Desks and chairs should not be a problem if they "grow" taller with the child's size

Southern Metropolis Daily

2024-06-05 00:04Published on the official account of Guangdong Southern Metropolis Daily

At present, the average height of children is getting taller and taller, but the desks and chairs in some schools are not "growing". The "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter interviewed and found that due to the lag of the national standard for desks and chairs, there is a phenomenon of "low allocation" of desks and chairs in many places, which invisibly increases the health hazards such as myopia and hunchback. In a middle school, the desks and chairs used in the three grades of the high school are all of the same type, and the height of the desks is about 80 cm, and they cannot be adjusted. In this regard, Xiao, who is 1.9 meters tall, said that the height of the desk and chair is not appropriate, "It is more uncomfortable to sit, the legs are not straight, and the back will be hunched." ”

As a parent of a second-grade student, Xiao is very sympathetic: I am very happy to participate in my child's parent-teacher conference, but the fly in the ointment is that I sit very uncomfortable every time I attend the meeting: in a small space, a pair of feet are cramped and cannot be placed at all. Luckily, I only have to sit for two hours at a time, so it's not hard to imagine how much damage a child's health can take if the desks and chairs are not at the right height.

Many parents may subconsciously feel that students' desks are now adjustable. The reason for this impression may be that the conditions in schools are generally much better than before: not to mention that the height can be adjusted, some desks can be easily transformed, and a simple operation can be turned into a lunch break bed, which can be easily achieved by lying flat. In fact, the desks and chairs in many schools are relatively simple, and they cannot be expanded and contracted at will, or even non-standardized. For example, in 2021, a sample survey of 660 primary and secondary schools in a central province showed that less than 20% of desks and chairs met the requirements of the national standard.

Why are children's desks and chairs low? The current standard was released in 2014, and according to the results of the eighth national student physical fitness and health survey released by the Ministry of Education in 2021, the height of boys and girls has increased to varying degrees compared with 2014, and the increase may be even greater now. It is obviously inappropriate to use the standard of desks and chairs ten years ago to equip today's children with desks and chairs.

In fact, compared with this static standard, the height of desks and chairs is more suitable for scientific standards. Some people in the industry said that to judge whether the height of the desk and chair is in line with the child's height, you can see whether the child's sitting posture meets the "three 90 degrees", that is, the upper arm and the lower arm are 90 degrees, the upper body and thighs are 90 degrees, and the thighs and calves are 90 degrees. But obviously, this gold standard is not known to all schools and teachers, which cannot but be said to be a pity. In addition, if a child is suitable for two adjacent desks and chairs, he should "choose the big one but not the small one", so as to leave room for the child to grow taller.

The problem of standards has been solved, and the problem of adaptation has to be solved. Theoretically, it is naturally the best choice for schools to be equipped with height-adjustable desks and chairs. If the cost is too high, the school can not afford it for a while, mainly fixed-height desks and chairs, supplemented by adjustable height desks and chairs, it is not impossible, the key is to "dynamically match" with the child. If the school is negligent in management and the measures are not refined enough, for example, the interval between the height adjustment of desks and chairs is too long, the purchase of height-adjustable desks and chairs will lose its original meaning.

In reality, the height of desks and chairs in some schools is uniform, which may be due to the pursuit of neatness and beauty. But this mindset should give way to the healthy growth of the child, allowing the height of desks and chairs to be uneven. For schools equipped with adjustable desks and chairs, there are some specific details that may need to be refined and optimized. In my child's school, for example, the desks and chairs in the class are fixed, but their seats are rotated once a week, and the result of "people moving the desks without moving" is that his desks are high and low, and he always has to adapt to them. In fact, desks and chairs are bound to people, and "people and desks move together", isn't it a better choice?

All in all, it shouldn't be a problem to make desks and chairs "grow taller" with your child's size. As long as you ensure a certain amount of investment, pay time and patience, and insist that "every child can sit comfortably" is better than a uniform table height, even if you can't buy adjustable desks and chairs, it will not be difficult to make desks and chairs adapt to your child's height. □ Ink Attack

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