The desks in studies’ classrooms are atrocious and unfit to house the basic needs of students in 2019.

The problem begins when class starts and teachers pass out school work; students must simultaneously begin reading chapters out of their textbook and analyze documents in Schoology. This leaves them to spend more time trying to figure out how they can possibly fit all these vital materials on their desk than actually working on their assignment.

In the end, students must juggle keeping the computer, notebook and textbook on their desks like some sort of elaborate magic trick.

On top of classwork, students must also battle whether or not there’s space for a water bottle or if they should just leave it in their backpack to be forgotten, inevitably leading to their dehydration. There is simply not enough space to fit high schoolers’ belongings on a desk.

When Columbia taxpayers agreed to fund laptops, no one foresaw the physical needs this change to learning materials would incur. Now that we see the cumbersome size of the laptops when balanced on a small student desk, however, it is obvious Columbia Public Schools (CPS) should have asked residents for more funding to grant students the affluence of surface area with modern seating.

The size of a desk in a studies’ room is 16×24 inches, while the size of Meyer’s AP Psychology textbook is 11×9.5 inches; finally, the size of a laptop is 11×8 inches.

The current desks are too small to support both a textbook and laptop. Students must sacrifice one of their vital educational pieces to fit all of their items on their desks.

By the end of the class, students either scramble to organize their papers or have forfeited the idea of being able to do classwork altogether.

Meanwhile, in the science wing, classrooms are gifted with the luxury of adequate surface area. Physics and biology classrooms have the leisure of trapezoid desks, leaving more surface area and the ability to pod up and collaborate with others.

It’s time to trash the trash desks and outfit every classroom with the angelic trapezoidal desks of the science classrooms.

The trapezoid is a simple fix to the microscopic desk problem, which solves the infinite problems of square desks. The new desks allow students to put desks together and create innovative shapes that grant greater surface area, resulting in more of the ever so coveted flat space, in turn bettering their education.

CPS must fund new desks in the studies’ wing. Although there would be a substantial cost associated with this change of furnishings, the district’s primary goal should be to promote quality of education, not keep costs down at the expense of students’ learning.

It’s not fair to the students who want to do classwork but are unable to because they are confined to the small regions of the desks.

For too long students have twiddled their thumbs on the edges of desks that can barely fit a textbook and laptop. It’s time to modernize the high school classroom and reject the antiquated squares. It’s time to accept modernity: the mighty trapezoid.

What do you think of the school’s desks? Let us know in the comments below.