Ask any teacher 鈥� teaching Grade 8 or 9 is a tough gig. Here you are with 30 kids; some of the girls are 13 to 14 years old going on 25, who in some cultures would be raising families. Then there are the boys who are, well, 13- to 14-year-old boys.
As one teacher told me: 鈥淭he girls get a fresh shipment of attitude every day and the boys are just confused.鈥�
Challenging enough for a teacher, but consider psychological research that describes kids at this age as displaying a wide range of individual intellectual development while their minds experience transition from the concrete-manipulatory stage to the capacity for abstract thought.
And that鈥檚 just part of what is going on in their heads.
From the neck down, they are experiencing, along with rampant hormones, accelerated physical development, increases in weight, height and muscular strength, all at the same time and at different rates.
Understanding that this requires something more than the timetable-driven course dis-integration of junior high schools, many school districts in B.C. now include middle-school configurations of classes between Grades 6 and 9.
There鈥檚 a sudden shift from an elementary-school classroom where, most often, a single Grade 6 or 7 teacher understands the 鈥渨hole child,鈥� to a junior-high setup where kids may meet as many as eight or 10 teachers in their Grade 8 year. This is difficult for kids who are often erratic and inconsistent in their behaviours while they are experiencing chemical and hormonal imbalances.
Thomas S. Dickinson of Indiana State University, who edited Reinventing the Middle School, expressed concern that 鈥渃ontemporary schools are stuck in a state of 鈥榓rrested development,鈥� failing to implement the original concept of middle schools to varying degrees.鈥�
That is pretty strong stuff, and other educators have expressed concern about whether middle schools are a boon or a bust when it comes to the kind of achievement measured by standardized tests scores.
And then there are schools that carry the middle-school denomination on the sign outside the building, but that have not been able to implement a middle-school philosophy of integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum, flexible schedules, exploratory options and advisory groups inside the building.
I still remember the reaction back in the 1970s when, as an inexperienced and na茂ve junior high school vice-principal of a large high school, I tentatively suggested that, given the many commonalities between history, geography and literature taught in Grade 8, maybe a single teacher could teach it all, thereby reducing the number of teachers and expectations for kids fresh out of elementary school.
I was patiently told by one long-time Grade 8 teacher: 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 understand, Geoff 鈥� I am a Grade 8 geography teacher, a specialist.鈥�
Any common ground at all between maths and science?
Apparently not.
But now there are some local school districts 鈥� Saanich, for example 鈥� that do understand the value of cross-referencing core subjects to enhance deeper learning.
Saanich School District currently has three middle schools with Grades 6 to 8 and, according to assistant superintendent Mark Fraser, is integrating core curriculum at the Grade 6 level, then moving to two 鈥渃ore鈥� teachers at Grade 8 as the kids get ready for the move to secondary school.
There are schools like those in Bluewater in southwestern Ontario, where teachers literally have used scissors to cut up the topics from the relevant curriculum documents and then clustered them into cross-disciplinary concepts.
Chemistry, physics, biology, the environment, power, sustainability, technology, geography, current events and even literature turned out to be covering much of the same ground, albeit from different and sometimes conflicting points of view.
Kids began to understand that this is not a dis-integrated world. Knowledge in one area does relate to knowledge in other areas as well.
Students reported that they found learning was easier and 鈥渕ade sense.鈥�
Making sense is an important key to learning for many kids for whom, by the time they reach 14, are in the process of discovering a world that sometimes does not make much sense to them at all.
It has been said, and wisely so, that early adolescents sometimes have their feet on the gas pedal before their brakes have been fully installed.
Good middle schools can help smooth that awkward gear shift between elementary-class childhood and the confusion and demands of high-school adolescence for kids who are quite busy just growing up.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
