Gloria Goris Stronks

The Christian Middle School: An Ethos of Caring

©1990 Christian Schools International, Grand Rapids, MI

Contents

Preface

Introduction. An Ethos of Caring

What Is a Christian Middle School?

1. Junior High Schools and Middle Schools

2. Learner Characteristics of Transescent Students

3. What Makes a Middle School Successful?

4. Instruction in a Christian Middle School

5. Planning a Christian Middle School

How the Christian Middle School Works

6. Leadership in the Christian Middle School

7. Exploratory Courses

8. Advisor/Advisee Relationships

9. Teaching for Servanthood

References

Appendix A: Sample Units

Unit for Theme Week: The Sixties

Look Around! Christian Awareness Unit for Junior High Students

Appendix B: Sources

Preface

This is in many ways an extraordinary time for Christian schools. Along with increasing dissatisfaction with public school education, there seems to be a renewed interest in an alternative choice for education. At the same time, parents of students in the Christian schools wonder whether their schools are as excellent and as Christian as they might be. And since there are different ways of defining “excellent” and “Christian,” there is room for disagreement.

Over the past five years I have received many requests to speak to teachers’ groups, administrators’ groups, and parent organizations about schooling for students between the ages of eleven and thirteen. The participants in these meetings have asked: How is a junior high school different from a middle school? What new information do we have concerning how students at this age learn? What should instruction be like for them? What kind of schooling will help them take responsibility for their own learning and take responsibility for the learning and care of those around them?

This book grew out of those discussions and is an attempt to answer questions and provide direction for teachers, administrators, and parents who are planning Christian education for this age group. I expect that there will be disagreements. In fact, I have tried to open the door to some of those disagreements by providing discussion questions after each topic. I hope that out of those discussions will come a clear focus and framework for your school. And I hope that this framework will provide direction for curriculum, instruction, school organization, and discipline.

Many people have helped me complete this work. The principals who wrote chapters six, seven, and eight are people one dares to ask to take on such work because they are so busy completing a great deal of other important work. My colleague Carl Mulder offered valuable comments and questions which helped provide direction. A great many teachers and administrators in Christian schools across North America read the manuscript and were most encouraging. My husband, William Stronks, has been solidly supportive of the project and of my work with the middle schools, in spite of the fact that it often takes me away from home. And Julia and Bill, our children, taught me more about middle school kids than anyone else possibly could. I am grateful to all of these people.

I have never been so excited about Christian education within the Reformed tradition as I am at the present time. But it has never been so difficult to do it well. Society is extremely complicated, and people are asking harder questions and are expecting a greater variety of outcomes from the schools. My strongest hope for this book is that it will stimulate conversations which will lead to better schools for our middle level children.

Gloria Goris Stronks

Introduction. An Ethos of Caring

Joanie is a middle school child. Watching her from the classroom window, I can see her standing on the edge of a group of classmates. Even from this distance it is clear that she is very uneasy. I realize that I rarely see her relax. Why does she seem so separate from the others . . . so easily hurt by them? Why is she being excluded? Her clothes are neat and attractive, but not particularly fashionable. The casual bantering that appears to be so easy for her classmates seems one of the most difficult of tasks for Joanie. When she tries to participate, they stare at her in a blank, noncommittal way. That stare would intimidate anyone, and Joanie is a fragile child.

There was something in the spirit of the middle school I was visiting that seemed competitive and non-caring. It was very different from the warm, thoughtful spirit of the school I had visited the week before. I began to wonder how a particular school develops the ethos that it does.

Every school—whether it is a community school financed by the government or a Christian school paid for by the church or by parents—has an ethos, a spirit that pervades the whole environment. It is a spirit that motivates moral attitudes, manners, intellectual attitudes, practices, and ideals. It colors how instruction is carried on and perceived by the students. It affects social relationships. It becomes part of school assemblies and chapels. This spirit may work as a positive force or as a negative force. And one cannot predict the ethos of a school by looking at its location, the credentials of the teaching staff, or whether it is a Christian school or a community school.

The ethos of a school is important, in part, because students learn better in a safe, warm, caring environment. But the reasons go far beyond that. We claim that Christian children and young people are image bearers of God. We recognize that we educate them so that they may fulfill the responsibilities of image bearers. However, it is not only the individual person who bears the image of God. The Christian school community as a whole also is an image bearer and must fulfill these responsibilities.

