There are many different types of Middle school ideas, there are schools that range from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade and the completion of school as a minor. Others have Kindergarten through 8th grade which is still a somewhat popular approach that some schools take. Other ways they do it are K-5 and then middle school or Junior High is 6th grade through 8th grade followed by high school, 9th grade through 12th grade. My personal experience was that I had "Junior High" and it helped to prepare me more for high school. You get to learn and experience the changing of classes with 'passing periods' and you learn how to dress in locker rooms for physical education as well as sports. Another big factor for having middle schools is a size factor. It helps to keep the schools less crowded if their are fewer students and having a middle school helps to separate all of the students so that the teachers can have more one on one time with their students. "Regardless of the grade span of their schools, most principals identified master of subject matter and basic skills as the most important goals at their institutions." While that is important, there are so many other reasons that children should attend school. There is, for example, so the social aspect of learning how to associate and communicate with other children and people.
When I tell people that I teach literature to junior high students, the response is nearly universal: an expression of profound sympathy. Teaching junior high is regarded as a martyr's job, to be taken on only by those with such a selfless commitment to children and education that they are willing to endure the daily torture of a classroom full of obnoxious, disrespectful, hormone-driven, teenagers who have nothing but contempt for learning.
One can see the basis for this view by looking at the state of most junior high schools today. A recent New York Times article about the problem of "chaotic middle schools" describes a scene from a typical New York City classroom:
...paper balls fly and pens are flicked from desk to desk. A girl is caught with a note and quickly tears it up, blushing, as her classmates chant, "Read it!" The teacher, Laura Lowrie, tries to demonstrate simple machines by pulling from a box a hammer, a pencil sharpener and then, to her instant remorse, a nutcracker--the sight of which sends a cluster of boys into a fit of giggles and anatomical jokes.
Is this sort of behavior an inevitable stage of development, the curse of the teenage years? Does puberty cause children to abandon the pursuit of knowledge in favor of spitballs, love notes, and dirty jokes? Must all junior high teachers be candidates for sainthood?
Not in my experience.
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4900
Life In Junior High, Part 1
by Lisa VanDamme (January 22, 2007)
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