TIME NOTICE: This article was written by a student in the Journalism Fundamentals class in the 2024-2025 school year and may not reflect the most current information of the date of publication.
If you walk into Gough Great Room at 3 p.m. on a Friday for Honors Forum, you’re sure to find several students working on a craft during the lecture. Knitting, crocheting and bracelet-making are some of the crafts that students engage in. With mesmerizing ease, balls of yarn become hats, scarves, cup holders and more as students listen intently to the lecture. On the surface, it may seem like a hobby, but to many who do it, it is a tool for learning.
Students in classrooms everywhere can benefit from learning tools, especially those who require additional support. Research from the Adolescent Wellness Academy shows that one in five teens between ages 12-18 live with a mental disability, and a Healthy Minds Survey found that the same goes for 60% of college students. As these students recover from lasting COVID-19 effects and return to in-person classroom settings, they struggle to stay focused in their classes. Crafting projects can help. Other students have taken note and picked up a craft in class as well, opening the conversation about disability tools in classroom settings.
“I find crocheting or knitting really helpful in seminar-style classes,” Eastern University junior Frankie Bolen said. “I have ADHD, so I tend to get distracted or zone out in class if I’m not doing something with my hands. In my lecture classes I can focus on taking notes, but in classes that are more discussion-based, it’s really helpful for me to do something kind of mindless with my hands.” Bolen initially learned crocheting when she was younger to help with her handwriting and fine motor skills, which can apply to anyone.
“I take a lot of discussion-based classes, and for me it can be hard to fully engage and keep up with conversation if I’m left to my own devices,” Eastern University sophomore Hannah Gerber said. “My ADHD lets me be distracted easily, which is why bringing embroidery to classes helped me participate more in classes.”
Across the board, the consensus among the crafting students is that it helps them to stay focused in classes where they struggle to take notes. Even students without ADHD talked about using their crafts to help them focus, sometimes even outside of classroom settings. Disability-friendly classrooms are not exclusive; in many cases, their creative solutions are just as beneficial to other students as well.
“Integrated and disability-friendly classrooms anticipate differences by planning ahead to be welcoming to students with a variety of disabilities and learning differences,” Dr. Amy Richards, author of “Disability in Classical Education,” said. “Such classrooms are designed with things like sensory sensitivity, need for clear structure and repeated directions and need for frequent movement in mind,”
“For example, we might intentionally build movement into our lesson plans and let space for movement influence our classroom arrangements out of consideration for a student with ADHD, who simply cannot sit still for long periods of time,” she continued. “Further, we might choose movements that activate the vagus nerve and cross the midline to serve a student with ASD who might need help with regulating emotional responses. Such design features will help, as all students could use help in regulating themselves and learning techniques for doing so.”
“ I think [students] are probably experiencing that K-12 has taught everybody to come into college with a sit straight, look at the board mentality,” Lori Dziedziak, Director of the Office of Disability and Access at Eastern University, said. “We don’t have classrooms that say, ‘It’s okay for you to stand up in the back of the classroom. It’s okay for you to leave whenever you want. It’s okay for you to pull out a snack.’”
The hope from everyone is that classrooms can be environments where students can learn how to learn, not just stay quiet.
“I think what is key about learning is that you take ownership of what works and doesn’t work for you,” Dziedziak said. “ Time and time again, I will see students not understand their learning style, and they’ve been given an IEP, a 504, a note from their doctor that they don’t understand, and they’ll be sitting here going ‘I was told to come to you and get accommodations.’ And it’s like, well, do you know why? I wish that people were more willing to say ‘I want to find out what’s going on with me’ versus just letting somebody who’s got a degree on the wall tell you ‘This is what is going on with you.’”
Eastern students Ella Curcuruto and Rosemary Finegan have both taken the lead on figuring out what will help them best learn in the classroom. Communicating with their professors has allowed them to find solutions that work for both them and their professors.
“I’ve been working away at my little projects in class since high school,” Curcuruto said. “I haven’t encountered any troubles with crocheting in class, but I think this is because I am an English major in the honors college. The classes are pretty chill, or at least amenable to creativity.”
“[My teachers] are generally friendly [about crocheting], as long as what I am doing does not disrupt anything. To avoid possible disruptions, I try to keep my crochet projects small when I bring them to class. I choose balls of yarn small enough to fit in a small tote, if not my main backpack,” Finegan said.
“I genuinely think that an understanding of disability in light of our understanding of the human person is the beginning of welcoming students with disabilities and learning differences,” Richards said. “Techniques for inclusion or welcoming– the how of being disability friendly– must be grounded in an adequate why in order to be effective. Becoming aware of our models of disability and what role we see it playing in the human story is crucial.”
Crafting in class is a creative tool that reaches the unique needs of creative, individual beings. While medication like Adderall is necessary and helpful to millions of people, using it as the means of focus in a classroom misses out on the opportunity to help a student use their creativity to learn in way that best suits their mind.
“I think if more students with disabilities or those who have trouble paying attention in class knew that crafts are an option to help them not be as distracted, then they would really excel in their classes,” Gerber said. “I also think a key part in making this more widespread is making sure that professors are aware and understand that this is not distracting; it’s actually helpful.”
If nothing else, the friends of such crafting students are sure to benefit greatly. Gerber, Bolen, and Finegan shared that a large majority of their projects are given away as gifts to friends and family.
“If anyone wants a beanie or something, tell them to hit me up with their favorite colors,” Curcuruto said. “I’d be happy to make one while listening to my professor talk about Beowulf or Chaucer!”