Chaotic Middle Schools ~ Part 1

Not to offend anyone who thought that the opinions in this article were useful, but I thought it was the most outrageous and ludicrous information I have read in quite some time.

• ..."all five middle schools have begun offering some form of single sex classes, on the theory that they promote self esteem and reduce distractions."

What good is forming single sex classes? The world is not a single sex place and jobs are not single sex. How is making single sex classrooms going to help students socially and career wise in the future? If anything, it will frighten them more when they go out into the world because they are going to be exposed to so many new aspects that they had never experienced before.

• A friend of mine graduated from the Brooklyn Secondary School for Collaborative Studies in Carroll Gardens and completley hated the fact that her school days did not begin until 9am. She only went there because it was her grandmothers wishes, but she was an early bird and felt like she sat around in the morning waiting for her education to begin. Though some may think that many adolescents are not morning people, the results may turn out even worse by keeping them later in the afternoon!

• "Students of all grades are grouped into academies with themes like buisness and cultural arts based on their interests rather than their age." This idea will only take students so far. Is an 8th grader who is more advanced in the same topic as a fourth grader really suppossed to just sit there while the fourth grader asks introductory questions? I like the idea of classrooms being formed based on themes of interest, but they should be formed with students of the same age.

• "But scores are not exactly his priority." They should not be anyone's priority! What good is getting an A in a class if all a student did was memorize their class notes? The state is so distracted with standardized tests which are suppossed to prove something about the students intelligence and the performance of teachers, that they are failing to realize that tons of students blank out on tests or have test anxiety. Whoever really believes that a number or a letter on a test grade proves how intelligent a person is has got it all wrong.