February 25 - Middle School

I have never understood a significant aspect of my school. It is a grade seven to twelve school with two separate grade 7-9 programs housed within it. One is an alternative program designed as a multi-age program with integrated units and team teaching. The other is a 'general' program with, frankly, exactly the same philosophy and structure. That is a confusion but it is beside the point. What I have never been able to figure out is why there is such a stunning and consistent drop off between the end of grade eight and the end of grade ten in our school.

Monday's presentation helped with my confusion. Jamie did a great job of pointing out how the current split between middle years philosophy and junior high school philosophy is rooted in history. I like it when there are answers to things I don't understand. That's why I am still bothered. What is it about the structure and practice of education that makes it so unresponsive and slow to change one it has responded? In my school students are taught for two years in interactive, integrated settings that put each child at the centre of his or her learning. We use portfolio assessment, anecdotal reporting, principles of community engagement and offer a dizzying array of electives. Upon leaving these first two years it is the world of high school. The credit system, travelling around the school for each class and different teachers and perhaps something or things I don't know about prove to be too large a barrier for many students to surmount.

The only thing I do know, and Jamie's presentation gave me a clearer perspective on this, is that there is a culture clash in my school. The middle years and the senior years in our school co-exist in a highly tensioned relationship that hurts our kids. So, what is the solution? How do two completely different philosophical orientations to teaching (both ironically articulated by teachers from both sides of the school as being child-centred) effectively work together in a school? Perhaps they can't. Perhaps the two completely different answers to the salient question asked by Jamie - what are we preparing kids for? - will always split our students' understanding of school and work against their success.