I gotta say, while a few things have been dramatically worse (for example, there are lockers but the kids are not allowed to use them ?!! AT ALL?! and when I emailed the principal about it, he said a. that if my kid had a medical need, she could be the one 7th grader to use a locker (LOL imagine) and b. that they didn't really use textbooks anymore anyway since everything's on the computer/ internet so there wouldn't be much to carry - a total lie, as my 7th grader lugged a 25 pound backpack around all year :( ) - for the most part, it's been soooooo much better for her than it was for me. Fingers crossed the same is true for your girl! <3
The locker thing is very weird to me. At our MS the kids have TEENY TINY LOCKERS and they have to use “string bags” instead of regular backpacks and I don’t really get it? It’s not the end of the world but I just don’t entirely understand
Moving up anxiety is common. And every year, teacher fuel it by saying, "Oh, next year! The teachers aren't going to put up with what we put up with!" I tell kids in my practice that ending one grade and starting another is kind of like the day before and the day after your birthday. You're a different age! But are you really that different? Year-to-year there's a huge difference, but June to September...not so much. The kids they end with in June are pretty much the same as the kids they start with in September.
They do make SUCH A BIG DEAL about moving up! And then you add to that all the narratives about middle school that are out there - I think it can become a self fulfilling prophecy if we’re not careful to temper it. I love the idea of thinking about it like a birthday!
Thank you for this! My son is also about to start middle school, and while he's excited about the new school, he's also sad to have left the only school he remembers. I've hesitated to push movies and books about middle school because I don't want him to expect it to be awful--he's prone to anxiety as it is. I hope you are right and that it's a gentler experience now (I went to middle school in the late 70s/early 80s!)
I gotta say, while a few things have been dramatically worse (for example, there are lockers but the kids are not allowed to use them ?!! AT ALL?! and when I emailed the principal about it, he said a. that if my kid had a medical need, she could be the one 7th grader to use a locker (LOL imagine) and b. that they didn't really use textbooks anymore anyway since everything's on the computer/ internet so there wouldn't be much to carry - a total lie, as my 7th grader lugged a 25 pound backpack around all year :( ) - for the most part, it's been soooooo much better for her than it was for me. Fingers crossed the same is true for your girl! <3
The locker thing is very weird to me. At our MS the kids have TEENY TINY LOCKERS and they have to use “string bags” instead of regular backpacks and I don’t really get it? It’s not the end of the world but I just don’t entirely understand
Moving up anxiety is common. And every year, teacher fuel it by saying, "Oh, next year! The teachers aren't going to put up with what we put up with!" I tell kids in my practice that ending one grade and starting another is kind of like the day before and the day after your birthday. You're a different age! But are you really that different? Year-to-year there's a huge difference, but June to September...not so much. The kids they end with in June are pretty much the same as the kids they start with in September.
They do make SUCH A BIG DEAL about moving up! And then you add to that all the narratives about middle school that are out there - I think it can become a self fulfilling prophecy if we’re not careful to temper it. I love the idea of thinking about it like a birthday!
Thank you for this! My son is also about to start middle school, and while he's excited about the new school, he's also sad to have left the only school he remembers. I've hesitated to push movies and books about middle school because I don't want him to expect it to be awful--he's prone to anxiety as it is. I hope you are right and that it's a gentler experience now (I went to middle school in the late 70s/early 80s!)
Literally every movie/book we've found about middle school is like BUCKLE UP KIDS