Retired Teacher: Abolish Middle School

[RandySF]

They do a terrible job of educating kids, especially the ones who need it most.

America should do away with middle schools, which are educational wastelands. We need to cut the middle out of middle schools, either by combining them with the guidance and nurturing that children find in elementary school, or with the focus on adult success that we expect from our high schools.

For much as half of middle schools across the country, national statistics show substantial performance gaps, especially in math and reading achievement, between middle school and high school. It’s time to admit that middle school models do not work—instead, they are places where academics stall and languish.

From my experience as an educator for 28 years with the New York City Department of Education, middle schools are rife with academic dysfunction that causes irreparable harm to children in later years, when performance really counts. One challenge is the ill-prepared teacher. Chancellors and school systems have not focused enough on the fact that one can be a great teacher of elementary school, a star high school teacher, but still not be prepared to teach middle school. Too often in middle school the teachers have never received real professional development training to help students succeed in high school. And, more importantly, there is little to no time for teachers to focus on establishing strong relationships with their students, which has a tremendous impact on how students perform in the classroom, particularly for boys. A teacher’s ability to relate to his or her students is not icing on the cake of serious academics—I believe it is the whole cake.

Academic challenges coupled with a student’s emotional development are a recipe for failure. In middle school, hormones rage: kids show up in the principal’s office and burst into tears without knowing why. Peer pressure, more than any other time in students’ lives—pressure directly from classmates and friends or indirectly through pop culture and social media—can be overwhelming. For many students, their only goal is to feel included and accepted by their peers.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/12/why-middle-school-should-be-abolished.html

[orleans]

1. yeah, yeah, yeah. fuck that. i loved junior high. n/t

[Scootaloo]

9. Good for you, I dreaded every day for three years straight.

[minivan2]

26. I only had it for 2 years.

Still want my time back.

[CK_John]

2. I went to school in NYC(Catholic) started in '45 that went from 1st to 8th grade.

Then we went to HS for 4 yrs, never had a middle school and I agree it doesn't seem necessary.

[bhikkhu]

12. Same for me in California

It worked just fine, and I never really saw why you would make kids go to another school for two years. My own daughters never really found their feet there, then it was off to high school. Its a difficult age, and the whole middle school thing just makes it harder.

[cali]

27. Same for me.

[PSPS]

3. I never knew about "middle school" when I was in school. Why the distinction?

When I was growing up, it was grade 1 - 8 in grade school, then 4 years in high school, then college. Where does middle school fit in? If my high school is considered grades 9 - 12, is middle school grades 7 - 9? Is it always the same wherever it exists? I guess I just don't get the whole concept.

[fishwax]

7. the district I grew up in had elementary, middle school, junior high, and high school

It's definitely not the same everywhere, but the middle school model (with middle school usually including 6-8 or 7-9) is, I believe, the most common model nationwide. The most common model used to be the junior high school model, which had k-6 elementary schools, 7-8 (or 7-9) junior high schools, and then high schools. This started taking root in the early 20th century and was the norm for most districts after WWII, until the middle school model started to emerge in the 60s and 70s.

There are other differences between the basic idea of a junior high and a middle school other than the grade ranges. For instance, a common middle school organization has students divided into separate units (they were called "clusters" where I went to school) based around core subjects. So all the students in a given cluster would take math, science, english, and social studies from the same four instructors. For classes outside the core (music, PE, art, etc.) students from different clusters would frequently be in the same classroom. The idea was that the cluster, operating as a smaller community within the bigger school, would provide a smoother transition from the single-classroom elementary experience to the larger pool of high school instructors and classmates.

In my district, it was K-5 in elementary, 6-7 in middle school, 8-9 in junior high, and then 10-12 in high school. But later after I graduated they switched back to a junior high model, with 6 going back to elementary and 7 moving to junior high with the 8th and (I think) 9th graders. Ninth graders could, in most cases, participate in high school athletics and some other extracurricular activities (speech, show choir, etc.) if they were talented enough, even though they didn't go to the same physical school and there was also (for major sports) a separate freshman team.

