What do you term "middle school"?

[Pippen]

Turning serious now, I have wondered when/where the concept/term of "middle school" was invented. I grew up with only "junior high" existing, which was grades 7-9. I sometimes have conversations with other parents, who do not believe that their children in middle school (which around here means grades 5-8) should be grouped in that way because of normal developmental concerns.

 

 

(pulls out her handy notes from class) William Alexander, the "Father of the American Middle School", introduced the concept at a conference in 1963. I went through a middle school in the early 1970's.

http://www.amle.org/...e_or_high_5.pdf

 

Most middle schools around here are grades 6-8. I frequently substitute teach in a middle school and the students are separated by grade level during all instructional periods and the grades are physically separated in different wings of the building. There isn't much interaction between the groups outside of bus rides and some extra-curricular activites, such as speech team.

[Chris in VA]

I grew up with K-6 being at elementary, 7-9 at Jr. High, and 10-12 at the high school. Our 9th grade classes, tho taken at Jr. Hi, were part of our high school transcript and sent to colleges. You could get high school credit for foreign language in 8th grade.

 

Here in NoVa, K-6 is elementary, and (in our town), Secondary School is 7-12. It is in the same building, but the sides are separated by the auditorium (it's a big school, too--around 3000). They call 7 and 8 middle school, tho.

 

I like to keep 6th graders with elementary kids. I would rather have 9th graders with 7th and 8th graders, too, in a separate building.

 

Private schools and even schools within our district have different configurations.

[Laura Corin]

In my mind there is no "middle school" probably because I'm in Australia?

 

In England there is primary school (age 5-11) senior school (age 11-16) and sixth form (age 16-18). In Scotland there is primary school (age 5-12) and senior school/high school (age 12-17 or 18).

 

Laura

[Cinder]

When we lived in AR the school system was Elementary=K-4, Middle School=5-6, Jr High=7-9 and High School=10-12.

That seems unnecessary. Are middle school and jr high in separate buildings/ locations?

 

Yes, they were/are in different locations. (This was a long time ago so I just checked to see if it's the same now and it is.) I remember wondering at the time what the difference was between middle school and jr high and someone told me it had to do with teaching methods. But that's all I know about it.

[vonfirmath]

Based on that, I would be your elder. (was graduated in 1973)

 

Yep. I was born in 1973 :)

[catz]

Locally, middle school usually refers to grades 6-7-8, Junior High would refer to 7-8. Our city is eliminating "Junior High" next fall and change them all to middle schools.

[Ecclecticmum]

In England there is primary school (age 5-11) senior school (age 11-16) and sixth form (age 16-18). In Scotland there is primary school (age 5-12) and senior school/high school (age 12-17 or 18).

 

Laura

 

 

The form thing is confusing to me. DH will often start spouting various forms, and I will tell him he has a nice one, yes, but what is his point? :laugh: I'm lucky I originally knew what he was talking about from reading Mallory Towers when I was younger.

 

According to Melissa, there is middle school in Aus (well, at least in Victoria) I guess that's my something new learned for the day.

 

The schools I went to were all either called primary or highschool/secondary. K-6 & 7-12. Perhaps its a Victorian thing though (Vic seems to like being different with a lot of things, I found out. Not to mention all the rules here in regards to renovations & fixing your house).

[Parrothead]

When I was a kid in bygone days grammar school was K-5. Jr, High was 7 and 8. High school was 9-12.

 

In our homeschool we did K-4 as grammar school 5-8 as middle school and the next four years will be high school.

[Kathryn]

My first year of middle school, it was 7-9. It changed the next year and was 6-8 (and still is), so I only spent two years there. DH started at a middle school that was 5-8 and then moved to the same school I attended.

[Soror]

We didn't have middle school, as others have stated ours was k-6 elementary, 7-8 jr. high and 9-12 highschool. I don't understand how 10-12 alone could be considered highschool considering the requirements for college and such. Here they have 5 and 6th grade separate from elementary so judging by what is local I would guess that is middle school here. I have wondered about that I consider k-2 grammar but haven't thought much past that.

[jenL]

Where I grew up in NH, middle school was 5-8, and high school was 9-12. It is now middle = 6-8 and K-5 = elementary. My dh grew up in the next town over. Middle school was called Jr High and it was 7-9, with elementary being K-6. It is now K-6, middle is 7-8 and high school is 9-12.

 

Where I live now, it's K-5 for elementary, 6-8 middle, and 9-12 high.

[Melissa in Australia]

The form thing is confusing to me. DH will often start spouting various forms, and I will tell him he has a nice one, yes, but what is his point? :laugh: I'm lucky I originally knew what he was talking about from reading Mallory Towers when I was younger.

 

According to Melissa, there is middle school in Aus (well, at least in Victoria) I guess that's my something new learned for the day.

 

The schools I went to were all either called primary or highschool/secondary. K-6 & 7-12. Perhaps its a Victorian thing though (Vic seems to like being different with a lot of things, I found out. Not to mention all the rules here in regards to renovations & fixing your house).

Sorry for causing confusion :leaving: I Actually I worded my post very poorly. there is no set school called middle school, but teachers refer to some grades as 'middles school' especially when planning lessons/ activities etc.. the school names are primary school and secondary collage

[Laura Corin]

 

The form thing is confusing to me. DH will often start spouting various forms, and I will tell him he has a nice one, yes, but what is his point? :laugh: I'm lucky I originally knew what he was talking about from reading Mallory Towers when I was younger.

 

 

 

Forms were originally benches in one-room schools, I believe. You started at age eleven or so on the first form (bench) and made your way through to the sixth form as you progressed. As it was all in one room, people progressed by ability rather than age.

 

Later on, when schools expanded, each 'form' became a class and the age designations became more rigid.

 

Laura

[Catwoman]

Middle school in our area is 7th and 8th grades, and has been that way for as long as I can remember.

[Elfknitter.#]

In our homeschool we did K-4 as grammar school 5-8 as middle school and the next four years will be high school.

 

 

Just curious as to why you opted for this division of grades.

[Greenmama2]

In my mind there is no "middle school" probably because I'm in Australia? So it's primary/elementary is K-6 and high school is 7-12.

 

Thinking about it from a logical standard, when seeing middle school, I always think primary 1-4, middle 5-8 (transition years) and high school being 9-12th. So whenever someone mentions middle school or middle grades, I'm thinking the 5th-8th region.

 

Is that not right? :confused1: I thought that was the standard, but perhaps its just my-own-mind-standard :laugh:

 

Ditto. I've only heard of middle school here. Some states in my country also have "primary" 1-6 ( or K or even preK-6), Secondary/High School 7-10 and a seperate senior "college" for 11-12.

[Parrothead]

 

 

Just curious as to why you opted for this division of grades.

 

It seemed to make most sense after freeing TWTM.

[SarahW]

I think cut off grades for middle or jr. high depends a lot on the local school district and their physical buildings.

 

My hometown had a menagerie of prek-2 elementaries, k-4 schools, etc., etc. Then they had major space problems in the high school and the Middle School, so we got a new high school building for grades 9-12, and then they split the old Middle School (which was 6-8) into a Jr. High at the old High School building (7-8) and the Middle School as an Upper elementary (5-6).

 

As far as I can tell, there are no hard and fast rules about these things, other than 99.9% of districts seem to have moved to 9-12 as High school.

 

But for the homeschoolers, I think maybe it's because so many stop homeschooling at high school? So that would make the 6-8 grade students the "seniors" and the 4-7 grades the "middles."