Three thousand one hundred hours is the total time on average spent throughout a student’s high school career. All of these hours are spent sitting down and learning about numerous subjects while sitting inert in a desk chair, one would hope that it is comfortable. At Saint Viator High School, a large majority of the classrooms have received brand new desks and chairs. The old desks had connecting chairs with a foot rest, which was a feature adored by many students, but the chair itself was deemed uncomfortable by many
“I like the arch support of the chair but I can’t crack my back or stretch as easily,”said freshman Michael Milano. The new desk chairs have a flexible back portion that allows for rocking the chair without having to get the legs off the floor, which is a frequent issue with four-legged chairs. The new chairs also promote better posture due to their lower lumbar support which upholds the lower back better than the previous inflexible ones.
Junior Ethan Duval commented on the size of the chairs stating that he “[has] much more room to spread out my stuff and stay more organized”. Some remarks have additionally been made on the lack of the basket below the chairs which many students previously used as foot rests, these features are still able to be found in some science classrooms but are otherwise not present in the Saint Viator classroom environment.

Teachers, however, have different perspectives on the chairs and their versatility in a classroom environment.
Spanish teacher Mr. Kurt Paprocki ’00, received the chairs before the other teachers and described how the chairs are improving the way students are learning. He mentioned that while experimenting with the layout, he arranges the desks in a 2 x 3 x 2 layout, which “provides for simple paired discussion and small group collaboration”.
The new desks are being largely appreciated in the classroom and are sure to benefit the students’ 3,100 hours to use them.