[Igel]

34. Maturational.

Elementary school kids have one set of behavioral norms.


High school kids are more mature and can handle a bit more work, a bit more independence.


That in-between age is tough. Hormones, sure. But more importantly there are issues of identity: the kid's social identity (male, female; working class, upper class; white, brown, black; sexual identity; what peer group, what interests) and strictly biological factors (early puberty, late puberty, increased musculature, voice changes, body hair).

You don't want the kinds of problems and attitudes that aren't just endemic to that age group but are actively touted by some as *good* (let's explore sexuality, drug use, racial separation and increased boundaries through racial identification, class conflict, etc.) foisted on 2nd and 3rd graders.

You don't want the kinds of immaturity that accompany a lot of those changes exposed to high schoolers. In fact, a lot of schools are separating out 9th graders from 10-12 for these reasons. Lots of 11th and 12th graders rather like having 9th grade girls who are encouraged to explore their sexuality but aren't mature enough to handle it or defend against predation.

So middle school tends to be 6-8 and keep kids in a half-way zone: no more sitting in one or two classes, but you don't mix with all other students in the hall. You're put into very structured "houses" where teams monitor you and your classmates. Junior highs are more like high schools, typically 7-9, and are more like high school but just a bit more structured.


People blame hormones for the achievement gap that develops. It's facile. It's certainly part of it, as the kids' brains go a bit weird, as there's neural pruning and additional cognitive faculties come "on line". By itself that would be manageable.

Part is that students are distracted with all the "identity" issues, and showing that you *won't* comply with demands for homework or be good little children and follow teacher and parental instructions are important. More in some subcultures than in others.

Part is that early childhood interventions lose their effect so that by the end of 4th grade they're almost gone for most students. By the end of 5th grade the achievement gap is showing up. And it roars into full force in grades 6, 7, 8. In other words, part of the "middle school" achievement gap growth spurt is just the effects from home life showing up again in all their glory.

And it's worse now because discipline's taken a big, big hit. Teachers don't have the authority to maintain their own classrooms in many cases. Parents get involved and don't trust teachers; administrators don't back up their employees for all sorts of reasons, and have federal mandates that cause them to be as anti-teacher as the parents. Meanwhile parenting methods that were so horrible and led to all the distortions among young adults in the '30s, '40s, '50s, and even early '60s are gone, leading to the wonderful behavior of young adults we see in the late '60s, and in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Lots of parents don't have control and don't want others to have control, even as schools have gotten larger and kids have been encouraged to form herds with their own unique social structure and peer-values.

[frazzled]

4. I kind of agree (though don't know what the answer is exactly)

My kids both had a phenomenal urban public school education. Except, that is, for junior high (7th and 8th grades, in my kids' case). It was, as this retired teacher says, an educational wasteland. My kids survived, but they could have gotten so much more academically, and they were pretty beaten up emotionally.

I don't know what it was exactly. But I can cite a few of the problems:

1. Putting a bunch of 12- and 13-year-old pubescent kids together in one place seems to be a recipe for disaster.

2. Kids of that age aren't entirely ready for a full schedule of class changes every 50 minutes, on the high-school model. There is very little oversight and little to no coordination among the teachers they see.

3. In my particular case, my kids had come from a K-6 situation in which they had homeroom together with their home-base teacher, and stayed with that group for social studies, art, music, PE, etc. But for reading and math they traveled to teachers assigned to deal with their particular achievement levels. In junior high, everyone was thrown in together, which was neither good for the advanced kids or the kids who were struggling. It was just a big, nothingburger common-demoninator, out of which nobody got much of anything.

4. Junior high sucks.

I guess I would opt for the model that I described in no. 3 above; as well as dividing the students into smaller clusters within the school, with "teams" of teachers from the various disciplines leading each cluster, who meet regularly to conference about their individual students' needs and progress.

Otherwise, just hold your nose and wait for two years. It gets better.

[RandySF]

17. My middle school was a total clusterfuck

The kids ran amok with rampant fighting, bullying and sexual harassment of the female students. Teachers skating by while do doing nothing to control their classes and, when students were actually sent to the office, nothing was done if the offender was someone they gave up on.

