The Middle School Stigmas

After reading the articles, I had a bigger understanding as to why there is such a stigma attached to middle school, the students, and what it means to teach middle school. In "From The Emergent Middle School" by William M. Alexander, I was introduced to the term "in-between-ager", or someone who is in between childhood and adolescence. I do not like the use of this term. I feel that it creates a negative image of a youth who is experiencing all these physical, mental, and emotional changes and that this youth will be difficult to work with. I also think that this implies that this age level isn't as important as either the childhood age level or the adolescent age level. But what I really don't like about this term is that it implies by the time you reach middle school, you must be an "in-between-ager", because if you are either still considered a child or are becoming an adolescent, you won't fit in. To me, there should be a flow between childhood and adolescence, not some in between stage. This flow will be rocky for each student, and will occur at different times in each of their lives, and it won't exactly flow, but there definitely won't be exact stages that these youths should fall into.

In the section of that article entitled "Young People in Transition: Summary", there were nine summaries of characteristics of young people during this transitional period, not to mention stereotypes and high expectation. In the third and fourth summary, the basic idea is that there will be "an awakening interest" in the opposite sex, and will be "developing many social skills in interacting with persons of the opposite sex." As this has been mentioned in some of the blogs a few weeks ago and in class, I find this horribly offensive yet again. Some of these young people will be questioning their sexuality, or discover that they are gay. And, all of the young people will be developing social skills to also interact with persons of the same sex, and this should include friendships or getting to know their peers on a more personal level when encountering them throughout school and the community. I also noticed that the social skills included in the fourth summary for example were "learning to use cosmetics" or wear appealing clothing to the opposite sex. First, this focuses more on the females, and second, not every female will be doing this. I, and many other of my female friends in school, were not doing that. On a different note, the ninth summary was focused on the "new mode of intellectual operations" with "an establishment of a level of adult-like-thought (when the adult is his logical best)". This is a lot of pressure to put on someone who is not an adult, but rather, an "in-between-ager". To me, that is expecting too much out of the young people we will be teaching, and isn't very realistic. They will be thinking at a higher level, but not as advanced as this summary implies.

In "Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century" by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, there were two things that stuck out to me. The first was mentioned right in the beginning, where it was said, "All of these changes represent significant potential in our young people and great opportunity for them and society." (170). I understand that eventually our students will be entering into society and contributing to society, but this is not why I want to be a teacher. I want to pass on a knowledge that will better my students, and while this will affect what they will be contributing to society, my focus is how I impact each individual student. I also think it is important that we do have a strong society, but I want to provide a greater opportunity for the individual. I feel that there is too much focus on the students future after school, and not as much on how they will be growing in school. I found this to be true when the task force focused on the 15-year-old after middle school. I'd rather hear about what should be occurring in the schools and teaching process of the student before they are 15, not what they should have learned and should do by the time they are 15. There were a lot qualities placed upon their 15-year-old, and that puts a lot of pressure on both the teachers and the 15-year-old, and creates more of a fantasy idea rather than a reality. And again, there are then too many expectations placed on the 15-year-olds that if they don't end up measuring up, it will look like they have failed.

And finally, in "The Future of Middle Level Education: Optimistic and Pessimistic Views" by John H. Lounsbury of Gordon F. Vars ended their article in a way that I felt was why I want to be a teacher, and how I can be successful. "The greater need is to guide the overall development of young adolescents in ways that will equip them with the behavioral attributes, attitudes, and values they need to make wise choices in all aspects of their lives." It is the "their lives" that I really appreciate, because I will be impacting the lives of each of my individual students, and I should be focusing on each of those lives.

With that being said, my question was in regard to the Carnegie Council article and their focus on society. If our society does not do well after our students will be fully contributing to it, will we, the teachers, be the ones to blame because we didn't prepare them correctly, and set them and society up for failure?

The Mythical Teenager

Although I learned some interesting things from "Nymphet Fantasies: Child Beauty Pageants and the Politics of Innocence" by Henry A. Giroux and it gave me new insights into to world of those beauty pageants and advertising and the affect it holds over little girls and adult women, I wasn't quite sure why it belonged in our book The Critical Middle School Reader. In a book that taught us about puberty and adolescence, I wasn't sure why there was such a focus on children, well, actually, little girls. Childhood occurs before adolescence, and while I see how what happens in our childhood can transfer into our adolescence and then adulthood, I felt that this article completely skipped over the adolescent. I also like to note that there is a difference between the childhood stage and the children of parents, which includes teenagers and adults. But because of the focus in this article, I will be commenting on what I read in "'Bashing Youth' and 'Wild in Deceit'" by Mike Males.

As an adult in her early twenties, I related to, and also reflected on my experiences as a teen, in how it felt then and feels now, to be treated as someone who lacks reason and knowledge and understanding of the world, but more importantly is to blame for why our society is crumbling. What is so upsetting is that those who are pointing their fingers at us were at one point teens, and certainly must identify with the notion that when they were teens, they too received little respect from the older generation, but probably not as much as what is occurring and generating in our society today.

