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Transition

EDITORIAL: GIVE K-8 SCHOOLS DUE CONSIDERATION

The sad truth is, a lot of students struggle in their middle-school/junior high years. Some education research suggests that the transition between elementary school and middle-level education is very difficult for students who come from nurturing elementary school environments.
Ref. https://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C3949%2C%2C00.html

Transition

The article wouldn't load for me, so I didn't get a chance to read it; however, I have seen a significant drop in maturity level over the years of children. I noticed it even when I was in school, especially high school.

There's a balance that teachers and parents need to find with their children. You want to protect them from the harsh things in the world, but at the same time, you don't want to shelter them too much. I went to college with girls who had grown up either in strict Christian schools, or they were homeschooled. When they got into the real world, they were in culture shock. They didn't know how to deal with anything.

It's the same for kids making the transitions from elementary school to middle school to high school. If you baby your students, when they get into a more mature situation, like middle school, they aren't going to know what to do.

My freshman year of high school, 9th through 12th grade were all intermingled throughout the school. The layout of the classes were so that all the like classes were placed in the same hall. (I.e., Math classes were in the math hall, English classes were all in the same hall, etc.) Well, my sophomore year, they started segregating the freshman. All of the freshman had their classes in the same hall, with the exception of elective classes like band, choir, gym, etc.

We noticed that the next three years, the younger grades below us were becoming more and more immature. My freshman year, we were so intent on impressing the seniors that we made it a point to act more like our age, rather than like seven year olds who were in "big people school."

There is merit from shielding a child from older peers to an extent, but if done too much, then they aren't going to know how to handle life when they get to, let's say, college. They will be in culture shock.