“All teachers should read this” is the comment of a friend to the article Marthe Reed forwarded to Facebook:
Teacher spends two days as a student and is shocked at what she learned
The same Marthe Reed, a longtime friend of mine, writes: “Some potent insights from the other side of the desk”. I find that Valerie Strauss, the author, is fundamentally right, although her “notes” might not be easy to implement, seen the limited timetable that constrains us, the teachers, into fixed patterns.
What do you think?
(c) Anny Ballardini
MarcellinEspresso 
I think teachers should motivate students to practice a sport or do some exercise. It is very important to exercise a lot because we, as students, are in a phase where our body is changing. It is very hard to sit most of the morning and listen to the teacher. Sometimes this is very boring and we get tired. Not only in school this is the case but also at home.
After school the students go home and do their homework. After finishing their homework they watch TV or lay in bed, listen to music or read a book because they are so tired.
This was a very good experiment and I hope that in future some things will change!
I think this was a very interesting experiment. Of course students have to work a lot, but they also learn very much. I think it’s very difficulte to lighten the lessons and in the same time to learn as much as they learn now.
For me this was an intresting experiment that I think all Teachers should do. It is very hard to sit down for hours and listen to a teacher, sometimes it can also be very boring. this is why i think that the ideas this teacher has should be followed by all the schools, to help students be more fit also in the last hours.
I think this experiment will be useful and interesting for teachers and may lead to a change of the lessons in the future.
It could be useful to make it clear to teachers who make mistakes and how to improve them.
As a student, I think that during the lesson we will have to move a little more and not always be seated.
Personally, I think that this experiment is really fantastic! It’s a good solution expecially in our school, because we have 7 hours of school, and of course we are at school to learn, but it’s really difficult to sit 7 hours and listen to the teacher explaining. After a couple of hours we are tired, and so we start to chat with our friends. But the school doesn’t finish when the bell rings at 14.00 o’clock, because we have to go home and continue to study and do our homeworks, so we don’t really have time for our hobbies and our friends.
I think that the teachers demand more than a couple of years ago from the students, so I really hope that something changes, and that they consider another solution.
I agree with the author of the newspaper article because the students pass many hours, sitting in the classroom listening to the teacher. That’s difficult and sometimes we need a break!
Just like the most part of the students said, I also think that this is a very good, interesting and and a very efficient experiment that is well-analysed in order to show how students deal with their school life, and make possible that new ideas of how to make less boring and tiring the lessons come up, in order to try to create new methods of practising the lessons in more active ways, so that those can attract even more the students and make more interesting and pleasant the time of listening to lessons..
” High school students sit passively and listen for approximately 90 percent of their classes “.
Students spend nearly seven hours sitting .
I think this also affects a lot the attention of students .
I found this article very interesting , I think that all teachers should read it .
I thought that every teacher should read it.Because it opens the eyes about a world that they ignore.And the vision of a student is also important,because he must learn and to learn he needs good teaches.
To understand what students feel, all the teachers should also do a short experience like this.
They could finally feel the same world from another point of view.
Do teachers know what students go through? No, but now a teacher that stayed at school like a student, thinks what we as student, think.
This, in my opinion, is a very interesting article. I, as student, i would suggest to make more debates and more discussions, to involve more the class during the lesson.
All teachers should do this experiment, or at least read the article. The students life is hard. Every day we have to sit down for many hours and listen to the teachers. After a couple of hours I have to take notes, because, if I don´t , I start thinking about other things. Then, at home we have to do our homework, so we have to sit down again and it isn´t simple to concentrate after a long school day.. Of course everyone has also his activities, for example sports..but the time that we dedicate to this activities insn´t very much. Sometimes we get stressed, because we finish our homework late in the evening and then we have to get up early in the morning.
I think this teacher has been very brave to carry out this experiment because i think that teacher don’t remember their own student’s life. I agree with this teacher, students at high school don’t talk but can’t listent to everything.
I work hard all the lessons but it is difficult and when I go back to the boarding school I would like only to sleep. I think that it is very difficult, and all the student share this, to pay attention at all times
I think that this was an excellent experiment, because it can change a lot of thing in the school system. It is also very important for us student to do a lot of moving-excercise because otherwise our concentration fell down during the day. I hope that other teacher would do this experiment and change other things in the school.
In my opinion it is very appreciable the effort and the courage of this teacher of taking the initiative to do this project. That’s because I think that the teaching methods are basic for student’s learning. This experiment was very original and the results were very stimulating because it’s very important to make the lesson pleasant and less boring, so that all the students can be active during the classes.
Finally someone understand our problem at school… it can change a lot of things in the school system.
It a very nice experiment. I think that is important for all the students, becouse otherside is very difficult to take attenctions at the lessons. I hope that all the Teachers would do it, becouse now no one do it. Seven hours for me are a lot and often I get distracted ( I look out of the window or chat or I do everything but not listening at the lessons) but with two minuts of streching it can be better.
I think that this teacher is one of the best teachers ever! She has been very brave because I think some teachers give the students a lot of homework but they don’t think that the students have a life and how is their life. A student’s life is quite boring becauseduring the day 6 of 24 they sit down on a chair! I think with five minuts of streching every hour it can be better. I think the idea about the reading period is a great idea because the students can ask all that they would like to ask. I agree with the sentence: “teachers work hard but students work harder” because the teachers plan the lessons and correct the homework but students so their homework, study and they do not have a day off every week.
This is a beautiful article, and the teacher Alexis Wiggings is a great person who loves her work and her students. It’s rare find a teacher who become students for two days. For me, it’s true that students after school are stressed and it’ true also we have to sit down for many hours! It’s difficult to not speak with our friends during the lessons, but for me go to school is better than to work. When we’ll finish school, and we’ll start to work, we will wont return to go to school. For students the only thing that they have to do, is go to school, so, we can’t be stressed for this. Today, there are many students who have to go to the psychologist…this is not correct and normal! How did our grandparents do? At that time there weren’t psychologists and teenagers were less stressed. Why? For me, the school wasn’t so important and so hard like today. The solutions finded from Alexis Wiggings are relly good, but I think they will be realised in a future.