I was expecting a rich mahogany desk with curves like a beautiful woman.
I envisioned a fireplace in the corner, with chuckling charcoal jumping out at quiet moments. You know, No.1-Community-College-in-the-Country kind of things.
Instead, I was greeted by plastic. Cold, awkward, twisted plastic chairs.
Strangely, I kind of liked it.
The college is inviting students to try out a five different models of classroom desks and long tables under consideration for future purchases. Student input will be solicited until May 2, when administrators will make their decisions about what we will sit in for the years to come.
My introduction to the new single desks and tables took me off guard. They are incredibly futuristic looking, yet at the start as uncomfortable as City College’s current marked-up furniture. But I started to sink into them over the course of time that I sat there.
In that moment of judgment, when I had to decide whether I liked the desk, I discovered the reclining back; the basket for books with a neat, little hole design; and the dangerous, swinging nature of the front desk. I didn’t care much for the cold plastic parts but I loved that the desk was one mobile unit—with a detachable whiteboard!
And get this: They even have wheels.
They move, they swivel, and they’re are quick to scoot around the classroom. And they smell new. What a success! It’s a computer desk and computer chair combined into one wheeled unit.
I essentially saw all of my classroom childhood dreams come true when I sat in this new furniture. At last, I can use the white board without the teacher’s permission to draw excellent pictures, and I can now swivel frantically across the room or in circles whenever the professor leaves.
It’s an elementary school dream, but our instructors keep telling us that we’re young, so we might as well embrace it.
With that being said, the introduction of the new classroom furniture will be an excellent addition to our classrooms—and to our creative energy. The accessibility of other students in the classroom and the environmentally savvy whiteboards are two highlighting characteristics that our current furniture lacks.
Professors will be able to make better use of the limited space in the classroom and eliminate the awful screeching noise when we move their desks to do group projects.
City College is about to witness one of two things from the students: (a) total takeover of the classroom via wheeled chairs and breakneck desks or (b) a communal setting in which the students are given the resources they deserve that will only enhance their creative curiosity.
But we all know what the real question is: How soon can we get those wheels?
