Desk ADD and the Rat Race of Classroom Geography

It's this way, you see: I've had a pretty steady grind of it these last years, working up my social position."
- Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth

Rosedale's description of social climbing might have as much application to the modern classroom as it does to modern socio-economics.  The grind of school on our students leaves them jockeying for the best position; for college and for life.  To what degree is that grind a function of their actual position in our classrooms?  Are the rows of desks and factory-model instruction resulting in the kind of degradation of spirit Wharton skewered with her pen in The House of Mirth?  Are the rows and pseudo-rows a rat race our students must navigate as we did?

I remember my AP Calculus class from high school, where the teacher seated us in rows according to our grade from the previous quarter; Low grade? Front center.  High grade?  Back edges.  Our test results were excellent - many 4s and 5s.  I received a 3 on that particular AP examination, but then again, I was a Front and Center student.  More importantly, the class stands out as one of the worst academic experiences of my life.  Like Rosedale, I worked at a steady grind to achieve even mediocre results.  The quantifiable results were fine, but the qualifiable results were putrid.

Now, as a teacher, I face each day with an old fashioned classroom and rows of desks, seeking progressive solutions with a blend of modern and antiquated tools.  How do I provide an ideal learning environment for my students using the tools and artifacts of the factory-model of education?  Bringing modern technology into the space is helpful, as laptops and an interactive projector allow me to teach creatively.  Still, I ponder the best use of the physical space.

I have tried rows, horseshoes, circles, and tables.  I have even ordered desks into two converging lines to mimic Seminary Ridge and Cemetery Ridge while teaching The Killer Angels.  One student recently remarked that I must have "Desk ADD".  Many students yearn for the familiar routines, even when they are producing sub-par learning experiences.  Better something familiar and known than unfamiliar and unknown, regardless of the good or bad of the results.

Examples abound of non-traditional classrooms, such as this example from Aiken, South Carolina.  Unfortunately, most of the examples I have found are for elementary school classrooms.  Are secondary schools consigned to be a place to grind away, a destination students dread because their creativity and individuality must be sacrificed at the altar of "success"?

Technology has opened avenues for 24/7 learning that had not previously existed.  In fact, progressive educators such as Shelley Blake-Plock predict that traditional brick-and-mortar learning centers will become obsolete by 2020.  In the meantime, I find myself trolling the web thirsty for solutions, using tools such as this Classroom Architect, in an effort to match my pedagogical vision with the physical realities of my classroom, hopeful that successful and bright teachers will stumble in to offer sagely advice or powerful tools...if only they aren't stuck in the rat race.