move from room to room between classes, while the teachers stay in one room. In other schools the teachers move from room to room while the children stay in one place. Which is a better, more effective, more efficient, and wiser way to run the system?

Clearly, it is better to have the children move. Some teachers are near to retirement age. It may be difficult for them to climb several flights of stairs and to fight their way through the children in the hallways. Yes, this is the case even if the children don't go from room to room. They somehow fill up the hallways between classes even if they are supposed to be in class at that time. We won't go into the reason for that, however.

The teachers on the other hand, should not move. They need quiet time for themselves between classes,

to relax quietly,

to take notes on the previous lesson,

to review the plan for the lesson that they are about to face,

to supervise the material on the walls to assure that it is not defaced or removed by children,

they can keep all of their class materials instead of carrying around heavy bags

language teachers and arts and crafts and science teachers will appreciate the fact that they do not have to carry around the heavy and bulky materials that they bring to school.

In other words, there are numerous advantages to a system in which the children move to classes and not the teachers. The advantages of having the teachers move are very small indeed in contrast to this.

Those schools in which the teachers move around should reconsider their policy.

Those teachers who do need to move around between classes, can be given hall duty, or they can decide for themselves how to make the most of their breaks. They can make that decision so that it does not affect those teachers who do feel a need to move around between classes.