Friday, June 01, 2012

Front And Center

Your classroom seat matters.

When teachers don’t assign seating but rather allow students to take their own seats in class, where is the best place to sit?

The answer is clear and simple: the front row, center seat!

Students who sit in front near the center see better, hear better, are better seen and heard by the teacher, are less distracted, and generally have a more focused, higher quality academic experience than those sitting in the back rows. Furthermore, teachers automatically give extra notice and respect to those students interested enough in what they are teaching to choose to sit up front day after day. Students who sit in front generally care more about the class they’re in (or soon begin to), and this extra measure of commitment adds to all the other benefits to produce a real and distinct advantage for these students.

Although sitting in the back of the room may be more fun, socially, it’s the worst place to be if your main goal is to succeed in school.

A lot more extraneous talking goes on in back of the room. It’s a lot easier to be distracted. It’s harder for the teacher to see your hand raised to ask an important question. You can’t see or hear as well. It’s harder to “get into” and feel interest in the class. And, unconsciously, by sitting in the back of the room you’re telling yourself and your teacher that you don’t care much about this particular course, that you’re not really “going for it.”

Make an effort to sit in one of the front rows (the very front row, if possible), at or near the center, in every session of every class in which you can choose your own seat.

It makes a big difference!

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