[dsc]

5. middle school doesn't have to be bad

but it often isn't done well. Many middle schools now have students going to the same four teachers for major subjects and those teachers can plan together as needed. That can work well but that does leave some problems in that all the kids are hormonal etc.

[roguevalley]

14. kids grow up fast enough. less pressure socially in k to eight, then high school.

I hate middle schools.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, RandySF.

[pnwmom]

8. That's no solution. Hormones will rage in those kids no matter where they go to school.

That's the issue. That's the reason we started middle schools in the first place -- in recognition of the stresses and strains on kids of that age. Neither pretending they are just like elementary kids nor putting them with older students will solve that problem.

[freshwest]

18. It worked well for my generation, but that was a long time ago. It was enough of a shock for many

Last edited Mon Jul 14, 2014, 03:34 AM - Edit history (1)

kids coming out of elementary school. The kids were going through a lot of body changes and didn't need to deal with sexually challenging older students that attended high school.

This was when things were organized and well funded. Rural schools and small private schools did combine more ages within one school, but they had far less students and those kids knew each since childhood.

That was not the case where I went to school. All of the public schools were very large. The local elementary school was on a large campus and most of us didn't know each other very well. Only thing connecting us was school itself.

We were sent off to junior high miles away in a three story building on a large campus. Also all strangers, none of them from the area I grew up in.

Then came going to high school with 8,000 students. It had four floors and many shops and out buidlings. Essentially a small city with strangers.

Parts of the school were not safe to walk alone. You don't put an elementary kid in that environment. But it was the best place to get ready for college, professional, blue and white collar work even military.

The writer of the article is reflecting on his experience which does not apply to all places. Middle school or junior high was set up for the emotional needs and changes of kids from 12 to 15 years of age. By the time they hit 16, they were ready for the older kids to prepare for their adulthood.

Not saying there were not challenges in junior high, but there are a lot of differences between 12 and 18 year olds.

[pnwmom]

19. Wow. 10,000 kids in a high school?

Our assigned middle school had less than 800 and the high school had less than 2000. And we live in a good size city, not some tiny rural town.

[freshwest]

23. Aw crap, I was fact checking and wrote the wrong number. It was only about 8,000 students.

It was called a 4A school because of its size, and there are a number of them half that size now, but some are close to it. They don't let them get that big if they can help it now.

It was overcrowded because we were the Baby Boomers. There were not enough desks and some had to sit in the windsills as the school kept shuffling things about to supply us with furniture and books.

It was beautiful, built in 1936 by the WPA and as I said, like a small city. There wasn't much way to know the other students like smaller schools would be. The urban environment was normal to me.

Later the student body was spread out with two more high schools built nearby. When I graduated two thousand of us had to make a slow run across the stage of the city symphony hall. We didn't get our real diplomas, we handed them back when we went off stage and they used them again for the performance. The real ones were mailed to us later.

The city at that time had a population of 2 million but was expanding at a fast rate then, over 40 years ago. There was a boom as people moved in from the Rust Belt.

It has over 5 million people proper now and was always very aggressive annexing more land. It consists of over 600 square miles urban area with over 10,000 square miles in the metro area. One needs to figure out the square root, it's not THAT big. It does take a while to get around.

It has a lot of land, people, different cultures, businesses, industries, schools and pollution. One never has to leave to get anything wanted. the shopping was much better than the place I live now. I do miss that, and the food choices were a lot better, too.

Yet I left and am now happier for it. Most people that moved there came there for the money. Each time I travel to see friends, I'm blown away as it keeps on growing. Now the metro area has over 6 million people. Never the same, with more new buildings and roads all the time. Really a hassle to go there now.

Anyway, it worked for me. I was glad to grow up there at that point in time. As it's said, 'You can't go home again.'

[pnwmom]

24. 8,000. Still. That's the size of a typical university, not a high school.

Glad you had a good experience.

[cali]

28. it works in lots of places and has worked in lots of places

and reducing kids to raging hormones is not a good way of looking at them.

k-8 has a long successful history.

