Your editorial Nov. 8 ("The middle school dilemma"), calling for reform in our middle schools should be re-run every week until someone answers the call.
It turns out that the middle school years comprise the second-most active and important time in a person's development (second only to the first three years of life). The change and growth we all see in the social, emotional and physical lives of middle school-aged children is reflective of similar activity and change in the development of their brains. Neurodevelopmental research shows that not only are neural pathways established at this age, but they also are trimmed at an alarming rate. If they don't use it, they risk losing it!
IT IS CRITICAL that we get education right at this age, and yet they typically get "lost in the middle." Everyone champions literacy for young pupils, and folks get excited about high school course exit exams and graduation rates, but turn the conversation to the all-important middle years and most people, including many educators, seem baffled or intimidated. Even parents, bewildered by the changing, unpredictable nature of the middle school years, often employ a bunker mentality, hoping only to survive them!
What is to be done? It turns out that the recipe for success really is not so complicated. There are a number of schools that have been very intent about focusing on middle school pupils, and that have been successful over the years. Look first to K-8 schools. This particular make-up is good for all students for a variety of reasons.
At this age, they are developing (and experimenting with) various aspects of their identity and establishing academic, social, spiritual and emotional habits. What worse time to move them out of a safe environment in which they are known and put them into a new, large pool?
In a K-8 setting, middle school pupils take the highest level courses, practice real leadership and participate in top athletic teams - they are not simply in training for the "real" world of high school. It's good for them to get to be top dog at this age, and to serve as role models for younger children, not just their peers. Furthermore, compare the grounding influence of the presence of very young children to the distracting attitudes and behaviors modeled by high school juniors and seniors.
FINALLY, SIZE matters. Perhaps more than any other age, this group needs to be known and to feel as if they matter to the school community - not just to their lone, dedicated teacher. It is too easy to feel anonymous in a school of hundreds and hundreds of other middle school pupils together in one building, and anonymity is exceedingly dangerous for students in this formative age. Instead of spending more money on larger bureaucracies, we should spend it to create smaller classes within smaller schools.
We can do better by our children. For the sake of our community, our economy and our democracy, we should. For the sake of the children, we must.
(Editor's note: The writer is headmaster of Episcopal Day School in Augusta.)
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