Tyler Goark, 14, and Megan Skidmore, 13, are typical students at a fairly representative middle school in a middle-class suburb. For a week last spring, they offered themselves as guides into a territory that few adults can navigate alone鈥�7th grade.
Twenty miles north of Seattle, the glass skyscrapers of the city are supplanted by the towering pines of Edmonds. Multiplexes and minimarts, the architectural signatures of suburbia, line the broad avenues. This morning, as every school day morning, yellow school buses and minivans peel off the road to deposit their crews of children at College Place Middle School. Bleary-eyed boys in baggy jeans and sweatshirts, donning black shades (though it鈥檚 raining), amble to class. Girls fix their eyeshadow, suck on water bottles like pacifiers, and cluck about the latest intrigue.
A few of the students hug their parents goodbye, but most just bolt out of the cars鈥攁s if to deny they ever had parents鈥攊nto the teeming crowd.
Most of the lawn chat this morning is fraught with angst. Rumors of breakups abound. Cliques have congealed and then melted overnight.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 up?鈥� asks Megan Skidmore, lifting her hand in a languid high-five.
鈥淢egan鈥檚 obsessed with Andrew,鈥� Megan鈥檚 best friend, Emily Pruitt, says to the gathering group of girls.
鈥淪hhh!鈥� scolds Megan, looking around furiously to see who might have overheard. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 so last week.鈥�
Middle school years are synonymous with change. More transformation occurs between the ages of 11 and 14 than in any period of a human鈥檚 life other than the first four years, experts say.
Sandwiched between elementary and high school, middle school students are in limbo between childhood and adolescence: They鈥檙e off kilter, out of place. Peers, not parents, are the predominant influence at the very time these early adolescents are becoming directly exposed to the influences of drugs, alcohol, and pop culture.
Emotionally, youngsters of middle school age are on a hormonal ride where moods swing so quickly it鈥檚 impossible sometimes for teachers or parents to anticipate the swells and dips.
They are fickle creatures, Vicki Clarke, one of College Place鈥檚 counselors, says as she scans the morning rush to class. 鈥淭hey are trying on new personas every day. Like, they want to be a vegetarian. It may last only six hours, but they are very passionate about it,鈥� she says.
And just as academics starts to get complex, Clarke says, school is the last thing on their minds.
鈥業 need to go shopping, major. I鈥檝e an urge to buy,鈥� says 12-year-old Katie Blok, who is cruising the mall with Megan and a few other friends after school. The five 7th graders dart toward a CD store, put on headphones, and sway to the band Pink.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 like Britney Spears. She鈥檚 so full of herself,鈥� declares Megan, flipping through CDs.
In the Gap, Katie tries on peasant blouses, and Megan puts on a green cowboy hat. In Abercrombie & Fitch, the girls blow air kisses to a poster of tanned, muscled men doing push-ups at the beach. 鈥淢eg used to hate Abercrombie in 6th grade,鈥� says Nora Dean, as if revealing a deep confidence.
鈥淏ut we are the preppies now,鈥� Megan adds.
鈥淭hey are slaves to brands,鈥� Debra Skidmore, Megan鈥檚 mother, chimes in before she is banished to the food court.
鈥淚 like going to the mall 鈥榗ause I can talk to my friends and not my mom ... and there鈥檙e boys here,鈥� explains Megan. Just then, two burly high schoolers brush by. 鈥淥h, he鈥檚 hot. It鈥檚 like, 鈥楬ello, I love you,鈥欌�� Megan giggles.
鈥淚f it weren鈥檛 for boys, I鈥檇 quit school,鈥� Emily declares.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to have a boyfriend 鈥榗ause you have someone to talk to,鈥� Megan adds. 鈥淧eople hold hands and hug each other on Valentine鈥檚 Day. They give you a present. It鈥檚 nice.鈥�
For middle school girls, a conversation with a boy two days in a row is considered a serious romantic entanglement. For the most part, in 7th grade, it鈥檚 more about flirting than sex. But still, at College Place, counselors estimate that one in nine 7th graders is sexually active. Because public displays of affection can be offensive to some students, one of the school rules is no physical contact.
