In some areas, many schools have been retrofitted or rebuilt with only one tiny window per classroom, and the desks arrayed with the window behind the students.

In some areas, many schools have been retrofitted or rebuilt with only one tiny window per classroom, and the desks arrayed with the window behind the students. Aside from energy efficiency, the usual rationalisation I've received is that students being able to see out the windows makes it "too difficult" for the teachers. To me, this seems like trying to making the entire environment more boring than the already-boring lesson/teacher in the vain hope that this will lead to magical goodness. Anecdata: I had almost exclusively schools with huge walls of windows, and the 'distraction' of the outside world was all that made some of my lessons bearable. Mind-numbing boredom is not a paved road to teaching me and getting me to retain much. I definitely observed and received correction for excessive distraction sometimes. This also happened in classrooms that had no interesting views. For me, the more dull and utilitarian the classroom, the more likely I'll spend the class time reading ahead in the literature book, writing about other topics in my notebook, or drawing. Trying to "remove distractions" instead of livening up the course material may be…pessimal.