How important is classroom decoration?

For a relative newcomer, in my terms anyway, Pinterest has made quite an impact on the world, particularly on the world of the classroom.

If you’re in doubt, just Google ‘Pinterest classroom’. Your search will bring up hundreds, indeed thousands, of ‘best’ classroom décor ideas.

Decorating classrooms seems to be the thing of the moment. It would be easy to believe that an elaborately decorated classroom is of greatest importance to teachers today. While we always did it (decorated our classrooms), we didn’t share and compare on social media. How could we? Social media didn’t exist. Oh, horrors! Really? Really. Pinterest is not only new to this century. It’s new to this decade, and the sharing phenomenon isn’t exclusive to Pinterest.

Concerns about harmful effects of social media messages on young, and not-so-young, people’s body image are often expressed. I wonder if there may be similar harmful effects of these…