The Biggest Challenge Middle Schoolers Face
With the school year winding down, most of us are looking forward to summer break. Camps, vacations, and good old fashioned summer fun take up the majority of our time. But summer is short, and the new school year will be upon us faster than we think.
I recently conducted an evaluation for a current fifth grader who is concerned about the transition to middle school. As I described in my previous post, this can be a challenging time due to the different stages of development. In order to transition successfully to middle school, it is important to understand the challenges sixth graders typically face. Afterall, the first step to overcoming a challenge is to recognize the challenge itself.
As a former middle school principal, I can say that the majority of disciplinary issues I had to handle involved peer-to-peer relationships. Often that included misunderstandings between two students or insensitive and sometimes hurtful comments. Oddly, I found these interactions valuable parts of the learning process, both for me and for the students. Thankfully I had an amazing counselor to help navigate these situations.
But as we look ahead to the upcoming school year, I want to use this opportunity to discuss the biggest challenge middle schoolers face.
What are the big issues?
Middle schoolers are awesome! They are funny, often times uninhibited, and full of energy. They definitely possess a different mindset than high schoolers. At the high school level the stakes are higher, and there is an underlying seriousness around everything. Yes, high schoolers have fun, but it’s not the same goofy fun that middle schoolers have.
But despite the silly vibe around the middle school there are some notable issues that consistently pop up more so than in high school. Among them:
Peer relationships – how to treat each other with respect
Inhibition – how to say and do things in an appropriate manner
Differences in maturity – students are at vastly different physical and emotional stages
Personal responsibility – owning one’s mistakes and missteps
Academic challenges – the rigor of multiple classes and multiple teachers can be tough
Not surprisingly, many of these issues are related to social and emotional learning (SEL). The Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is the leading authority on SEL. According to CASEL, there are five main SEL competencies that help individuals understand and manage emotions, set positive goals, and display empathy for others:
social awareness
responsible decision making
self-awareness
self-management
relationship skills
What is the biggest challenge?
Social and Emotional Learning is by far the biggest challenge in middle school. Just looking at the list above one can see how important SEL is at the middle school level.
Yes, it is important at the high school level, but by about 11th grade, most students have figured out how to function with an appropriate level of SEL skills.
But middle schoolers are just beginning to test the waters of SEL. Kindergarten through 5th grade (elementary school in Texas) is a time that is still highly supervised by mom and dad and other authority figures (teachers). Their level of autonomy is limited, at best. Once they reach 6th grade, however, that level of supervision starts to decrease (appropriately so). For example, we often had a bus full of 6th and 7th graders take a 2 hour ride to their football games. While there were always adults on the bus, there was still a degree of independence these students had on that 2 hour bus ride that they did not have in elementary school. These opportunities offer a great chance for kids to test and develop their SEL skills.
We see these situations throughout the day. Middle schoolers have opportunities to make decisions on their own, sometimes without the presence of an adult. And developmentally they are just learning how to make these decisions. So, it should not come as a surprise that their decisions are a trial-and-error process; we should not expect middle schoolers to get it right every time. On those two hour bus rides to football games, there were often questionable decisions being made!
We want all students to read, write, and do math at a high level. But in middle school the focus must be on developing character and preparing students for a successful transition to high school. Learning kindness, respect and empathy are the hallmarks of a successful middle school student. Everything else falls in line from there.
As the summer progresses, have conversations with your rising (or current) middle schooler about these areas. If you have any concerns about your child’s social and emotional functioning or well-being, you may also consider contacting the school counselor to get on top of any potential situations. And of course, an evaluation can also help identify any areas of SEL concern.