Instead of stinking up in class, an Atlanta elementary school teacher wants kids to head over to a corner and let ‘em rip in a designated area.
Candy Sydney-Browning, who teaches at Dobbs Elementary School and goes by @chokola___ on TikTok, created a designated corner in her classroom where students can quietly excuse themselves, handle their business, spray some air freshener, and return to their seats — no hand-raising required. She’s gone viral for her solution that takes the spectacle out of flatulence in class.
The concept was born out of realizing how the children she taught treated passing gas.
“Over the past three years, I noticed that my students were shockingly and extremely comfortable with passing gas in front of one another. When I say in front of one another, that also means, on one another,” Broussard said to People. “They would fart in their desks while doing assignments, while sharpening pencils, when doing collaborative work, while walking around the classroom looking for a laptop, etc.”
“I slowly began to respect the fact that 9-and-10 year-olds were bold enough to normalize tooting and refused to allow their stomachs to hurt, which in the long run can cause digestive issues,” she added.
The system runs on the honor system. Students slip away without a word, use the air freshener kept nearby, and rejoin the lesson. “Because it is normalized within this generation, it is not embarrassing from what I have seen,” Broussard said. “They simply go to the corner, handle their business, spray their choice of air freshener and go back to what they were previously doing.”
This is actually Sydney-Browning's second lap with the idea. She first ran a "gas station" setup while teaching 1st grade, then brought it back after looping up with the same cohort to 2nd grade.
