Mary Holden is a teacher in Nashville, Tennessee. I have met Mary on several occasions, usually when I was in Nashville. She spent 15 years teaching high school, then switched to middle school, teaching sixth grade. She wasn’t sure how she would react to the change. In short, she LOVED it!
There are many weird things that happen in middle school that I never experienced as a high school teacher. Boogers. Penises drawn in weird places. Bad smells, especially after PE on a hot day. Excessive bottle flipping. Weird dance moves that kids break into constantly and at the most random times. Fortnite, Fornite, Fornite. Pokemon. K-Pop. More Fortnite. Do you play Fornite, Mrs. Holden? No?? Why not? Some unusually phrased graffiti in the bathroom because these kids think they know what they’re talking about when it comes to sex but really they have no idea (most of them, anyway).
Also, farts. I mean, audible farts during class. Oh, and burps, too. And lots of talking about farts and burps. Do these kids not realize the embarrassment it might cause them? No, not in 6th grade, they don’t. I’m teaching 7th grade next year – next summer, I’ll give a full report on whether or not they care about these things yet.
In 6th grade, there are loose teeth and boo-boos healed with Band-Aids. Silly jokes. Random stories that go on and on about what they did over the weekend. And there are hugs. Hugs because they are happy and hugs because they are feeling sad. There are tears sometimes. Tantrums, even. I’ve been called Mom more than once. That doesn’t really happen in high school much. I mean, think back to your own experience in middle school. It’s a really strange and awkward time in life. It’s something we all have to get through. And so teaching middle school is full of unusual things that happen on a daily basis.
But I also experienced real joy. Kids who love to read. (YAY!!! This makes me so happy!!) Kids who still see the magic in things. (I may or may not have squashed a student’s belief in the Elf on the Shelf being real.) (Yes, in 6th grade!) (Also, I’m sorry about that, kiddo, I thought you knew!) When we were studying Ancient Egypt in Social Studies class and we mummified a chicken, they were really into it! And when we read The Giver, Freak the Mighty, and Refugee in English class, they were really moved. Like I could see the awe and fear and sadness and joy in their faces as we read and talked about each book. That kind of thing dwindles away as we get older and is much harder to detect in high school. Kids this age are creative and love to show it – they wrote creepy tales of their own and created ABC books about ancient civilizations. I feel like I really got to know my students this year and, as a result, really grew to care deeply about them in a way I didn’t always experience at the high school level. And as a bonus, most of my students really like school and learning new things! It was inspiring to see.
Mary reminds me of what I tell future teachers when they ask if they are doing the right thing by going into teaching.
In the future, your students won’t remember the name of the mayor or the governor. They won’t remember the name of the superintendent. They will remember you.
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I started me career as a French teacher in a junior high school. The students were all hormones and enthusiasm, and I enjoyed most of the students. Unfortunately, the school was led by a trio of jocks that ignored a clear drug problem in the school. This was a rough way to start a career. It would have been more enjoyable, if I hadn’t been locked into an inane, prescribed, audio-visual program that forced me to teach like Marcel Marceau as I wasn’t allowed to use English in the class. Most of the students were enjoyable and endlessly entertaining, but I really was at a loss to help those that were going down the drug rabbit hole. I think this was the first real drug wave to hit public schools (1970), and the administration thought if they ignored the problem, it would disappear. It didn’t.
Teaching is the best profession in the world. All you have to do is avoid the scripted test prep, and enjoy. Sixth graders are whirlwinds. Seventh graders are awkward — they just want people to like them. Great post. Thank you, Mary.
Agreed! Thank you, Mary!!! You are clearly a real teacher. A+.
I’ve been teaching 6th grade in middle school for nearly 30 years, elementary prior to that. I absolutely LOVE 6th grade. She needs to be prepared, 7th graders are ENTIRELY different and come with very unique challenges. And a lot more penis drawings.
A lot more.
My experience with 6th graders is somewhat limited, but here’s what I’ve observed: They are incredibly sweet and still not jaded and cynical and so are open to new learning and can get really, really excited about it. Then, toward the end of the year, some of them do a 180 and start acting out big time–pushing the boundaries. These are entering a new phrase in which they want to assert their independence. They are the ones that are on a faster-track developmental schedule or have difficulties at home. Does that sound accurate to you?
