Essay About Middle School
Shortly after surpassing the amiable grades of elementary school, most of us must experience entering the whole new world of the dreaded “middle school.” From going to recess to going to study halls, and from basic math to hard algebra, it is safe to say that middle school is quite a rude awakening to the real world of higher education. The impact of structural changes in adolescent schooling mentioned in Marshall and Neuman has had an enormous impact on our modern world middle school experience.
During the 1970s, the National Middle School Association was formed, which promoted the idea that grades six through eight represented middle school. For many kids in their early teens, middle school is an awkward phase where everyone is trying to find themselves. In the occurrence of it all, they are surrounded by other people trying to find themselves as well. The text states that “moreover, there was a growing body of middle school research revealing a decline in motivation and academic achievement among students just entering middle school.” With emerging factors like sex, drugs, increasingly harder work, and a whole new social aspect, it is relevant that adolescents may decline in motivation and academic achievement. Parents and educators must also adapt to new behaviors and deal with the transitional process of their adolescents. The middle school establishment is truly just a time for adaptivity.
In my personal experience, middle school destroyed my confidence in the beginning. My school district had two elementary schools, and when entering grade 6, we all combined into one single grade. The new people and emerging factors were very overwhelming, even to a point where a decline in my motivation and academic performance occurred. The middle school 6-8 establishment affects every aspect of every adolescent imaginable. Towards the end of it in grade 8, I can say that there were some beneficial parts of it. Socially, it challenged me to branch out and make new connections and friendships, and academically it prompted me and prepared me for my future academic career. Overall, it was a very confusing and developmental time in my life, and I would not do it again.
It is safe to say that the structure of schooling and research discussed in Marshall and Neuman has impacted many adolescents’ middle school experience for the good and even bad. The established timeframe of grades 6-8 allowed me and many other students to find ourselves in a bit more depth after elementary school. The middle school reform movement is far from over, for there is so much room for improvement in the system. Our world and its adolescents’ needs are constantly changing, so who knows where the middle school system will be decades from now!
