Middle school. The very words make people cringe, and send almost all of us back to one of the strangest times of our lives. Middle school is itself the awkward transition between elementary school and high school, and middle schoolers are the awkward transition between children and teenagers. It is a time in our lives when we are trying our hardest to cement our reputations with our peers, prove to ourselves and others that we are more mature than those little elementary schoolers, and start to think about the future and what’s going to happen in the rest of our lives.
Despite the overwhelming awkwardness of the middle school experience, I still think that it’s a crucial time in our lives and, in my opinion, is very important in setting the tone for high school and eventually college. Middle school is when we’re figuring out what to do with ourselves and we are experiencing the changes in our bodies on a daily basis. The changes that we experience in middle school effect who we become in the future, and that’s not something that should be understated. I made more new and lasting friendships in middle school than I did in 4 years of high school, and my group of friends from middle school still has a group chat that we talk in every day.
I apologize for focusing so much on the social aspect of middle school, but to me that was honestly one of the most important parts of it. School is always about more than just what happens in the classroom, and in middle school I feel like this was even truer. During middle school we lose recess, and the focus shifts away from running around with everyone in your class and more about figuring out who you’re going to sit with at lunch. Middle school is when we look at high school as the only future that matters and we are desperate to get there as fast as possible. Once we reach middle school, we are constantly forced to grow up and are reminded and even reprimanded if we don’t. Teachers harp on about how much harder everything will be in high school, parents remind us that we’re teenagers and need to act our age, and peers judge us for being immature.
Despite all of the social pressures, though, academics are still an important part of the middle school experience, though they are essentially little more than preparation for high school. Middle school, in my mind, is to high school what kindergarten is to elementary school. It’s a time to get used to the new environment and get an introduction to what you’ll be experiencing over the next few years of your life. And though this may seem like I’m criticizing middle school, that’s not the way I mean it at all. Middle school, like kindergarten, is essential. Kids at those early teenage years are broadening their horizons more than ever before. Young teens start experimenting with relationships, drugs, and alcohol, the world becomes less focused on their families and more on their friends, and they are going through physical changes faster than any other point in their lives. During this time, it is very important that the academic load remains light. The function of middle school academics is not to be harder than anything a student has ever experienced, but to place an emphasis on learning material and building a strong framework before moving on to high school.
However, just because the academic load in middle school is fairly easy, it is the first time in a student’s life that it starts to matter and become noticeable. There were times in middle school, albeit only when several major projects were due, that I would spend two or three hours a night homework. That slow ramp up of work and responsibility and self-management, makes students feel like real students who need to study, do homework, and get good grades. Furthermore, middle school is really the first time when those grades start to matter. Obviously, the grades you get in middle school won’t show up on your transcript and can’t really have any impact more significant than whether or not you’re placed into honors math in 9th grade. But, as I mentioned, the grades aren’t really about the transcript. They’re about adjusting to a new system where grades do matter, and taking middle school lightly can lead to a precedent of apathy that lingers for the rest of a student’s high school career. I’m not suggesting that every teenager should stop hanging out with their friends and playing sports so that they can cram for a test, but if you don’t start taking grades seriously in middle school, then it’s going to be harder and harder for you to take grades seriously and achieve the scores you want later in life.
Middle school is awkward, and I’ve talked to more than a few people who view it as nothing short of evil. But it is a necessary evil, one that allows kids the opportunity they need to prepare for their transition into the real world and the rest of their lives.