鈥淚 had two kids kissing recently in a full-body press, and I knew they were sexually active. I had to change their class schedule to separate them,鈥� Clarke says.
When the romance sours, she hears about it. Relationship advice is the No. 1 reason middle school girls come to her cozy office to talk. Nos. 2 and 3 are problems with parents and family illness. Only occasionally does a visitor come to Clarke stressed about schoolwork.
When it comes to romance, middle school boys are clueless, Clarke says. 鈥淕irls are attacking boys, and the boys are shell-shocked because they鈥檙e aren鈥檛 developmentally ready for that,鈥� she says.
Though many girls have crushes on Tyler Goark, his sole obsession is baseball. 鈥淢y goal is to make high school ball,鈥� Tyler says in the dugout on a school night while practicing his swing for the Tide, which is finally breaking its losing streak.
Tyler swears he has a girlfriend, but she never seems to be at his side.
鈥淚鈥檓 busy,鈥� he explains. 鈥淚 probably won鈥檛 have a relationship till I get a job in the major leagues ... if I get that far,鈥� he adds.
Up at bat, his teammates chant 鈥淭yler, Tyler鈥� as he hits a hard line drive down the middle of the wet green field for a double. The other players behind home plate spit sunflower seeds as they wait for their turns at bat.
Tyler likes school all right. But his main concern is making the grades he needs so his parents will let him keep playing baseball. 鈥淲hen I hear my team cheer me on, it feels good,鈥� he says.
As Tyler glides into the school鈥檚 cramped cafeteria the next day, 150 7th graders are chomping on their Tater Tots and downing Cokes. The room鈥檚 acoustics amplify the already suffocating chatter. Even Andy Rogers, the school鈥檚 affable principal, looks overwhelmed as he towers over the 12- and 13- year-olds surging toward the food line.
鈥淪upervising lunch is like herding cats,鈥� Rogers says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like the Bermuda Triangle in here.鈥�
But Rogers knows there is order in chaos. The cliques鈥攖he preppies, jocks, druggies, and Gothics鈥攁re all at their self-assigned posts.
The Goths, in black garb, their hair dyed black, congregate like ravens in the cafeteria鈥檚 bleachers. The preps, recognizable by their Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts, populate the tables in 鈥渢he bowl鈥� at the bottom of the stairs. The jocks mix with the preppies. The druggies skulk at the fringe. One of the Goths has a T-shirt on that says 鈥淜ill the Preps.鈥�
鈥淭hese Goths, rockers, they annoy me,鈥� says Tyler, standing in Prep Central. 鈥淭hey give you that look.鈥�
Tyler says there hasn鈥檛 been a real Goth-prep brawl yet, but the atmosphere can get crazy. 鈥淲e had three food fights this year,鈥� he notes as a Tater Tot whizzes past his ear from the bleacher seats. 鈥淪ee?鈥�
Things can get ugly in other ways. Over near the softdrink machines, Will, the class bully, taunts a student named Stephen, who is a dwarf. 鈥淪ay hello, Stephen,鈥� he says to the frazzled-seeming 7th grader, who is also deaf.
Boys and girls are mean in different ways in middle school, Clarke says. 鈥淏oys are up front in their nastiness. Girls are covert.鈥�
Girls are so body-conscious at this age that many skip lunch or barely pick at their food.
鈥淎 lot of people just take a bite, and that鈥檚 it. It鈥檚 too fattening,鈥� says Katie.
Clarke says eating disorders are a problem. 鈥淚 hear about girls going to the bathroom and throwing up,鈥� the counselor says. 鈥淭heir friends come in and tell me their friends are anorexic.鈥�
Because of their desperate desire to fit in, many kids in middle schools feel lonely, and more and more are using drugs to blunt their feelings of isolation.
