RICHARD GREEN/THE SALINAS CALIFORNIAN Susan Catalano, right, and Evie Bolante wrote a book on using the ancient Asian practice of feng shui in the classroom.     DETAILS "A Light Touch of Feng Shui" by Susan Catalano and Evie Bolante costs $12.95, and is available at Educational Stuff & Toys Too, 908Þ S. Main St., Salinas. It can also be ordered from www.fengshuiforteachers.com or Perfect Harmony Press, P.O. Box 2796, Salinas 93902-2796. Sales tax and shipping are added to the cost of mail-ordered books.   INFORMATION: 831-261-9239; e-mail perfectharmonypress@msn.com.

Teaching is a difficult business at the best of times, and most teachers are looking for any edge they can get.

Salinas elementary school teachers Susan Catalano and Evie Bolante say they have a new angle for improving the performance of both students and teachers.

The two have taken the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui and applied it to the classroom.

"Susan and I ... found out that when we implemented feng shui, our teaching was better and the kids behaved better," Bolante said in an interview in Catalano's Mission Park Elementary School classroom. "We had an 'aha!' moment -- this is it! Our enthusiasm spread out to other teachers."

The pair has written and self-published a book about their discovery, "A Light Touch of Feng Shui: A Teacher's Guide for Creating Balance and Harmony in the Classroom."

Bolante emphasized that "a light touch" is key to feng shui success in the classroom. Going all-out with aroma therapy and fountains might create distractions for students, and problems for those with asthma. But a light touch of feng shui, the teachers say, can make the difference between a class that is constantly agitated and out of order, and one that is peaceful and industrious.

"It's not a cure-all; it's not magical," Catalano cautioned.

The keys to classroom feng shui are color use and furniture arrangement, the pair says.

The "bagua," a circular diagram, shows what colors and forces correspond to which compass points. Eastern walls should feature green and turquoise, western walls should be white, southern ones red, and northern ones should employ blue or black accents.

Even teachers working within the constraints of an institutional palette can find remedies, Bolante and Catalano say.

"There's a cure for every problem," Bolante said -- including using mirrors to bring color from one side of a room to another.

Some suggestions seem to draw as much from common sense as from feng shui.

Placing the teacher's desk at the farthest point from the door puts it in a power position, and it is best if student desks face the teacher's desk, Bolante and Catalano said.

Catalano said it's important that students are regularly seated side-by-side, not facing one other.

"When you face each other, it's confrontational," she said, while students sitting side by side are more inclined to work in harmony.

"It's part art, part science, part tradition," Bolante said.

Natalie Di Tusa, a first-grade teacher at Mission Park, has embraced the practice with enthusiasm.

"I'm a total believer in it," Di Tusa said. "It's forced me to look at my classroom in a different way. A classroom has more than an academic purpose. It has an artistic, creative purpose, too."