Things that don't make sense

Via The Education Wonks and Number 2 Pencil, we are pointed to a Wall Street Journal article on the ineffectiveness of middle schools. Quoth the WSJ:

Now, a growing body of evidence is showing that preteen students do better when they can remain in their familiar elementary schools for longer -- with better grades and fewer disciplinary problems than their middle-school peers. As a result, many school systems are starting to do away with middle schools and are increasing the number of elementary schools that continue through the eighth grade.

Quite frankly, I never got the point of middle school. I went to Catholic school myself, all of which are K-8 in my area, and I didn't even know what middle school was until I went to high school and some of my new friends told me they went to this strange place. So, we take fifth or sixth graders, who are beginning to reach the heights of insecurity that come with the beginning of puberty, place them in a new, unfamiliar environment at a developmentally challenging time of their lives, expect them to have no problems, and do it all over again in three or four short years? Seems like an awful lot of change to expect any youngster to go through, let alone the kids in large urban areas who often have enough going against them.

Again, from the WSJ:

The shift has its critics, some of whom think adolescents don't belong in the same school with tiny grade-schoolers whom they could easily bully. Many districts seek to address this by creating separate entrances for younger and older children.

I don't really think this is a problem. Bullies are everywhere, and assuming adolescents are going to bully smaller children says a lot about the person making the assumption. In my school, the bigger kids barely interacted with the little kids except to take care of them when need be, and on occasion defend them from bullies their own age or older. I guess you could say that my school, while not overtly promoting it, had a sort of unwritten culture of responsibility, where the older kids were expected to set a good example for and take care of the little kids. Granted, we went to a small school -- my eighth grade class graduated 25 -- but why should we accept the argument (that some wonk will eventually make) that you just can't do that in a big school? Don't try to sell that to me, 'cause I'm not buying.

Another criticism: Some parents have expressed concern that K-8 schools may not adequately prepare kids for high school. Because they often are newer and smaller than traditional middle schools, elemiddle programs can't always offer as broad a range of class subjects and extracurricular activities.

In Baltimore, which has created 30 new K-8 schools, a report showed that in K-8 settings, "students...had less opportunity to take Algebra 1 and a foreign language," which it says are "gatekeeper" courses, or courses that increase the likelihood that a student will attend college.

Okay, A) Do we really have to take Algebra 1 and a foreign language in grade school? And who determined these are "gatekeeper" courses? Is that what they're selling parents? How about teach the kids how to think critically. Teach them how to read for comprehension and write correctly. Treat them fairly in an environment free of speech codes and zero-tolerance nonsense, in which they feel cared for and respected, not churned out of an assembly line. And B) The only thing my tiny K-8 school didn't adequately teach us about getting on in high school is how to get from the basement classroom all the way across the school to the third floor science lab, with a stop at my locker, in four minutes or less. YMMV. Oh, and C) -- and let me spell this out for everyone clearly -- Not Every Child Is Destined To Go To College. Furthermore, College Is Not A Guarantor Of Lifelong Success And Happiness. Please let us stop worshipping at the foot of the Ivory Tower, there are more important things in life, people. I'm looking forward to my kids growing up in a K-8 school, and I think we worry way too much about the future, at the expense of the present.