When you think about academic success and culture at a school as rigorous as Townsend Harris, the last thing you might think about is furniture. But in reality, a school’s environment has a profound effect on the high school experience and the variety of furniture options in and out of the classrooms at THHS have many stories to tell.
The most significant piece of furniture in a school is the student desk. This is where learning happens, and at THHS, there are individual desks, tables, computer labs tables and more.
After three full years of classes, senior Katherine Giler knows what she doesn’t like. “The desks in the computer labs are the worst […] they barely give you any space to write and depending on the class, you might not even use the computer,” she said. “For one of my English classes we never used the computers and only ever had class discussions but no one could ever see each other because of the desks. It made it harder to interact with new people. “
However, the more triangular desks provide quite the opposite experience for her: “They’re nice because you can see and talk to people. [They offer] a lot of space to write with, and it has a creative shape and is built in order for people to interact with each other. Especially in math I need to talk to and work with others. “
Sophomore Kristen Lee said, “My favorite type of desk is the one with the connected arm because I get to rest my arm on it so it makes it very comfortable.”
She continued, “My least favorite desk would probably be the rectangular desk with the connecting chairs because I cannot adjust my seat in class.”
In addition to these traditional kinds of classroom furniture, certain spaces have different options.
Room 410 is treated as a sanctuary for students due to its array of cozy and somewhat unconventional seating including couches, bean bags, and even diner booths.
It turns out the diner booths have a quite rich backstory.
English teacher Kevin McDonaugh said that he and Mr. Sweeney traveled to upstate New York just to pick them up.
“I got a text from Mr. Sweeney in the middle of the summer asking if I was interested in a madcap adventure,” Mr. McDonaugh said. The two then went on a road trip up to Red Hook, NY to pick up the diner booths from someone who was turning part of his home into a 50s style diner. He had extra booths and was selling some of them.
But the biggest issue was fitting the booths into a car. Since they determined the booths wouldn’t fit, Mr. Sweeney rented a small truck from Home Depot. “Mr. Sweeney showed up in a big van and confessed to feeling that our lives might be in danger if he drove it,” Mr. McDonaugh said. “Fortunately, I had experience driving trucks and large vans with limited sight, so I drove us up there.”
They returned with the booths and set them up in 410.
The couch in room 434 has a similar story. AP Seminar teacher Francis McCaughey said, “Within my own teaching, I like to make the spaces beautiful, a place my students like being in. So, Ms. Sardiña and I have had this project for the past two years being the Capstone teachers of trying to, like, pump up that room a little bit. […] Ms. Sardiña found a couch at a place that basically gives furniture away, in particular to New York City teachers, so we made a plan to go get it,” he said. They picked it up on last year’s Keepers Day. The couch was about 200 pounds and 8 feet long, and it barely fit in Mr. McCaughey’s car. “It took up so much space in my car that Ms. Sardiña had to lay across the couch on the way back, so like she was on the LIE but I was driving safely with my hazards on,” Mr. McCaughey said. They took pictures while picking up the couch and hung them next to the couch in 434.
Both teachers shared the sentiment that making classrooms more comfortable for students is a priority for them.
Beyond planning seating for students, teachers also need a place to stay when not teaching. The teacher’s desk is another big part of school furniture.
Teachers’ desks in their offices offer them a chance to recharge so they stay at their best throughout the day.
“My favorite desk is the one in 116 that I come to early in the morning, every single day. When I first come in after my commute and still feeling groggy…it’s nice to center myself while the school is quiet and nobody is here,” Mr. McDonaugh said.
But the desks are more than a place to unwind. They are also museums that hold artifacts from teachers’ lives both inside and out of school. Mr. McDonaugh continued: “[My office desk is] populated with things I’ve accumulated over the years like Italian Staplers as gifts from people, little mini potatoes trapped in resin on fake easels, representative of a joke that Ms. Lipinski played on me probably about four years ago. And then there’s a collection on the wall of things that people have given me over the years. It’s become this nice cozy place where I can work and feel somewhat at home.”
For Science teacher Ms. Lynch, her desk right now doesn’t make much of a difference to her work day, but she’s working on changing that, “I aspire to make my desk more inviting and functional; I’d like it to be a place for me to relax and be productive. A pothos plant, which I specifically propagated for my desk, will be my next decoration, along with pretty postcards from my travels.”
