WACO, Texas — One student at Lake Air Montessori School in Waco is changing the way a traditional classroom looks.
Tayeson Estelle presented the idea to his teacher Eileen Kowalski last year and ever since she has helped him to see his vision come to fruition.
Today Kowalski's room looks more like a home, with an orange couch, medicine balls and barstools taking the place of traditional seating arrangements.
"It feels nice that people can maybe learn better because of the seating," Estelle said.
The response to the new seating has been pretty positive so far.
Kowalski said it helps with fidgeting and gives students a variety of choices when it comes to how they enjoy their lessons.
"Some kids even stand," she said.
She uses the couch as an incentive for some students as well.
Estelle was able to get this furniture into the classroom through fundraising on his own and in the school.
Kowalski said Estelle was able to learn a lot of new financial skills to even learning how to barter with people.
The orange couch he was able to acquire for the class was originally $150 and he was able to get it down to $100.
From learning financial responsibility to changing lessons in the classroom, bringing in the flexible seating has helped Kowalski's students overall.
One study shows that a shift like this to flexible seating has proven to contribute to the development of certain personal skills like self-reliance, self regulation and problem-solving.
Kowalski and Estelle said there's a chance seating like this could go farther than one classroom in the future.