Two years ago, teacher Alaine Davis confiscated a bag of marijuana and rolling papers from a student. 鈥淜ids talk about experimenting, and you know they are smoking,鈥� she says. Nationally, marijuana use among middle-school-age children has more than doubled, to 22 percent, since the early 1990s.
Megan Skidmore鈥檚 16-year-old brother, Eric, was such a heavy user when he was at College Place that he was thrown into drug treatment for eight weeks before high school. Lots of 7th graders were smoking pot, drinking, using Ecstasy, he says.
鈥淜ids would skip school and go across the street to the woods and blatantly use,鈥� Rogers, who became principal two years ago, recalls. Rogers has increased supervision to reduce loitering around the school.
鈥淲e have made significant progress,鈥� says Rogers, who recently suspended three students for smoking marijuana.
All of these preoccupations are challenging for teachers whose job is to make sure students write well- constructed sentences and solve equations.
鈥淎cademically, they are not motivated. In elementary, they can slide because of their brains,鈥� Clarke says. 鈥淗ere, they are required to demonstrate knowledge, and that鈥檚 not important to many kids,鈥� she says.
Michelle: Ali, I like _ _ _ _ and someone said he liked me too. Who is _ _ _ _? Ali: Jeff? M: True! A: So is he gonna dump Phoebe now that he knows you like him? M: He already dumped Phoebe and I don't know if he likes me 4-sure or if he knows I like him. I'm scared to tell him. What will he say!!!??? A: Do you want me to do it? I think he will be like "Oh OK," he will be speechless. When do you want me to? Next passing period, 7th period? M: Yeah, say "Jeff, Michelle told me that she likes you but don't tell her I told you. Do you like her?" A: OK, but remind me, because I know that I'll forget.
鈥淓verything is a big drama,鈥� says Davis, who teaches 7th grade math. 鈥淜ids burst into tears when they get a bad test grade and then run out of the room. It鈥檚 hard to make things business as usual.鈥�
Social studies teacher Teresa Cairns says going to students鈥� emotional rescue is a big part of her job. 鈥淭here are kids who don鈥檛 come to my room if I don鈥檛 hug them,鈥� she says. The teacher describes a situation in which an 8th grade girl got a note from a friend. The friend had accused the girl of ignoring her, and wrote that she wanted to kill herself. 鈥淚 had them write down their feelings and process it, and it was better,鈥� Cairns says.
Rogers says his most successful teachers learn how to listen to adolescents鈥� emotional needs. In a survey Rogers conducted asking students to list their top concerns, 鈥渢eachers in a bad mood鈥� ranked at the top, followed by school safety or grade pressures. Middle school students don鈥檛 listen to teachers who are cranky with them, Rogers says. (The school鈥檚 least popular teacher is a stern disciplinarian who issues commands from her lectern.)
To lift students鈥� spirits, College Place Middle School holds a community-building retreat each fall for the 8th grade class. Students spend a night at a camp, take nature hikes, make up skits. The school also holds a student-of-the-month reception for those with the most academic improvement. More than 200 of College Place鈥檚 625 students have received such an award.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a middle school thing. We see what we can do to make kids feel good about themselves and their accomplishments,鈥� Principal Rogers says. Though it鈥檚 at the high school level that students physically drop out, Rogers observes, 鈥渢his is the age when we lose kids mentally.鈥�
鈥淪ometimes I space out,鈥� says Tyler, leaning back on his chair in math class. He looks cool in his standard white T-shirt and gelled- back blond hair. The teacher directs the class to open a textbook for a study period. Tyler fiddles with plastic blocks to calculate volume鈥攕omething he鈥檒l need to know for his final exam in two days.
A bright, good-natured student, Tyler pulls a B average, but is struggling for a B-minus in math. Still, he says, most classes are a breeze.
