Coffee Beabadoobee Lyrics Ukulele Chords
5 years ago
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Middle School VS Junior High
I have always kind of wondered why districts switched from K-5 6-9 10-12 schools and all the other options out there. I grew up in a K-5 6-8 9-12 district although it switched from a junior high to a middle school only a couple of years before I got there. Chapter 9 especially focuses on this issue. I had a few disagreements with the article though. For starters I'm not really sold on the switch. I mean it's already done but it smelt like a fad in education to me. I kind of see this happening now with block scheduling. The middle school I student teach at has block scheduling...the middle school. Because of the scheduling my teacher has to teach both science and social studies even though her certification is in science only. It seems kind of messed up that I could teach science if I wanted to in a middle school even though the only science classes I took was for my GRE's. Anyway, it would almost make more sense to me to have a K-4 5-8 8-12 school. The author complains about it taking 20 years for changes to happen in education but my response is that it is hard for a school district who's schools are already built to reconfigure space and grades though them again. If you wanted to go from an elementary school having 5 grades and gave them 6 where would they put the extra grade in the building if it was already full? Yes, there should be a buffer school between elementary and high school and the author makes a good argument for that...but wasn't the junior high school achieving that also? Maybe I totally missed something here...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I agree that the ideas of grade switches does seem to be a fad. The school I student teach in is 6-8, but adding a ninth grade next year. I was discussing the transition with my co-op and she was just as confused by our principal's desire to change the school as I was. She was telling me that the students shared the same feeling. I spoke to a few 8th graders to see how accurate my co-op was, and it turned out she was dead on. I would about one of every five student I asked said they would be interested in staying for the extra year, but what I really took away from talking to the students was one comment. I was told that it would be stupid to stay at a middle school where the atmosphere is completely non-high-school-ish, and where the passing time in between classes is done silently. The quote, as I remember, was, "which high schooler would want to stay in middle school for another year with silent passing?"
I have to agree with you on the educational fad part as well. It seems that education goes through a lot of these, block scheduling being a big one right now. However, I suppose that has to do in part with the fact that as educators were are constantly trying to do things better for our students and see ourselves as constantly learning.
The whole middle school v. junior high thing never really made much sense to me, and to be honest I still don't really get the difference. Personally, I think those years are best used to prepare students for the changes of High School and should be used as a bridge between the two. I think that was what the point of Junior Highs were but the middle school i went to essentially did that so . . . again I'm just confused about the whole difference there.
I agree with you. I am not at all clear about what the differences are between middle school and junior high. From what I can tell, grades 6-8 do create a buffer zone for the transition from elementary to high school. I also agree with you about the fact that because of scheduling teachers are having to teach subjects sometimes that are not even in their area of expertise. That would be like me teaching social studies and then a math class. I am definitely not qualified to teach math. The kids would probably be teaching it to me before it was all said and done. I also agree with you about the fact that it is hard for schools to change the system quickly. And I am not even sure that is the answer here. In my opinion having grades 6-8 for middle school or junior high school are one in the same, and is a good bridge between childhood and adolescence (early adulthood in the high school years). Maybe both of us missed something……?
Post a Comment