{"id":129,"date":"2007-01-04T17:47:38","date_gmt":"2007-01-04T21:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=129"},"modified":"2008-08-05T11:46:50","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T15:46:50","slug":"life-in-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=129","title":{"rendered":"Life in middle school"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times has an interesting article up kicking off a series about education in middle school<\/a>. I agree that there can be very real difficulties in trying to reach these students. I have two kids in middle school and I’ve noticed a dramatic difference in both of them since entering middle school.<\/p>\n

My daughter was always a decent student in elementary, but in middle school her grades literally plummeted. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking Ds and Fs here. Social life and worrying about her appearance took priority over academics. I can see the truth in the article\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observation that these kids don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u201dprobably can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthink past tomorrow. My girl can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see past her next phone call. I know that most of her problems are self imposed, but not all of them. Recently, the girl was threatened by a much bigger boy and then slapped hard across the face by him! She actually temporarily lost hearing in one ear it was so hard. What did the teacher do? He referred them both to the office.<\/p>\n

My son complains that his math class is so rowdy that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t concentrate on the schoolwork, and that the teacher is spending more time lion taming than teaching. My son is very easy going and makes friends everywhere he goes, but to our surprise he has yet to make any friends this his first year of middle school.<\/p>\n

Throughout elementary school we as parents felt we had a good grasp of what was going on in the school concerning our kids. But then the jump to middle school left us very much in the dark. Teachers leave it up to the kids to communicate back to the parents, but they, of course, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. My wife and I found that we have to make extra effort to get into contact with all the teachers our kids have and try to maintain a link with them. Otherwise, we have no idea what the heck is going on. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a culture shock for the kids and for us.<\/p>\n

It seems that middle school tries to treat kids as more mature and better able to handle themselves than elementary school, and so gives them more responsibility and freedom. From what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen, that is a huge mistake. If anything, the kids need tighter controls at least during the first year or two. I would like to know more about single-sex classrooms as that concept seems promising. I know my daughter is way too distracted by boys and the time wasting antics that involves. I also like the idea of middle school students sticking with just a few teachers, possibly making it easier for parents to establish and maintain an overview of what the kids are up to.<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

Sit in with a seventh-grade science class at Seth Low, a cavernous Brooklyn middle school, as paper balls fly and pens are flicked from desk to desk.<\/p>\n

A girl is caught with a note and quickly tears it up, blushing, as her classmates chant, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Read it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the sight of which sends a cluster of boys into a fit of giggles and anatomical jokes.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the roughest, toughest, hardest thing to teach,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ms. Lowrie said of middle school. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll go home and feel disappointed with what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try a different tactic the next day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As for the nutcracker, she sighed, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I should have used a stapler.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The most recent results of math and reading tests given to students in all 50 states showed that between 1999 and 2004, elementary school students made solid gains in reading and math, while middle school students made smaller gains in math and stagnated in reading.<\/p>\n

In New York State, grade-by-grade testing conducted for the first time last year showed that in rich and poor districts alike, reading scores plunge from the fifth to sixth grade, when most students move to middle school, and continue to decline through eighth grade. The pattern is increasingly seen as a critical impediment to tackling early high school dropout rates as well as the achievement gap separating black and white students.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get them hooked into school here, by the time they leave they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re gone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Barry M. Fein, the principal of Seth Low.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Mr. Fein spent a recent evening counseling a student who had used a blunt kitchen knife to slash her face and arms: Her wavering self-esteem, it seemed, had ebbed to a low after two friends went out to lunch at McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s without her.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You handle stuff like that and you go, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcO.K., now you want me to raise test scores?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really think past tomorrow.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times has an interesting article up kicking off a series about education in middle school. I agree that there can be very real difficulties in trying to reach these students. I have two kids in middle school … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-25","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1230,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1230","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":0},"title":"3rd Annual science education fundraiser LAUNCH!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"3rd Annual science education fundraiser LAUNCH! Friday, October 1, 2010 Florida Citizens for Science News Release Contact: Brandon Haught; bhaught@flascience.org \u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d FLORIDA SCIENCE EDUCATION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT Oct. 1, 2010 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Education budget woes felt throughout the state are preventing many teachers from obtaining necessary science equipment, thus crippling them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raising $ for classrooms"","block_context":{"text":"Raising $ for classrooms","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1102,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1102","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":1},"title":"2nd Annual science education fundraiser LAUNCH!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science News Release Contact: Brandon Haught; bhaught@flascience.org \u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d FLORIDA SCIENCE EDUCATION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT Aug. 7, 2009 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Education budget woes felt throughout the state are preventing many teachers from obtaining necessary science equipment, thus crippling them at a time when a new set of science standards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raising $ for classrooms"","block_context":{"text":"Raising $ for classrooms","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1342,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1342","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":2},"title":"Dissections","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Cottle wrote on his blog about an ABC news report focused on a push to reduce dissections in schools, replacing them with virtual dissections. There is a Florida connection here. A company is working hard to get its particular dissection program into schools and hooked at least one Florida\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1342#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2162,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2162","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":3},"title":"This & That 7\/3\/14","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"-- College Won't Accept Graduate Because School Is Not Accredited \"A teen from southwest Miami-Dade County just graduated from high school a few weeks ago, but she has discovered her diploma isn't valid. [...] The 18-year-old spent the past two years taking classes at Il Savior Academy. But when she\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 11 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 11 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2162#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1636,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1636","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":4},"title":"Florida, we have a problem","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to be a teacher. Not now and most likely not anytime soon. I have my college degree in biology education. I have my teacher certification in biology and middle school math, too. All I need to do is apply for jobs. 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