A question

So, if I needed to raise a few thousand dollars for desks for my synagogue’s religious school, do you think I could manage it here?

My class next year will have fifteen students. I don’t like the whole “round table” idea of teaching to begin with. I think you have more of a classroom experience when you have children in desks. I believe that it’s a large part of the current problem of the students calling public school “real school” (a practice which will get them negatives after a warning from me) when referring to it during religious school. (That’s usually after I tell them to sit down and get away from my desk, and ask them if they’re allowed to get up without permission in public school. “No, in real school we have to–” “WHAT?” “I mean public school!”)

I think that my class would do much better in the kind of learning environment they’re used to in public school. I am tired of telling my students to get their butts back in their chairs. I really don’t think that’s going to be a problem if they’re in a chair-desk.

The thing is, they’re expensive. All of the models I saw run about $75-$100 per desk, and we’d need about 40 of them. I couldn’t find any kind of used school seller online that was much cheaper.

Perhaps some of my readers might know of a source of less expensive desks. I’d need two sizes, the middle and large sizes, for the age range we’re thinking of (third to seventh grade). Not all of the teachers want desks, but I was thinking it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a few extra for when they change their minds.

I can tell you right now that my synagogue board will say no if we ask for the funds. They’re currently going through some kind of financial thing and have been cutting back everywhere. But they can’t say no if I can raise the money elsewhere. And I suspect it would be tax-deductible if paid directly to the synagogue.

Anyway. I’m just wondering if anyone out there has any ideas.