[pnwmom]

29. The reason school districts switched to middle schools in the first place is because K-8

wasn't working as well for 6th thru 8th graders as it was for younger kids.

Been there, done that.

My husband is about my age and we both went to public schools. His was a Grammar school, grades K - 8. The main thing he remembers from 8th grade is that four of the girls in his class of 32 were pregnant.

There is no magic solution for this age group.

[rpannier]

10. We didn't have middle school when i was young... junior high

In Korea we have middle school (1-6, 7-9, 10-12)
It works pretty well.
I'm not saying the author of the article is wrong
It's hard to compare the US and Korea. 95% of all children in Korean schools are Koreans (no hyphen) and they speak the language fluently.
My kids are a mix of western, Korean and Japanese.
They do alright in school, but it was a real effort when they first came here

[MissB]

11. I don't mind the K-8 model.

Disclaimer: our school district is quite small, about 250 kids in K-8 and 250 in the high school, and our district has very little socio-economic variability.

The K-8 school has self contained classrooms (one teacher, except for things like PE, art, music, foreign language) through 4th grade. Beginning in 5th, they get a team of teachers (math, science, English, social studies, plus the aforementioned art, music, etc). The kids rotate through the classrooms each day. They also get a day planner, so they can start keeping track of projects and assignments. 5/6 and 7/8 have teams of teachers.

I think having a small school allows the staff to really keep an eye on things. The older kids spend a lot of time working with the younger ones, reinforcing a sense of community. Bullying was nearly nonexistent - to the degree that it could be tamped down. Issues that cropped up were used as learning experiences for the whole school community and I watched the administrators keep on top of those issues. And the school celebrated both athletic and academic achievements.

I feel grateful that my kids attended that school from kindergarten on- they didn't just "survive" middle school, they thrived.

[starroute]

13. It's not just how the grades are arranged -- it's also the subjects

In elementary school, we learned the basics. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Reading and writing and spelling and handwriting. Introductions to history and geography and the other countries of the world. Neat science experiments. Stuff that opened our minds to the possibilities of learning.

In high school, we took "real" subjects. Algebra and geometry and calculus. Biology and chemistry and physics. Systematic surveys of American history and world history, with a splash of economics on the side. Reading adult novels and poetry and essays. Foreign languages.

But in between was neither here nor there. In math, I think we spend months learning how to extract square roots -- and the rest was stuff like cutting out paper snowflakes to learn about symmetry. (Well, our eighth grade math teacher taught us some trigonometry, but it was against the regs and he got fired at the end of the year.) In science we drew pictures of leaves. In social studies, we got state and local history and did reports on Indian tribes.

Even when I was twelve, those years struck me as marking time. And when my own kids were that age, it didn't seem to have gotten any better.

On edit: My grandmother dropped out of school after eighth grade, because it was what you did in those days if you were poor -- but she always told me how they were already reading Dickens and other classics in seventh and eighth grade. If they could do it, there's no reason why kids today shouldn't be learning real stuff as well.

[snot]

15. Middle school was hell for me.

I have to think part of the problem is that kids are pretty overwhelmed with the transition from child bodies to adult, new roles and responsibilities, hormones, new kinds of potential relationships with peers, etc.; and their own parents may or may not be well-equipped to help them cope. Just dealing with all of that involves plenty of learning, if not trauma.

It makes sense that teachers might need slightly different skills and/or insight, to pierce that fog with additional kinds of learning.

[Recursion]

16. Montessori said kids that age (11-14 or so) shouldn't be in school. Let them play outside all day.

I have to say I agree.

[Ishoutandscream2]

20. I taught middle school for 10 years

It was the longest 20 years of my life.

[YOHABLO]

21. It has to be the hardest grade level to teach IMO.. personal experience speaking.

Teach more classes on developing social skills .. perhaps we'd have less behavioral problems, less teen pregnancy, less bullying. Teach English, Math, Science and Civics .. the rest on how to treat other people.

