Why the panic of middle school (public)

[stripe]

I do love middle school kids, and I used to work with them, but it's a tough age.

[thefragile7393]

My goals for right now have to be year by year, as I never know if I will still be able to homeschool. I do know that I am not planning on public school ever, however that can change. Right now, no middle school in a public school for them. I can only base off of my experiences, but as I listen to some of the experiences from kids that I work with...I feel middle school in a public school wouldn't be a good idea for my kids. I will do K12 or Connections or Mercury if need be.

 

I hated junior high. 6th and 7th grades were the worst of my life. I went to a small alternative school, k-8. In junior high 7th and 8th grades were in one room, about 22, 23 kids in the class total. I was bullied horribly in 6th grade. 7th grade....sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off in a traditional public middle school, that way I could have melted into the crowd. The 8th graders were such HUGE bullies and if you weren't good in sports, forget it. They were merciless to a friend of mine who was overweight. 8th grade was much better, and high school my issues weren't about the kids around mind. Those two years though...ugh. No. Kids aren't any better now then when I was in that age. I don't want my kids dealing with that.

[happycc]

6th grade- I went to an elite all girls school in SF. I had been there since K. I hated it there and basically after sixth grade I was adamant that I would not go back to that school. It was about two weeks before school started and my parents had to get friends to help me find a school to go to in the last minute.

 

7th and 8th grade-the middle school I went was a private K-8 school and from what I remember it was TINY. I think like 10-15 of us in a classroom. The school didn't have grades meaning we were called 7th or 8th graders. We were called blue or green group and we called our teachers by their first names. We learned Latin and I liked that and the PE expectations was awesome. We had to run a mile a day and at the end of the year we had to run/walk the DipSea which was this long route to the beach. I was relatively happy there even though my home life was in shambles. It was out in Mill Valley and it was a beautiful school. We did have uniforms and was thrilled that the principal did not allow make up in the school and all the kids shoes, socks, earring all had to be either red , white and blue. Also no dangling earings and strict rules about the length of the skirts and I think we had to wear shorts under our skirts. I remember just shaking my head and wondering why all the middle school girls were crying in the bathroom when they were told to scrub off their make up. I was never into make up or dressing up. I felt so comfortable there because I perhaps there were rules and they were enforced fairly in my opinion. I did have one unfortunate experience -we went to Yosemite for our 8th grade field trip and i got felt up by a boy in my class when we went through this log. YUCK! All I know is that the principal of that school was also the owner of that school. She started it out in some tiny basement I think or something like that. I heard it is a relatively big school now.

 

For me, high school was a mess. I would have been better off at that middle school for a few more years.

[Trish]

Our local middle school has a terrible reputation. Not academically -- everything else.

[dtsmamtj]

Middle school is a hell-hole. It's a cess pool of raging hormones, bullying and feeling "big" without the maturity to back it up.

 

Yeah, there are some really nice kids, too, but for the most part their voices are drowned out by the sick drama being played out by their peers.

 

By high school, things seem to mellow out quite a bit. But middle school? Just... no. No, no, no, no, no.

 

:iagree: Of the three neighbor children that have gone through middle school in PS this has been their experience. The last of them goes to high school next year so I will no longer be hearing about the issues in Jr. high. One of the boys asked me to home school him this past year. It took his brother until his sophomore year to start perking up after the drama of Jr. high. The other boy I heard was allowed to transfer schools in Jr. high because things were so difficult for him - I heard that he is going to use the virtual K-12 program from home this next year to finish out high school.

[shinyhappypeople]

My DH told me that middle school is where boys learn to be aggressive. Not assertive or even rambunctious, but AGGRESSIVE. I believe it.