In-depth education story
Walking into Dewitt Middle School during lunchtime is a fascinating sight. At one o’clock, the 8th graders are eating lunch, but more children are running around, chatting, whispering to each other, and playing with their cell phones than eating.
Of course, fooling around is expected of most children, but more and more middle schools are having trouble keeping students disciplined and willing to work. Rich Bernstein, Guidance Counselor at Dewitt Middle School says at the middle school age it’s a struggle to know where the line is; a lot of the students don’t know when they are overstepping behavioral boundaries.
Since the No Child Left Behind Act, many schools are struggling to keep up with the curriculum requirements. Because of this, Bernstein says, there is less time to spend on behavioral issues due to the emphasis on standardized tests and keeping up with curriculum.
However, unlike many middle schools in New York State, The Ithaca City School District requires all teachers to have a bachelor's degree. Bernstein says that a lot of the teachers have tried to do more project orientated assignments rather than simple independent work as a part of an effort to promote cooperative and developmental learning.
However, it still remains hard to keep kids on task.
"They have no discipline to stick with things," Bernstein says. Now more than ever kids are texting, playing video games, or talking on their phones in school. Bernstein admits that a lot of problems are beyond their control.
"These kids have facebook, which is ridiculous, and it causes problems that are outside of school, and it's something we can't control," he says.
At Dewitt Middle School, to try and make the younger students more comfortable there are no bells between classes. Because of this, sixth graders rarely run into the eighth, which helps the younger students who tend to get intimidated by the older kids.
Bernstein says he tries to make contact with the students as much as possible. There are more divorced parents these days so students are facing more problems at home, he says.
"Middle school kids are definitely tougher than the elementary but they still want to please and they're not quite formed in their habits so it makes it fun," Bernstein says. It appears that Dewitt Middle School is doing their best to ensure the success of their students and their behavioral development, but with the No Child Left Behind Act putting more focus on tests and less on personal development, and the increasing use of cell phones, facebook, and other new technologies for this age group, they have serious obstacles to face.
For further reading on this topic visit the New York Times series on Middle School: The Critical Years
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