[BrotherIvan]

22. K-8 isn't always a great idea because now 7th graders can be huge

I remember seeing sixth graders with mustaches and a huge weight advantage over kids just a year younger. The teachers were happy to promote them because they were dangerous. 7th and 8th graders are basically insane because of hormones. You can smell it in the halls. I did a short stint at middle school and I vowed never ever never again. I had scissors thrown at my head from across the room. Cops called on one student who basically tried to murder another (girls). Constant fights in the halls. Pretending children really learn anything in those years is silly really. And they're too young for high school because the underdeveloped boys are not ready to be beaten up by seniors.

It's a mess and the only answer I can see, and this thread attests to it, is class size. But then again, that is one of the best answers for anything. The article talks about creating a relationship with a student, but that is impossible when you have upwards of 35 students for six periods. These large schools are like jails.

[IkeRepublican]

25. Know what you mean

So that's what that smell is. A close friend and I stopped into our old middle school where we attended roughly 25 years ago and before going in, we were stoked about the nostalgia of seeing our old class rooms and so on. After going in and breathing that shit, it didn't take long for us to remember how terrible the place was and sticking around to check things out was seemingly forgotten. Can't think of anything else that would be such a strong trigger to make us go from wanting to hang around for a while to wanting to get out of the place ASAFP.

The same close friend's daughter attends the same school and she hates it. Asked her one time what she thought of it and she goes, "I can't stand it. The assholes run the place. If you're a troublemaking whiner, they'll defend you. But, if you be quiet and do your work, it's like you're not there."

Her father then says, "They're just preparing you for the work place."

Not the kind of response I'd give a 12 year old female, particularly if she were my daughter...but, you have to admit, he is right.

[BrotherIvan]

35. Pretty funny

What the father said is true for the most part.

Yes, middle school I believe was considered as a kind of holding pen. I enjoyed high school students, especially the older ones. But middle school, no way. I think coach types do well there. Thought I know very proper ladies who do it, but I don't know how. You have to be very, very tough and take no crap. They can smell weakness. Like hyenas. Plus now many kids are having their first sexual experience at that age and I wouldn't want to be in charge of that either.

[Populist_Prole]

40. You can literally smell hormonal activity?

I'm not challenging you, but just curious.

[BrotherIvan]

41. Yes, as the other poster attested

The hallways smelled like a locker room; more than just sweat or BO. It was a closed building, not open air like many of the high schools in Southern California and the teachers discussed it often. Pre-teens have to learn to bathe every day by that time as children don't really smell bad so they may not need to. There is also a current in the air as the kids are literally jumping out of their skin. It's like rutting season for a couple of years as kids grow into larger bodies but their minds haven't grown up. That's why serious testing during these ages of social development are a bit of a joke.

[Populist_Prole]

42. Wow. Interesting

I don't think I noticed it in my middle school ( grade 6-8 ) years but then nobody really notices if they reek either.

[BrotherIvan]

43. Ha!

Yeah, I think so much is going on, it's hard to tell.

[whistler162]

30. Most of the issues he describes

can't be fixed by just renaming a section of the district. How many districts are large enough to need multiple schools to accomodate a large number of students. The two districts I work in, support not edumicator, have three school buildings. K-3, 4-6, and 7-12 with one having the middle school designated in 1/2 of the building. Guess what most of the issues the corporate head/teacher with a forthcoming book mentions still exist. It is up to the Parents, Administrators, and Teachers to actually do their jobs and support the kids through the issues of turning from children to young adults.

[Blue_Adept]

31. Things are so far from cookie cutter...

That there's even no understanding of what qualifies as middle school. regional differences as well when it comes to the structure. Even I was surprised to see someone upthread talk about elementary, middle, junior high and high school breakdowns.

When I went in the mid 80's, we had 1-6, 7-8 and 9-12 in different schools (1-6 was spread across 3 different elementary schools in the town). I hated 7-8 because that's when I suddenly became a social outcast because I wasn't into the popular stuff (which is now, amusingly, hugely popular culture wise) and that stuck with me for years.

I have two kids of my own in the same town now and have for their school career. They changed it over the years. It was 1-5, 6-7 and 8-12 now. The 8th graders got a "trial year" of prepping for high school by doing the HS curriculum and standards but not having the credits count, so they got a chance to experience it, make mistakes and then go into 9th grade properly ready to handle it.