Perfectly. Well put.
I LOVE Public School Teachers!
I LOVE Public Schools.
Thank you! I love reading and hearing that. I really do. It means a lot.
What a delightful piece!
As a high-school teacher, I can attest that after middle school the bottle flipping and penis drawings do taper off, but they DO NOT disappear entirely. And the kids still know almost nothing about sex but think they do because they have seen a little of everything online. The difference is that many of them are ACTING UPON their ignorance, often with quite damaging consequences physically and emotionally. Fortunately, nationwide, a lot more are delaying the beginnings of sexual activity, and teenage pregnancy rates are down. I suspect that that is because they are at least a little more knowledgeable than were high-schoolers of the past. In third-world states like Florida, there is still very little sex education because fundamentalism.
Kids are on very different developmental schedules. I’ve taught quite a few twelve year olds in seventeen year old bodies and have the penis drawings to prove it. Scratch the surface of most of them, and the twelve year old is very much still there but is usually somewhat hidden because these kids really want others–their peers–to think of them as grown up and in charge of their own lives, thoughts, and emotions.
In other words, in high school, they still are, very much, children. Deformers forget that when they subject them to taking six or seven high-stakes standardized tests at the end of a school year spent meeting many thousands of demands, attending six or seven classes every day with three-minute breaks in-between in which they have to do all their personal business AND get to their next class. It’s all extremely stressful for these kids, and so they zone out and become stressed and angry and depressed. Real education reform would do a LOT to address these absurdities. Here: a little piece about that: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/03/17/one-way-to-make-high-school-suck-less/
Perhaps the most important thing I could tell prospective high-school teachers is this: High-school kids are extremely sensitive and volatile and fragile. They require kindness and patience and looking beyond the immediate, which is something they cannot do.
What I like best about teaching 8th graders is their burgeoning sense of and desire for fairness and equality. They begin to see the world beyond their neighborhoods. That’s exciting. Eighth graders are like little Thomas Jeffersons — who draw penises.
Oh my, LeftCoastTeacher, that’s WONDERFUL!!! LMAO!!!
LOVE THIS!!!! Thank you for sharing it. Kas
Agreed!
More power to you, Mary. I went from mostly tenth to all ninth. Shock for a couple of years. Anybody that thinks inexperience can produce education needs to try it.
By the way, this is from one Tennessee teacher to another. I teach down in Bedford County.
Absolutely delightful reading, including all the comments. It brings back very pleasant memories.
Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning".
Love this piece. It is actually about THE WORK. More please.
Agreed. It’s marvelous.
Ditto. I do miss the teaching discussions.
“In the future, your students won’t remember the name of the mayor or the governor. They won’t remember the name of the superintendent. They will remember you. ”
Exactly.
That’s freaking beautifully put, isn’t it!!!
I went from 13 years in Early Childhood Sped (3-5 years) to…Middle School!!!
Worried a bit, but had a toddler at home, & figured I didn’t have to spend all day w/little ones & go home to a little one, so very much enjoyed these pre-teens with no filter!
My take: 6th graders–still on the more elementary end, the youngest in the school, so somewhat intimidated, so a bit easier. 8th Graders: near graduation & high school, so getting serious more toward the mid-to-end-of-the-year–want to graduate, go to the 8th Grade dance, participate in the 8th Grade Class Trip.
7th Grade–OY!!–like the middle child, a bit uncertain of her/his place in Life. BUT–getting interested in the opposite sex–so much so that our very clever principal had maintenance staff remove ALL the mirrors in the bathrooms!! (Girls constantly asking for passes to “use” the restroom {to put on makeup, of course}.) Well, principal ended that!
& that’s the way it was from 1988-2010. Sigh. & that’s why you can call me “retiredbutmissthekids.” I do…I really do…
Thank you so much for your kind words about my blog post! Middle school is indeed something special. Thank you!
Mary Holden
7th grade English Teacher
Croft Middle Design Center
615.332.0217
mary.holden@mnps.org
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