Take a moment and think back to when you were a middle school student. Which images, experiences, or sounds materialize in your mind? Are these positive memories? Negative? A bit of both? The lenses through which we recall and reflect upon this time is likely influenced by our beliefs and ideas about “middle school” and what life is (and should be) like for young adolescents during these “middle years.” In addition, many misconceptions, fallacies, and negative stereotypes regarding “middle school” may also influence—both consciously and subconsciously—the representations we generate of this important time period.
Such misconceptions, fallacies, and negative stereotypes of “middle school” persist in books, movies, television shows, and people’s minds. In response to one exaggerated instance, James Patterson’s Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, we must ask: really? Sending the message that this time is “the worst” in one’s entire life instead of portraying a more hopeful, uplifting message has costly and dangerous implications.
While some of us may interpret such fictionalized accounts as humorous, when this message is repeated incessantly and singularly are we able to decipher mere humor or are we rendered less able to conjure other perspectives? Yes, this time period is fraught with new challenges, complexities, and uncertainties, which places emphasis on why we as collaborative professionals need to create and implement experiences where young adolescents develop perseverance, perspective, and strength. These skills and dispositions help young adolescents as they analyze and view challenges and uncertainties as part of life, as “growing pains” (both literal and figurative ones). In doing so, we work to dispel a narrow view of middle school from a time to merely “get through” to understanding the importance of this time period as foundational to one’s overall well-being.
While Patterson’s work is a fictionalized account meant for entertainment, many noteworthy resources can help us continue to develop a deeper understanding of young adolescent development in order to transform commonplace stereotypes into more informed vantage points. One such example is found in The Teenage Brain by Frances E. Jensen, M.D. with Amy Ellis Nutt:
There are other misconceptions and myths about the teenage brain and teenage behavior that are now so ingrained they are accepted societal beliefs: teens are impulsive and emotional because of surging hormones; teens are rebellious and oppositional because they want to be difficult and different… . Another assumption is that the die is cast at puberty: whatever your IQ or apparent talents may be (a math or science type versus a language arts type), you stay that way for the rest of your life. Again, all wrong. The teen brain is at a very special point in development…. there are unique vulnerabilities of this age window, but there is also the ability to harness exceptional strengths that fade as we enter into adulthood (p. 4).
This book is a powerful resource for collaboration in the way it allows us as middle level professionals to educate ourselves more about this age group and to enhance our reflections on our work with young adolescents.
Transformation thus might begin with the knowledge and language we use to frame the time period of middle school. In other words, dread and horror versus the cultivation of some more resilient habits of mind—such as those of potential and possibility.
Indeed, this issue of Middle School Journal upholds our profession’s shared understanding and concern for all the significant transformations—both positive and negative, in school and beyond—that happen in the lives of young adolescents during this urgent time.