The 6-7 breakout seemed to work well admittedly.

But now we had our middle school rebuilt as the old one from the 60's was in bad shape and needed it - the town voted 99% for the new school, it came in under budget and ahead of schedule. We were thrilled.

The town now lays it out as K-4, 5-7 in the new school where each grade has its own wing, and 8-12 still.

Watching my eldest go through the system has been interesting. She despises most of the kids because they come across with a lot of racism and hate, repeating what their parents say. I play devil's advocate with her a lot to challenge her. But academically, she does really well and is interested in the actual work and dives into it. It's the social situation she hates. But that's part of life.

[Squinch]

32. I agree. K-8 and then high school. The presence of the little kids can sometimes

smooth out the behavior of the middle school aged kids if they are allowed to feel like they are the examples and the leaders.

And if the schools are then too big, open more.

But that costs money, so it'll never happen.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

33. The education I got in middle school was just fine.

The only trouble I had was with bullies in 'gym', and that's nothing that doesn't exist in any other grade, if your gym classes focus on competitive activities rather than cooperative activities. I'm actually glad I had that transitional space to not be around younger or older children.

[Xyzse]

36. I don't think so.

Putting those younger kids in to the same group as High Schoolers just sets up the bullying from elders to the younger.

I can understand changing grade school in to K-8 without a separation of middle school, but setting up little kids to deal with the pressures of those nearing the age of majority just does not make sense to me.

I mean, as a guy, at around 9, I was going against kids at the age of 13. I can't see myself being able to protect myself against a 16 year old.

There is a huge gap physically between 13 and 15.

The problems he is mentioning can be exacerbated when you add middle schoolers in to High School.
Talk about emotional and developmental issues when you're talking about even younger kids having to fend off kids that can be twice or more their size.

Either way, the solution is not found in taking away a transition between grade school to high school.
Yes, you have to get to kids earlier to help them develop, but doesn't that just mean they should invest more in to grade school from K-8 to help them out?

I feel like this purported solution of his is just a method of creating buzz for himself.

[Blue_Adept]

37. Additionally

I'm sure we'll find plenty of funding to basically either demolish and rebuild buildings to do this. Never mind that any sort of policy will be "federal overreach" to what local districts find works best for them.

It's an overreach to be sure. The change that will be coming over time with be more with virtual/telepresence for teaching anyway.

[whistler162]

39. Well I am sure that the company

the article writer is President of would be glad to take over the management!

"David Banks is the President of the Eagle Academy Foundation for Young Men, which operates five public schools in the New York-New Jersey area. Banks, who has spent nearly three decades as an educator, has a book on education reform coming out in September entitled “Soar”."

[LWolf]

38. I've been teaching in K-8 schools

for 20 years now. I sent my own kids through K-8 schools.

They are healthier places for our 6th - 8th graders, to be sure.

While I, too, have little use for traditional middle schools, I don't agree with everything in this article. The "ill prepared teacher," for example, is a bit suspect. It's true that it takes some preparation, since that age is generally the most difficult to teach, to parent, and to grow into and out of. Teachers DO need some training on how best to deal with adolescent developmental needs. Whether or not a district chooses to connect elementary to middle, and middle to high schools in any way, though, is a function of that district. It can be done, and is done in many places.

Some, not all, of the achievement drop noted in the article is because of the developmental changes happening that the author mentions only in passing. They happen anyway, because the brain is going through a pruning and re-organizing process. That process is, of course, exacerbated by the dysfunctional middle school/junior high structure and environment.

My students all have a choice...attend our K-8, or a traditional middle school. A tiny fraction of the incoming freshman class each year comes from our K-8. Yet, among my high school colleagues, our kids are known for being the best prepared to deal with the challenges and stresses of high school. Every year.

A colleague from the nearest regular middle school visited us the last week of school; she toured, observed, and then told me what a breath of fresh air it was to see the positive environment our kids function in, and the things those kids are doing to create and maintain that environment.

All of that said, any structure or system can be implemented well, or implemented badly.