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Middle c11/10/2023 ![]() As a result alumni from schools like Arthur Morgan stay excited about learning and participate more in their high schools and colleges. It is an environment created with middle schooler’s developmental needs in mind and is successful at helping them through this important and delicate stage of life. Various art spaces provide creative outlets while a natural environment satisfies their physical urges and provides an imaginative backdrop to practicing their writing. They perform the real work of the school, which leads to questions of how and why that they then explore with guidance from teachers. ![]() Instead of classrooms, students learn science and history by working on the farm, in the school kitchen, or wood shop. Stand alone middle schools like Arthur Morgan School of Celo, NC use their entire campus as a teaching tool. Middle schoolers need learning environments that ignite their curiosity and empower them to be active participants in their community. Department of Education’s blog, Homeroom, middle schoolers are “the neglected middle children of education.” An Environment Tailored to Them No wonder politicians and administrators feel like they can disband middle schools and distribute them to other schools. It fails to see middle schoolers as unique with valid and important needs. Since middle schoolers act like a kid one moment and then surprisingly mature the next, these classrooms attempt to fulfill all the middle schooler’s needs by combining the excitement and play of grade school with the serious study of high school. The Language Arts classroom still contains a reading corner while the Social Studies one now displays detailed topographical maps. Colorful, inspirational posters still dot the walls while microscopes and test tubes sit on back tables. The current, typical middle school classroom falls somewhere between an elementary and high school one. ![]() Neither a high school or elementary style classroom will meet these young adolescents’ needs. They want to use their hands to learn and create and they crave interaction with their peers. Everyday they confront issues that shape their morality and future place in society. They yearn for physical activity and intellectual inspiration. Their bodies begin changing, their emotions feel stronger, and their thoughts get more internal and complex. Middle schoolers have very different needs than high school and elementary students. Middle Schoolers have their own Unique NeedsĮven if we put aside the obvious questions of safety and peer pressure that go along with combining seventh and eighth graders with high school students, there are also strong pedagogical reasons to maintain our middle schools. The answer is YES! But not necessarily for the reasons most people think. Of course, no one really wants to close the middle schools, but as school budgets continue to tighten, communities across the country are going to face the same question: do we really need separate middle schools? If they do, their fifth and sixth graders move to the elementary school while their seventh and eighth graders move to high school. Due to funding issues and low enrollment, the communities of Easton and Redding are deciding whether to close their middle schools. This is the question two towns in Connecticut are asking themselves right now.
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