What I found so interesting was that there was such propaganda from the media and politicians. And yet, I can't help but wonder how many of those that are falsely reporting and blaming teenagers is if they themselves have children who are either teenagers, or children that are close enough in age to the teenagers. Because the portrayal of the teenager is so misguided, it has changed the way adults, and possibly parents, treat the teenagers that aren't too far off from becoming adults who will then be contributing to our world. But what really shocked me was that finding out that the reason why there are issues in regards to "teen pregnancy" and "teen violence", etc. is due to the influence the adults in their lives have on these teenagers. Also shocking was the information regarding teen pregnancy, that "the large majority are impoverished girls with histories of physical, sexual, and other abuses by parents and other adults, and most are impregnated by adult men." (123). For some reason that is hard for me to truly grasp, only because whenever I hear about pregnant teens is that the one impregnating is also a teen. I guess it just goes to show that if the truth were really out there, it would be hard to swallow.

While reading that "The favorite conservative and pop-psychology villain...is media violence, and the cure-all is more restrictions on TV, movies, books and music available to youth." (128) I was struck by the restrictions on books. As someone who is going to be an English teacher, I have taken some classes where the discussion and focus has often been on banned books. Adults are giving too much credit to what is available to youth by assuming that those "villains" are encouraging teenagers to have sex, to think about the same sex, to embrace their violent tendencies, and so on. I have observed that literature can act as an outlet for teenagers to relate to and feel better about themselves when they read about the issues that they encounter in their lives through young adult literature.

Which leads me to question, if adults are putting the blame on these "villains" and are taking action to ban books and such to protect their children and society, if they aren't in touch with the reality of the situation, how can our society truly be "saved" from the impact the adults really have on teenagers and society?

Adolescence and Puberty in the Classroom

While thinking about puberty and adolescence before I read the required readings, I just took the two terms for granted and put them into one category under the same definition. For me, the two went hand and hand, and I didn't realize that adolescence is a fairly new concept. Although last year I took a CURRINS class that was all about Young Adolescent Literature and how to encourage my students to read by presenting literature to them that is aimed towards their experiences as adolescents, puberty was never really mentioned. Well, there was one exception of one of my female classmates giving a book talk on Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. and suggested that it could be a good recommendation to our female students experiencing puberty. In that class I was surrounded by the word adolescence, so I took what I learned from that class and applied it to the readings this week. It makes sense that as our society was changing towards industrialism, so too were the young lives that were growing up in that world, as it is said, "Adolescence became the projective site and repository for social, sexual, and moral anxieties that were rooted in American society." (18). To say the least, I am not surprised that this sentence made sure to include the society in question is American society.

As I started reading chapter 2, "The Role of Pubertal Processes", there was one sentence that caught me off gaurd: "As they do so, they must deal with sexual arousal and the beginning of relationships with members of the opposite sex..." (27). Now, I don't think this sentence meant to offend anyone in particular, I was offended at the use of the word "relationships" when it was included with the terms "sexual arousal" and "members of the opposite sex". I wish this sentence would have been a bit more specific, because a relationship shouldn't be excluded to just sexual and/or romantical, but should include the relationships we have with friends, family, peers, etc. I also didn't like that the authors were specific about the relationships being with members of the opposite sex. While it isn't the case for every adolscent, it is important to keep in mind that some have these arousals with members of the same sex, and are questioning their sexuality. Also, what about the relationships with members of the same sex that don't lead to sexual arousal? While keeping in mind that the non-sexual relationships we have with members of the same sex can include in their conversations the issue of sex. Perhaps I am making something out of nothing, or am taking offense at something that meant no harm and was stating a general fact, I think it is important to keep the issues I mentioned in mind when we think about adolescence.

Overall, I think that the schools should provide a safe environment where puberty can be taugth to adolescents so they are aware of the changes that are taking place in their body, and will have a better image of themselves as they grow into their adult bodies. And, these teaching opportunities don't have to be limited to Sex Ed. classes. English teachers, for example, can include books into the curriculum that their adolescents can relate to, and not all of them have to be about puberty, but they should be something that can make the adolescents feel comfortable with their changing bodies and minds. I was glad that it was included that, "...many adults seem uncomfortable discussing puberty themselves and, by inference believe that young people feel the same way." (29). That is why it is important for the school and teachers to provide an emotionally safe environment where an open dialogue in regards to puberty and adolescence can occur between teacher and student.

But, what about the students that are ashamed of the changes that they are experiencing? Or the parents that don't want their students to be exposed to these puberty issues that may be taught about? How can these students/parents that aren't comfortable with these issues fit comfortably into a school environment that is taking the opportunity to address and help all the students going through puberty and living as an adolescent?