Recently, I saw a question posted on a local education group page asking “What makes for a ‘good’ middle school?” There were several interesting, thoughtful answers, and it got me thinking about what I would say in response to that question. There are plenty of ways–outcomes, what happens during the school day–one could use to define a “good” middle school. I think there is one factor all good middle schools have in common. However, before I share what I think it is, a little background about my experience as a middle school teacher.
My teaching career started at the high school level with history classes filled with freshman and juniors. After several years of high school teaching, I went to graduate school, and afterwards, I applied for teaching positions at a school to which I was particularly drawn. The job I ended up being offered was to teach 7th and 8th graders, and I’ll admit to having a moment’s hesitation before accepting. I’d read somewhere once that teaching middle school was “like drinking whiskey…it’s an ‘acquired taste’.” But I am so glad that I took the position because I ended up truly enjoying working with middle school students.
And that, in my opinion, is the absolute most important factor in any middle school that is considered, by any definition, “good”: it must have teachers who enjoy and understand what it takes to teach young adolescent students.
Early adolescence is a period of rapid and significant brain development, second only to infancy in terms of the amount of change. Couple that with the ability to now talk, think, and act on their own, and, well, that explains why many people shudder at the thought of regularly being surrounded by middle schoolers. Yet, ask most veteran middle school teachers, and it’s precisely this growth that keeps them teaching students of this age. Over the course of a student’s time in middle school, she is likely to acquire lots of new skills right before her teacher’s eyes, and it’s rewarding to see this take place. And the well-known roller coaster of emotions that is adolescence means that, as a teacher, you’ll get to help students passionately argue their viewpoints and you will get students’ honest opinions on just about any topic.
Laurence Steinberg, a researcher and author, titled his most recent book about adolescence The Age of Opportunity because of the wealth of brain science that now shows us just how promising and important this period is a person’s life. A good middle school fills itself with adults who understand the needs of young people at this developmental stage and who have (or, like me, learn to have) the skills and disposition to teach students of this age. If you have those adults in place, they will work with students to design the school structure and activities that best meet the needs of middle schoolers. So, in my opinion, it matters less what the programs or extracurriculars offered are or what the arrangement of grade levels in a building is; a “good” middle school is made up of teachers who can help students to harness the best this age has to offer, which is a whole lot.