Feng shui for school classrooms?

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki

Detroit Free Press

That accidental find, she said, led to an experiment in improving student achievement and classroom behavior.

Feng shui is the unconventional belief that the use of key elements arranged properly in a room will create a positive and encouraging environment.

Students who are not distracted by too much visual and mental clutter — which often is the result of heavily decorated classrooms — have more time to focus on their lessons and will enjoy being in school, Woody said.

Woody is putting her art skills to work as she incorporates the elements of feng shui.

For example, the south wall, according to feng shui, is for recognition and fame, so Woody will use it to display student art on a big red triangle. The color red is important for enthusiasm and energy.

On the north wall, the color blue, a soothing color, represents success and achievement. It will be used to highlight the successes such as student of the week.

"If the classroom environment comes first, learning and behavior will follow," Woody said. "This is an area that is neglected in many classrooms."

Educational experts also say classrooms affect learning.

When asked about a feng shui classroom, however, Zumsteg chuckled. "I really don't know enough about it to comment on it."

But Woody found research that backs it up. A 2007 book, "Comprehensive Classroom Management: Creating Communities of Support and Solving Problems" (Allyn and Bacon, 2007), found that well-arranged classrooms could decrease the amount of time teachers spend on classroom organization from the usual 35 percent to 40 percent, to about 15 percent, leaving more time for teaching.

Woody said her feng shui experiment has caused a certain amount of skepticism and teasing.

"She came to me and said, 'I'm looking to do this so I can make the classroom peaceful and harmonious,'" Fields said, brushing off the thought as simply an art teacher's creative methods.

Now that Woody's feng shui room is taking shape, he's rethinking his skepticism.

"The room looks great," Fields said. "It's very calming. You walk in and it's kind of peaceful and I think it'll be a nice experience for the kids."

Feng shui aside, Fields agreed with Woody that classroom environment is a key element of student success.

"The environment that any teacher or school provides for a student is basically the first step on their road to success, or failure," Fields said. "When you give them the environment where they can be productive, they'll live up to that expectation."