Tyler describes how in a health class students were given an assignment to draw a person under stress. They filled in the 鈥減oints of stress鈥� on a stick figure like 鈥渂iting nails, cracked knuckles, sweat, shaking, bathroom troubles.鈥�
鈥淭he teacher would just write down most of it, and we鈥檇 just copy it down.鈥�
His homework assignments never keep him so busy that he can鈥檛 play baseball every night.
鈥淪chool鈥檚 not really that hard,鈥� Tyler says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no reason why you just can鈥檛 fly by.鈥�
Megan slips into math class as the bell rings, flapping her powdered-pink eyelids toward the cute boys in the back. Megan earns A鈥檚 or B鈥檚 in most classes, and she likes many of her teachers. But she, too, struggles in math. It鈥檚 not that she鈥檚 incapable of understanding the concepts and solving the problems, says her teacher. Her focus is just not on calculating the area of a parallelogram. 鈥淚t鈥檚 that the social thing is a huge distraction,鈥� Davis says.
鈥淢iddle school is a joke,鈥� says Megan鈥檚 brother Eric, who graduated from College Place Middle School in 1998. 鈥淚 hung out with the badasses, and didn鈥檛 do anything in 7th grade. I got incompletes. I was a slacker, but I wasn鈥檛 held back.鈥�
Rogers says policies have changed since Eric roamed these halls. Currently, 40 to 60 7th graders are failing. But those students are not promoted to the next grade; they are held back and placed in a special program to help them complete the work, the principal says.
Since coming here, Rogers has also replaced a third of the teaching staff, favoring employees who are able to keep students鈥� attention and help prepare them for the state鈥檚 new high- stakes, standards-based tests.
It鈥檚 hard to be a slacker in Heather Hiatt鈥檚 science class, for example. The wiry young teacher moves at the pace of a video game, snapping her fingers to direct traffic, making funny faces to get students鈥� attention. 鈥淵ou guys pick a topic to search for yet?鈥� she asks two dazed students. 鈥淥K, go. Do it!鈥�
Today, students are trying to gather as much information about an environmental issue as they can online. Tyler is cruising Web sites to find out about logging in the Pacific Northwest.
鈥淚 like Ms. Hiatt because she makes a game out of everything,鈥� says 7th grader Michelle Sheehy. 鈥淲e draw pictures and explore rather than just reading a book.鈥�
Still, even Hiatt says it鈥檚 a challenge to keep students interested when you only have 50 minutes to teach. She鈥檚 shifting to longer periods this year. 鈥淭hey can do more than we are asking them to do. You can go deeper with kids if you have more time,鈥� she says
Hiatt says another barrier is that girls tend to limit their academic aspirations so they can socialize more.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be in honors. Honors is if you don鈥檛 have a life,鈥� says Ali Anderson, an A student.
Haley Duffy, another A student, says she doesn鈥檛 like to speak up in class. 鈥淚 know you get better grades if you ask a question. But I don鈥檛 like to raise my hand 鈥榗ause I鈥檓 afraid people will think I鈥檓 dumb.鈥�
It鈥檚 difficult for parents to come to their children鈥檚 aid because they are often the last people to know there鈥檚 a problem.
鈥淢others call me and say, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 going on with my daughter? She used to snuggle with me, and now, she slams the door and doesn鈥檛 want to talk to me,鈥� 鈥� Clarke says. 鈥淚 say to them, 鈥業t鈥檚 healthy.鈥� Parents don鈥檛 realize that kids need boundaries.鈥�
At home, Megan and best friend Emily鈥檚 secret chatter halts as soon as Megan鈥檚 mother, Debra, enters the room. 鈥淧arents, you see, are on a need-to-know basis,鈥� her mother says.
The walls in Megan鈥檚 room are covered with pictures of friends and posters of Abercrombie models and her favorite band, Blink 182. 鈥淚鈥檓 obsessed with them,鈥� she says as she strums 鈥淲ild Thing鈥� on her electric guitar. As soon as her mother walks away, Megan shuts the door.
Her mother sighs. 鈥淚 guess I鈥檒l have her back in high school.鈥�
