449: Middle School
Oct 28, 2011
This week, at the suggestion of a 14-year-old listener, we bring you stories from the awkward, confusing, hormonally charged world of middle school. Including a teacher who transforms peer pressure into a force for good, and reports from the frontlines of the middle school dance.
(Pictured: 7th graders at a costume dance, dressed as chararacters from The Outsiders.)
- In an effort to understand the physical and emotional changes middle school kids experience, Ira speaks with reporter Linda Perlstein, who wrote a book called Not Much Just Chillin' about a year she spent following five middle schoolers. Then we hear from producer Alex Blumberg, who was a middle school teacher in Chicago for four years before getting into radio. Alex's takeaway? We shouldn't even try teaching kids at this age. Marion Strok, principal of a successful Chicago school, disagrees. (6 1/2 minutes)
Photo
7th graders at the middle school costume dance...dressed as chararacters from The Outsiders, which they were reading in school. (Beacon Middle School; Lewes,
Delware)
