Kindergarten Chairs + Age-Friendly Design Thinking
As an adult, have you returned to your kindergarten classroom?
Did you notice how tiny the chairs felt?
Kindergarten chairs are a great example of Age-Friendly design.
We give kindergartners small chairs because kindergartners are small people, and we don’t ask them to sit in a chair designed for an 18-year-old man about to graduate from high school.
We also don’t ask a 3rd grader to call the mayor and say, “hey — I’m bigger now, can I please have a bigger chair?” We anticipate growth throughout grade school and we use design thinking to provide not just a chair, but a comfortable place to sit. (💡Age-Friendly learning environment!)
Side note: Imagine having to sit all day at your current job in a tiny kindergarten chair. I worked in pediatrics — I’ve done it! Not comfortable. 0/10 do not recommend.
Back to the point: once we graduate from high school, everyone gets their -ADULT- sign hung around their neck and we tell them goodbye and good luck.
We know that 20 is not 40 is not 60 is not 80, just as kindergarten is not 12th grade. At Innovations in Aging Collaborative we work to anticipate change throughout the stages of life and champion Age-Friendly design thinking across sectors so that no older adult has to call the mayor and say they can’t get to a doctor’s appointment because the transportation system is deficient, or they can’t stay in their home because it wasn’t designed with aging in mind.
I know we are capable of Age-Friendly design thinking.
I know this because of the kindergarten chair. We can do better in our communities.
Tell me, as you grow up and grow older, would you rather have a chair, or a comfortable place to sit?