Children have a natural desire to move around, yet they are forced to sit still in the classroom for several hours every day. Many children want to escape this situation. They swing on their chairs and cannot concentrate and are often labelled as fidgeters.
Standing on the soft, springy mat uses muscles from your head right down to your toes in order to maintain a natural, upright posture. It is not possible to adopt a stooped posture at a standing desk, as can happen when sitting. Studies have shown that when combined with learning tasks, this gentle swaying movement increases children’s intelligence and creativity and helps relieve stress.
The following schools use kybun
An increasing number of schools and further education providers are discovering the benefits of the kybun philosophy for learning. Here is a selection of references:
- Wil Grammar School, Switzerland
- Gossau Sixth-form College, Switzerland
- Kirchstrasse Primary School, Niederuzwil, Switzerland
- Special Education School, Winterthur, Switzerland
- New City School St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Merkmal! - School, Baden, Switzerland
- Neumark Secondary School, Sachsen, Germany
- Migros Club School, Switzerland
- Goethe Secondary School, Austria
- Benedict Schools, in St. Gallen, Zurich, Lucerne and Bern, Switzerland
- Birgitz Primary School, Tirol, Switzerland
- Straßlach Primary School, Bavaria, Germany
- Falkschule School in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Romanshorn Speech Development School, Switzerland
- Romanshorn Grammar School, Switzerland
- Zil Sixth-form College, St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, Germany
- Amriswil School, Switzerland
- SBW Primaria Primary School, St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Georg Büchner Secondary School, Seelze, Germany
- Hospital School, Zwickau, Germany
- Montessori School Mainbogen, Mühlheim am Mainz, Germany
- Albert Schweitzer Special Educational School, Dresden, Germany
Media reports on the standing classroom:
- BILD Newspaper: ‘1. Schulklasse ohne Stühle’ (The first classroom without chairs)
- TeleZüri television channel: ‘Lernen im Stehen’ (Learn while standing)
- BLICK newspaper: ‘Sie stehen auf die Schule’ (Looking forward to going to school)
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Hessian Broadcasting Coorporation: ‘Besser lernen im Stand’ (Standing improves learning) MPG (2.5 MB) - TV report: ‘Hintergründe zum Klassenzimmer ohne Stühle’ (The story behind the classroom without chairs)
- Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper: ‘Besser lernen aus dem Stand’ (Standing improves learning)
- Freie Presse newspaper: ‘Experten loben Stehpulte in deutschem Klassenzimmer’ (Experts praise standing desks in German classroom)
- BRAVO magazine: ‘Was Schüler über's kybun Klassenzimmer sagen’ (What pupils have to say about the kybun classroom)
