From the Desk of the Middle School Director - 3
By James Hutchins - FF/S
Season Greetings, Parents!
As the parent of a Middle School child, I sometimes wonder what’s going through her mind. I’m sure you do the same at times. My daughter has reached the age where dad is not cool and “totally” embarrassing. In an attempt to understand the many changes that she’s experiencing, I have been reading additional research on adolescent development and took the following information from the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry (2009). It’s just some helpful hints for you to ponder as we, as a community of learners, progress through the Middle School experience together. I hope you find these points useful.
Middle School and Early High School Years
Parents are often worried or confused by changes in their teenagers. The following information should help parents understand this phase of development. Each teenager is an individual with a unique personality and special interests likes and dislikes. However, there are also numerous developmental issues that everyone faces during the adolescent years. The normal feelings and behaviors of the middle school and early high school adolescent are described below.
Movement Towards Independence
- Struggle with sense of identity
- Feeling awkward or strange about one’s self and one’s body
- Focus on self, alternating between high expectations and poor self-esteem
- Interests and clothing style influenced by peer group
- Moodiness
- Improved ability to use speech to express one’s self
- Realization that parents are not perfect; identification of their faults
- Less overt affection shown to parents, with occasional rudeness
- Complaints that parents interfere with independence
- Tendency to return to childish behavior, particularly when stressed
Future Interests and Cognitive Changes
- Mostly interested in present, with limited thoughts of the future
- Intellectual interests expand and gain in importance
- Greater ability to do work (physical, mental, emotional)
Sexuality
- Display shyness, blushing, and modesty
- Girls develop physically sooner than boys
- Increased interest in sex
- Concerns regarding physical and sexual attractiveness to others
- Frequently changing relationships
- Worries about being normal
Morals, Values, and Self-Direction
- Rule and limit testing
- Capacity for abstract thought
- Development of ideals and selection of role models
- More consistent evidence of conscience.
We have only ten days until our Christmas break. This stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a time when students get excited and look forward to a long break. Unfortunately, it is also the period of time when we have a good many behavioral issues. Please help us with this by making sure students remain focused on time management and their studies because exams are just around the corner. Pam will post the exam schedule at the end of this week, which will be a little bit different from years past. Students will remain at school the whole day, with one exam in the morning, followed by study sessions and an exam in the afternoon.
Our annual holiday party for children from the Rebecca Blaylock Child Development Center is today Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 2:30 p.m. If you’ve never witnessed this wonderful event, please stop by for a glance or check out the photo galleries which will be soon posted online. This is what the spirit of Christmas is truly all about.
I had the wonderful experience of going with the 5th graders to Skidaway Island last week. I was extremely proud of our students. I told the 5th grade teachers that I believe we could take that group on a trip around the world and not have an issue. Our bus driver and the Skidaway staff had nothing but compliments about our students. Way to go, 5th grade!
I would like to thank our Middle School Tiger Pride, led by Chris Morgan, for an awesome series of events this past weekend. Beth Cordell did an incredible job heading up the bingo party. The prizes were amazing. Philline Lawrence did a magnificent job with the 7th and 8th grade dance. Words can’t express my appreciation for this dedicated group of parent volunteers. Thank you very much!
I am in the process of evaluating our current policy on releasing grades. Presently, we release grades on Friday. We implemented this so students would have the opportunity to discuss their grades with parents, prior to viewing the posted grades. Please send me any feedback you may have regarding this policy. I will mull over the feedback from teachers and parents and make a decision over the break. I will let you know as soon as a decision is made. Please send me your thoughts to my direct e-mail: jhutchins@darlingtonschool.org.
