Successful middle schools are characterized by a culture that includes educators who value working with this age group and are prepared to do so.
- "This We Believe," National Middle School Association
One day, while I was in grad school studying for my M.A.T., I decided to return to my old junior high school in Amherst. One of my all-time favourite teachers still worked there, and I wanted to stop by and say "hi" and let him know I was going into the profession; I still wanted to make him proud and couldn't imagine a better way to do so. While I was waiting for him to get out of class, I was talking to one of the other teachers, and mentioned I was getting my teaching degree. To my horror, rather than smiling and congratulating me, his whole demeanor changed, and he snarled, "You think you want to go into teaching, just wait a few minutes. You'll change your mind." I didn't have to wonder long what he meant, for a moment later the bell rang and the volume level instantly became deafening as many hundreds of 7th, 8th and 9th graders filled the corridor, pushing past each other and running in every direction for their lockers so they could grab their things and go home. It was utter chaos. It also cemented my desire to go into teaching. I wasn't so far removed from being one of those kids who couldn't wait to get on with the next part of my life; my sympathies were all with them. The profession, I thought to myself, needs people who actually like kids.
Research shows, and for most teachers experience confirms, that early adolescents, perhaps more than any other age group, need to feel emotional connections in order to be able to learn effectively. They need to feel those connections with their teachers, and with their peers. That tendency, as JoAnn Deak's research shows, is especially strong with girls. But the NMSA goes deeper than just "liking" kids; educators must "value" them. That means not only liking them, but also believing in them, in their intrinsic self-worth, in their myriad possibilities, in their ability to set and achieve high standards. It also means holding them to those standards, caring enough about them not to let them fall short of their potential. Too often, middle schools are staffed by displaced high school teachers who complain that "these kids are just too immature" or by displaced elementary school teachers who complain about occasional natural adolescent self-absorption. Other displaced teachers, however, are able to focus on wh o these kids really are and what they really need. These teachers will be successful. One of the keys to working with middle school kids, as Chris Toy communicated to you all earlier in the year, is to enjoy living in their world.
The National Middle School Association also speaks of teachers being "prepared" to value this age group. One function of this statement, no doubt, is to convince national, state and local legislators to treat young adolescents as an important and distinct group. Too many states still offer the choice of K-8 or 7-12 licensure, lumping young adolescents either with the elementary school kids they no longer are, or with the high school kids they are not yet. Another function is to make a similar appeal to colleges and universities to train middle school teachers to work specifically with that age group. However, once teachers are trained and licensed, they have a moral obligation to the profession not to become a living time capsule of educational theories. They need to seek, accept and evaluate feedback on their own teaching. They need to keep up with the field by attending conferences, reading professional journals, and joining educational listservs. In this way, the high quality middle school teacher is prep ared to meet the relatively constant needs of young adolescents with an ever-growing base of knowledge and an understanding of the ever-changing context in which these people are growing up. That is each individual teacher's responsibility, to themselves and to their students.