Sharing strange ideas about the school system

Kids do things all the time that their parents are grateful not to know about. (Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands)

I have long been skeptical that the entirety of what people need to know to function as adults in society can be taught in the thirteen years required in the American school system.

Is that even the purpose of school? I don't really think so. Really, our parents are the ones who are supposed to get us ready to be adults, whereas the schools prepare us to be citizens. But neither of those things is happening to the degree that it needs to.

Really, the purpose of the K-12 educational system is child care. That's why it takes thirteen years, even though some people need double that time to be ready for what's next, and some are contributing meaningful ideas and actions after only half that time or less.

Fixing the system from within is impossible, so I've spent a decade experimenting with an alternative: a tiny private middle school, only for grades six through eight (approximately age 11 through 14). At this point in my experiment, it's clear to me that middle school itself, as a concept, has a serious flaw.

That flaw is puberty.

The onset of puberty is the dividing line between childhood and adolescence, and that moment hits every person at a different chronological age. The physical changes of puberty are unsettling and traumatic, but what presents the biggest challenge from an educational perspective is the psychological changes: the desire to follow peers instead of adults, the awakening of sexuality, and the urge to grow up, be independent, and gain distance from one's childhood.

The experience of puberty and the social and emotional needs it triggers are fundamentally separate from a person's intellectual and academic needs. The girl who has suddenly become hyperaware of her effect on boys and an expert at deploying this newfound power might, at the same time, be a few years behind in her math or language skills. She certainly can't be successfully placed in a fourth-grade classroom, even if that's what her skills require.

What I've learned is that it's also dicey to place this girl with her age peers if they aren't as sophisticated as she is. She needs to be with people who are on the same page.

Maria Montessori accepted the idea that adolescents are so busy navigating the changes brought on by hormones that they struggle to focus on schoolwork. She suggested sending them off to the farm for a few years. Wouldn't that be great?

If I were starting over again today, I would design two programs: One for approximately grades four through seven, and the other for approximately grades six through nine. These programs would be linked, but separate. Once a student starts to find the kids around them babyish and boring, shows signs of budding sexuality, or begins to pull conversations toward mature topics, they would be moved to the second program, regardless of chronological age.

The academic content of the programs would overlap, but the social and emotional support and instruction that students receive would look quite different. The curriculum would be suited to a student’s developmental level, which is distinct from their age and not necessarily aligned with their grade in school.

Would this setup cause all kinds of new problems? Sure. I didn't say I was actually going to do it. One of the challenges we've faced over the years at The Little Middle School is that people tend to come to us in seventh or eighth grade when they're already having problems (that is, after the onset of puberty), whereas we prefer to start with kids as early as possible (i.e., before puberty). So the market wants primarily an adolescent program—an interventional strategy—while we wish to engage kids at an earlier age in a proactive strategy that prevents education-related trauma.

I don't want to fight the market or advocate for something wildly different from what people already want. I'm not one of those "change the world" people. I just like to tinker with my own little corner, questioning the status quo, exploring the possibilities, and influencing those who have similar beliefs already. So while I probably won't create this school program anytime soon, I am interested in starting a conversation about it.

That's what I've done here. What do you think?