Current Issue #3 - "For Teachers, Middle School Is Test of Wills"

CURRENT ISSUE # 3

Article Title: For Teachers, Middle School Is Test of Wills
Source: The New York Times
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17middle.html
Published: March 17, 2007
Writer: Elissa Gootman
Submitted by: Zenobia Fypher


In this article, the resilience needed for teachers of middle school students is discussed. Alarmingly, the article indicates that middle school teachers account for 22 percent of the 41,291 teachers who have left the school system since 1999 i.e. over an eight year span, approximately 9,084 middle school teachers have left the system. While the article does not specify the amount of middle school teachers who have left due to retirement, 9,084 in eight years is quite a large number.

As a teacher of both the elementary and middle levels I quite agree with some of the salient points which the article raised. Middle school teachers have to have the skin of a rhinoceros, we have to be able to turn every moment into teachable ones, even as we bite our tongues and grit our teeth, with a pleasant and understanding smile/look on our faces. Ours is a job, which is tougher than nails since we deal with a population of adolescents who are often volatile, unpredictable, and have a growing trend for declining academic performance. Indeed, we do have to have a huge sense of humor and a small ego. As Christian Clarke aptly put it, we spend a lot of our time putting out the fires. When we extinguish one in one area, we have to readily be available to extinguish another in another aspect.

I do agree that in most cases, we are inadequately prepared for the task ahead of us. I remember having discussion in my first year of teaching in the New York City Public School System about how to deal with Grade 7 student who seemed so angry. Well, beyond talking with the student, referring them to the Guidance Counselor, talking with the parents and informing the administrative body, there was little else I could do, yet I had to deal with those students daily. The article correctly states that middle school teachers are often either trained as elementary school generalists or as high school subject specialists, but with little training or understanding of the psychology of young adolescents. Our students very rarely miss school or drop out, interested or not and indeed, the lines for middle school teachers are very short at job fairs.

Yet, with all of that, I do love teaching at the middle school level. There is no other educational experience similar! When we see the transition in students from Grade 6 to Grade 8, it is often pleasing to the heart. While Grade 7 always seems to be the rambunctious grade where anything and everything happens, most of the time our students refocus when they enter the eighth grade.

Middle school? It’s an experience one MUST have!