Standing Room Only
Charleston is on the forefront of learning, and it doesn't involve testing or medication
BY RACHAEL BUCKINGHAM
Down the long, drafty corridor of the shuttered section of Burke Middle School is Dave Spurlock’s office. Filled with multiple dry-erase boards, exercise balls and filling cabinets, Surplock’s desk lies in the right-hand corner, piled high with books and papers. The air conditioner clicks on, and the room quickly turns into an ice house.
“The cold helps me think better,” yells Spurlock over the humming AC. Spurlock is the director of physical education and health for the Charleston County School District. He is the visionary behind a major movement here in Charleston, quite literally and figuratively.
Spurlock started studying physical education nine years ago and soon became interested in the connection between fitness, education and children. One day he came across a study that showed that adults who are physically fit are usually mentally fit as well. That started him thinking: Is a child who is physically fit also mentally fit, so that they are better behaved and do better academically? After studying the issue with doctors and researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Spurlock was convinced to the point that he created what he calls a brain room, designed to keep children moving while they’re learning.
The first brain room consisted of a classroom filled with workout equipment and television monitors. The teacher created a lesson plan that appeared on the TV screens, and the children rotated from workout station to workout station, moving and learning.
The feedback from this experiment was so positive that Spurlock decided to completely transform the traditional classroom. He removed all the desks and chairs and replaced them with desks that have bike peddles underneath. With these “kinesthetic desks,” the classroom changed from a room where children sit motionless all day to one where they are always in motion.
Thermal brain images showed the difference between kids who were exercising in class and those who were not. “We asked teachers, ‘Would you rather teach to this nice comatose brain or this lively brain,’” says Spurlock. Teachers responded positively. One of the first teachers to sign on was Pinckney Elementary School teacher Stacey Shoecraft, who raised money to put kinesthetic desks in her classroom. Noting the improvements in her students, she says with a laugh, “It is really a no brainer.”
Watching the children hop-scotching while doing multiplication or balancing on a teeter-totter while doing site-words is quite amazing. The children are visibly
IMAGES COURTESY OF DR. CHUCK HILLMAN, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
These are two thermal images of the brains of children taking a test. The right brain is a student who was asked to walk a mile and then sit down to take a test. The left brain is a child who was just asked to take the test without walking beforehand.
happier and more active in their schoolwork. While the wheels turn in their heads, the children have smiles on their faces.
Fortunately, this new concept is spreading, not just across Charleston but across the entire nation. “This is becoming a point of emphasis for most schools,” says Spurlock. “It is novel at first blush, but when the educators look
at the science behind it, then it becomes, “Oh, I want those!”
Today, Spurlock’s brain rooms are in many schools across Charleston. He believes they will be widespread around the country within 15 years. When asked if there is ever any negative pushback when introduced to educators, he says, “No. Teachers get it. They want it [because] it works.”