Week 1: What is this middle school thing about?
This โmiddle school thingโ is about so much more than just giving instructions to middle school-aged students. There are so many cogs and parts to middle level education, that teaching is more like balancing one hundred items while also playing twenty questions. Ken McEwin states that while the passion for educating middle level students is important, it is not enough to provide a successful education to students. It is also necessary to be aware of all the moving parts involved in middle childhood education, including but not limited to the social, physical, academic, and emotional needs of students.ย
Middle schoolers are at a very intense biological crossroads, they are no longer considered children, but they are also not yet adults. They are often treated like one or the other, when in reality, they should be given a specialized education that caters to their social, emotional, biological, and academic needs.Dr. William Alexander is the person who saw a need for a specialized education for this group of students and deemed it necessary to create a separate schooling system for them. The middle school was created amidst the civil rights, desegregation, and womenโs rights movements, when the country was feeling the weight of the baby boom and desegregation of schools. Along with middle childhood aged research growing in popularity, the focus began to shift to this unique group of students and their social. emotional. physical, and academic necessities.ย
As a middle schooler, I felt like a lot of my education was too slow. I happened to be an accelerated learner, and I didnโt feel like I was thriving because my teachers were catering to the needs of the struggling learners. While this is very important, this led me to feel less important than those around me. I wasnโt challenged or catered to, therefore I didnโt feel cared for. Teachers should remember, ESPECIALLY in the middle grades, that differentiation is key to making students feeling both cared for and appropriately challenged while there is a vast array of classroom capabilities. New research on 4th-9th grade students, as well as an remembrance of personal experience (for both myself and other middle childhood majors) will allow for better informed and more passionate future educators.ย
As a teacher, I hope to always remember that middle schoolers and middle school educators are vitally important to the world. Without middle schoolers, there would be no up-and-coming adults, no bridge to adulthood, complex thoughts, and higher order thinking. Likewise without middle school educators, there would be no one to cater to this amazingly wonderful, unique group of students in a time they are changing most. I hope that I will always remember the pleasure it is for me to be a middle school educator, and that I always remember that middle school matters.
