Very little about the American classroom has changed since Laura Ingalls sat in one more than a century ago. In her school, children sat in a rectangular room at rows of desks, a teacher up front. At most American schools, they still do.

Slate magazine's got a contest going on until the end of October. It is asking people to describe or design the ideal fifth-grade classroom for today, This article describes the contest and spends some time critizing the failure to markedly change classroom design.

Education has changed even if the room has not, and if you go into most schools, you are likely to see teachers and students chafing against the rectangle. The 21st-century imperative is to closely monitor students’ individual progress and teach them accordingly. Teachers are supposed to work together to analyze data and coordinate their approaches. Most classes include at least some traditional instruction: one teacher up front, addressing 20 or 30 students. But it is also common for students to work on projects in small groups, for aides to conduct "interventions" with a few kids around a table, and for teachers to assess children one at a time. Where the space has not been modified accordingly--which is to say, most everywhere--you see lots of kids sprawling on cold tile floors and huddling in converted closets. Why haven’t schools evolved the way museums and playgrounds and supermarkets have?