Brain Damage

Today I felt like talking about the people I manage every week day.  I am a Middle School Art Teacher.   (a.k.a Creative Cat Herder).

I began my teaching career in 1995 at a private High School in Charlotte and I loved it.  The kids were amazing and they were so great to work with every day.  I occasionally had interactions with the Middle School kids (and I had done 1/2 of my student teaching in Middle School in Columbus, Ohio) and I remember saying to my husband "I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER teach Middle School.  Ever. EV-VER!  Period.  The end."

So 10 years after I left teaching High School to raise my children up to elementary school age I went In Search Of (without Lennard Nemoy) of another Art position.  I got the call from a Charter School 8 minutes from my front door.  Middle School.  They were looking to add a High School in the next year or two (which as yet has not happened, it's been 5 years).
I had alphabet soup (ate my words) and accepted the position.

Middle Schoolers.  What can you say about them?  They are weird.  They are LOUD.  They are full of energy UNTIL you want them to do something and then suddenly they have NO ENERGY.
Like I say in my title, they have brain damage.  OK, not literally.  They just have an underdeveloped brain.  They do not yet have a fully functioning frontal cortex.  That is the part of the brain that governs rational thought.  (Did the light bulb just go on for you?  THAT is why they do the things that they do).  In fact, that part of the brain does not fully develop until about 25.  AH-HA!  Explains a lot about tweens, teens, and young adults.

Here is a basic run down of Middle Schoolers.

6th graders still have the smell of elementary school on them when the show up at the big bad Middle School.  They still remember to raise their hands, walk quietly in a line, and do their homework.  They begin "the change" to 7th graders about Spring Break.  Suddenly your quiet class of 6th graders begin the rumblings of the 7th graders.  You can usually keep the lid on them until school lets out.  Then they become...

7th Graders.  Sometime in the summer before their actual 7th grade year, aliens come to earth and suck out their brains.  How do the aliens know who to attack?  They follow the smell.  7th graders no longer smell like elementary school.  They have a faint (and sometimes not so faint) smell of cottage cheese and old gym socks about them.  The boys smell stronger than the girls but they all have it for a time.

7th graders are "the Middle children" as my boss says.  They are social and loud and unruly.  They want to be independent of EVERYTHING while  fitting in to their social group by being EXACTLY like everyone else.  There are a lot of strange things going on with their bodies or for some, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING going on with their bodies.  They all think that there is something wrong with them (there is) and the all think that there is something wrong with everyone else (there is).

My biggest frustration with 7th grade is the penchant to argue over everything.  Really?  I just asked you to line up for lunch.  That is all.  Just stand RIGHT THERE and be relatively quiet.  I did not ask you to dis your mama, kick your puppy, or drink poison (although I have considered it).  THIS is not an issue to argue about.  The other things I listed are.  *sigh*.  Somehow we muddle through our day and make it alive to dismissal time.  Thankfully, the vast majority of 7th graders make it to become 8th graders.  That transformation is seen at the end of May...

8th grade.  Generally they are calmer than 7th graders.  They have learned that by following the basic instructions given by the teacher they are not going to give up their free will.  This is a general statement but they tend to get better as the year crawls along.  They have a more mature outlook on school and will mostly do what you ask.  Some of them are even ready to discuss and negotiate some what logically with you.  They are better at getting quiet and they are better at not arguing over every point.  There is still some feistiness in them so it is not smooth sailing by any means.  By the end of the year the thought of going on to High School (or, gasp! the threat of staying in Middle school while all of their friends go on with out them) enters their hormone muddle brains and they begin to calm down even more.  Sometimes it is eerily quiet in my room while they are working and I feel like I shouldn't turn my back on them.  Then I remember that they are not 7th graders and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Overall, Middle Schoolers are not too bad one on one.  It is the group that can be the main trial.  Kind of like piranha.  But I will wrestle with them and hope I can cram a little art in their brains as long as God has me teach them.