"Middle school must be a strong learning school where every child is expected to achieve and helped to learn and it should be accomplished in a humane, positive, and dynamic environment" (Eichhorn).
In middle school, individuals decide who they are. They decide what they believe, their standards, their values, their future, etc. Middle school is where minds are molded and not many change in high school and beyond, more so just added too.
Democratic education is aimed towards encouraging students to have self-determination when it comes to their education and learning and focuses less on the education itself. In other words, its main focus is on the students and their freedom in regards to their learning.
Do you think the middle school movement has hope and will focus on students social/ emotional health and well being or is it back-tracking and testing and scores are becoming the forefront of teaching?
Lousbury is known as 'the conscience of the middle school' because of his constant commitment and leadership to young adolescence, the ones who teach them, and others who benefit them in different ways. Through his actions, he has significantly influenced the nature of middle level education, giving him this title.
In my opinion, understanding a middle school mind is one of the most important concepts of teaching middle school. It seems like it is more important for a middle level teacher to know about the way middle schooler think that it is for an Elementary level or a high school level teacher to understand the way those students think and that is because they are going through so much change and maturation.
One thing that surprised me this week was listening to the videos and realizing how important it was to create a separate section between the elementary and high school level. It took a lot of steps and planning to make the decision but that just shows how valuable it was. I feel like throughout the videos we watched, it was apparent how apart middle level is from elementary and high school. I did not realize how special this age group truly was until I started studying it deeper.
I hope to learn more about what specifically makes the middle level so unique. Is it physical? Is it mental? Is it development? I am sure it is all of the above but I am interested to see examples.
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