The playground can be a lonely, isolating place for a kid. Christian Bucks, a second grade student at Roundtown Elementary in York, Penn., had the incredible foresight to create a space that would alleviate that problem: the buddy bench.
It’s basically a social network in real life: Kids can sit together and share ideas, or talk about their problems, and it breaks up the cliques that can often form in school and isolate other kids, or lead to bullying. According to the York Daily Record, the bench is meant to “grow our dream circle of friends.”
That a pretty enlightened outlook for a second grader. Bucks first heard about the idea from his father, Justin, after he noticed a school in Germany used a buddy bench. Christian thought he could apply the design to his school, and ran the idea by his principal, who agreed, ordered the bench, and let him pick out the colors.
Bucks also gave a digital presentation to his classmates, explaining the many uses for the bench. Then, his story started spreading around Facebook and Twitter.
The buddy bench concept has been implemented at other schools already, mostly across the pond. This school in Singapore recently tweeted a photo of their new buddy bench. But we’ll likely see more in the States, especially after Bucks was featured on the Today show yesterday, and got the Lauer bump.
Photo via Kindergarten 1AC/Twitter
