The Thinking Desk was born out of the Building Thinking Classrooms movement.

It all started when our founder, Mary Vail, read the first of the BTC trifecta, the original orange book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K–12 by Dr. Peter Liljedahl, back in 2021, right in the thick of students returning from the COVID years. Like so many educators, she was searching for ways to reengage students, rebuild collaboration, and get kids thinking again.

After years of working alongside teachers through professional development, helping them revolutionize how students think and understand math, Mary saw a common barrier: the classroom environment itself. Traditional furniture often limits movement, collaboration, and genuine problem-solving.

That realization sparked the idea for The Thinking Desk, a piece of furniture intentionally designed to support the Building Thinking Classrooms framework and make thinking visible, flexible, and dynamic.

Even Peter himself has supported the idea, recognizing the same environmental challenges teachers face every day when trying to build true thinking classrooms.

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