Is Middle School Worse than When We Were Kids (In Junior High)?

Yes It Is!

Rich or Poor, we need to take a look at these lost kids. Cheryl O has hit it on the nail.

I just completed a 3 month job as a longterm sub in a middle school. Overall, the kids are what you would expect from a 12/13 yr old. However, there are a handful that back talk and confront adults with an attitude that would shock even the most seasoned educators. I saw a level of disrespect for authority that will definitely not serve these students well in their futures. I don't understand how parents believe these kids will ever hold a steady job with the attitudes and behaviors they display. Contacting, or trying to contact, the parents didn't help. In most cases, the parents were just to busy or have heard one to many times from the school to respond or care. It's just plain sad.

Worse is a relative thing and without quantifying it.... Kids have new ways to be mean (social media etc) but schools actually tolerate it less than they once did. At my kids' school the teachers seem really concerned about how the kids are doing emotionally which they did not seem to put so much energy into when I was younger.

Having said that there are lots of new pressures to replace the old ones. They're exposed to a larger more dangerous world at an earlier age.

Well, I went to middle school in the late 1980's in the affluent Bay Area in CA & kids were experimenting with sex, drugs & alcohol then, as they still are now.
There were mean girls, bullies, cliques, and different groups, as there are now.

I think things have changed a little bit, but the main difference I see is that this generation seems very spoiled & self entitled.

I work at the same middles school I went to in the early 90's. I don't feel the experience is that different nowadays! Same overall feel of goofiness, giddiness, and general insecurity and self-centered worldview. The one MAJOR difference is the addition of instant communication and easy access to information (no more encyclopedias for these kids!). They are really dialed in at all times. Back in the day you might call a few friends after school to chat, now they are linked in at all times to others in their social group ... and not in their social group... through text, facebook, etc
It's done the same thing for kids that it has for us adults- widened our social circles and given us an acceptable mode of communication when taking the risk on a real phone call would have been too awkward or uncomcomfortable. When you think about yourself in middle school.and how awkward and umcomfortable things often were... well, these advancements in technology both help them and hurt them! The internet is 24 hours a day you know, there is really no escaping it. It's really changed things for them, as it has for all of us. But I don't think it's necessarily made the middle school experience worse. Just more complex

What Cheryl O said. Kids are lead to believe that they are so special that the mere capability of breathing in air makes them little Gods. Entitlement state...so wrong on so many levels. That is why bullying has gotten worse. Technology and the fact that parents don't care and these kids know they can get away with it.

I sincerely doubt that it's worse overall, although strongly suspect that geography is a huge factor on the individual school.

Quite frankly, my personal belief is that having a huge group of kids all going through puberty together with no one to model after (older kids) and no one to act grownup for (little kids) is just a recipe for disaster. Although, I can also see the allure of keeping the puberty monsters away from the little kids and the teenagers.

I grew up travelling, so I've been to a LOT of different schools. My mum's first priority was the 'best' district in whatever area we were moving to (my dad was willing to commute up to 2 hours each way), but even so? HUGE variation.

Academically MY middleschool was far beyond either of my highschools ((the graduation requirements were stricter at my middleschool than they were at my highschool. EX; algebra, trig, and geometry were required to be passed before graduating 8th grade... but in my (seattle) highschool only algebra was required for 12th grade graduation. Shakespeare, Chaucer, Tolstoy et al were all required reading in my middleschool, but were sr. electives in my highschool.)). Security wise? My middleschool had gangs (soCal), metal detectors (guns and knives were on campus anyway), police, etc. At one point there was a police chase in front of my school where a bunch of people got decapitated (car crash, not students). We all knew what curbing was, there was a LOT of bullying, drug use, etc. It was a GREAT school though, and very 'safe' comparitively speaking against other local schools. My sister's middle school? No weapons, drugs, sex, fake IDs, etc. And about as difficult academically as 3rd grade. :P (she was in middleschool in the same district I went to highschool in. My brothers' middle schools? Neither as advanced as mine, nor as pathetic as our sister's. Ran the gamut on the security issues).

All schools were "top" schools.

And everyone was miserable in all cases. I was uber popular in middleschool, my sister a doormouse, my brothers jocks and music guys and tech geeks (aka some popular, some shunned). All of us had a lousy time.

Everyone I've ever met and discussed this with HATED middleschool.

It's vicious.

Now, credit where credit is due... MAYBE our kids have somehow advanced to a level of sociopathy that we and our agemates were incapable of. But I sincerely doubt it.

Maybe i'm naive, but the sex wasn't in the middle schools for me in Mid America in 1980's, it was in the high schools then but not the middle schools.

No, I think we just forget with age.

I am scared of public middle school here in Washington! I went to private school but even back then the public school kids were "bad" and I think it's worse now. Glad my kids are in a public k-8 school just because of that. I think it keeps kids younger longer.

I think so. I think school is a lot harder, education-wise. I also think that kids are expected to be a lot more grown-up. (Maybe that's good, and maybe that's not - it depends...)

There were plenty of "temptations" back then, and plenty now. It just seems that the ones nowadays are more serious. Of course, that's just a perception, isn't it!

Dawn

Education or how kids treat you ???

In ca , city of sunnyvale.... I had a hard time in Jr High. Bullied and mean kids. It was tough. My kids go to a private school here in AZ and although it is a bit better there is still bulling and mean kids treating eachother with disrespect . It is kinda sad how these kids treat others just because they are not in cheer or have a phone or like school or are smart in school. I think it is tough for any child to grow up during these years..... I hope it does get better for many future generations.

No worse, no better.
Kids are still obnoxious, moody and difficult at this age.
Parents are another story.
WAY more involved, which can be good or bad. Of course it's good if they care and are really trying to make a difference, but bad if all they are doing is complaining and making excuses for their own kids' problems :(

If it is worse I am not sure what I am going to do in a few years...

This will date me but Fast Times at Ridgemont High was THE big movie my first year in middle school....it seemed everyone had seen it but me...my parents vetoed that...never saw it until college and then realized why my parents were not so into me going to see it at the time.

There was sex, drugs and "rock and roll" big time in early eighty's middle school...I can't imagine that it has gotten any better...

I will seriously consider homeschooling or charter schooling during those horrible horrible tween years...

When I was there middle school was HELL...worst three years of my life...don't want it to be for my kids...