that crushing feeling

Is it just me or are classrooms getting smaller?

I've just spent an hour in a 20ft by 10ft box teaching thirty kids. It amazed me that they all managed to fit themselves in, they are obviously well practiced. The difficulty arose when the 6ft teacher tried to move around the room to see how they were getting on with the work. It's easier to climb Slemish than it was to scale the mountain range of school bags and PE kits piled high between the desks.

Ten minutes into the lesson I noticed another problem - the heat. The radiators were on full and there was no way to control them. That, along with the combined body temperatures of thirty post-PE teens soon made the room unbearably hot - even with the windows open.

And don't get me started on the smell!