In Christian schools we also claim to be preparing students to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in a democratic society. Discipleship requires an understanding of responsibility and justice along with ability to critically examine different areas of life to determine whether justice is present. Students who are to become the agents of change that Christians are commanded to be must be educated in an environment that provides opportunities to practice responsibility and justice, not just talk about the concepts. That is why spirit of caring, responsibility, and justice is so important in the Christian school. And in the community school where students are learning to be responsible citizens of a democratic society, a spirit of caring, responsibility, and justice is equally important.

What causes this spirit to develop? How does a school become what it is? It is difficult to trace the development of the ethos of school, the spirit that motivates the beliefs and practices of the students and staff. We would like to think that in a Christian school the teachings of faith help produce such a spirit and therefore the spirit will always be a positive force. Those who plead for a return to the teaching of values in community schools are convinced that those values will provide for a positive ethos. However, it does not really work that way. It is far more likely that the ideals held by parents, the teachers, and the community take the leading role in forming this spirit. These ideals may or may not be consistent with the expressed belief statement of the school, and they may or may not be acknowledged, but they are extremely important. Then, too, the organization of the curriculum and the type of instruction in school surely play their part. And, of course, there are the models provided by the teachers, administrator, and staff. All of these forces work together to create the ethos of the school.

Parents, administrators, and teachers must see the planning and development of a positive ethos as a matter of school policy. If teachers fail to demonstrate concern for other people or concern for classroom conditions that promote attention and learning, students will not see those characteristics as important. If one student bumps into another in the hall, it really matters whether the student says, “I’m very sorry,” or “Keep out of my way, stupid,” and teachers ought to talk about such behavior. If a student makes an unusual and discerning comment during a class discussion, it really matters how other students respond. It really matters whether they murmur in appreciation or glare in disdain, and teachers should work toward a classroom environment that promotes appreciation for thoughtful ideas. Students need practice in caring.

If I were to describe an ideal school for students in grades six through eight, the picture would likely include students actively engaged in learning, working on projects together, and helping and supporting each other. They would receive guidance in their thinking from the teacher as they plan the next stage of their projects, and they would take responsibility for their own learning and that of other students in both academic and athletic ventures. The ethos would be one of caring and encouragement.

Contrast that with the picture of a school in which students are working individually to answer questions at the end of a chapter in preparation for a test on which only a few students will earn high grades, most will earn average grades, and a few are destined to fail. After the test they will have tryouts to see who will make the basketball team, the cheerleading squad, or the band or choir. All planning for curriculum and instruction is done by the teachers, who expect the students to obediently do as they are told. Socially the students arrange themselves in cliques or groups depending on the way they dress and, perhaps, the income level of their parents.

Some may see positive elements in the second picture, believing that students will learn responsibility that way. To the extent that they do learn responsibility in such a competitive environment, they learn only the responsibility for completing their work under the direction of a teacher. What they fail to learn in such an environment is to willingly take responsibility for helping another person learn or for helping another person cope with the tasks of the school situation.

Many educators believe that the final basis for one’s adult value frame is largely a result of the experiences one has during the ages of 10 through 14 (Toepfer, 1979). To the extent that this is true, then what the young person comes to know about himself or herself as a responsible disciple of Jesus Christ during this period becomes crucially important in shaping the rest of that person’s life. One’s social and emotional development as a person standing before the face of the Lord are surely as important in schooling as one’s academic performance. And the environment in which that development takes place is important in determining the kind of person the student will be and will become.

There is clear evidence that the organization of the curriculum and the type of instruction students encounter in grades six, seven, and eight go a long way toward shaping the ethos of a school (Lipsitz, 1984). Students in middle school are often faced with a product-oriented curriculum and with teachers who are more concerned with preparing students for high school than they are with the characteristics of learners unique to this age group. The effect of middle school as a training ground for high school has been to move academic tasks better suited to the high school into the school (Stronks, 1984). This move has been encouraged by parents and teachers who are disturbed about reports that educational standards and achievement have declined. “If our schools were only more demanding and had higher academic standards,” they reason, “our problems would be solved.”

There are three dangers with this kind of middle school. When instruction is too much and too soon, some bewildered students turn away from academic tasks altogether. A few drop out while they are still in middle school, but many others just tune out. Second, when the academic tasks of high school are moved into middle school, the skills which should be developed in middle school are often ignored. Since these skills are not carefully taught, learning is left to chance. And third, such a concept of schooling leads to a competitive environment in which those who can function well in academics or in athletics take pleasure in their ability to do so those who cannot function well in such areas become increasingly disillusioned. Surely there are school environments better suited to the goals of Christian education than the traditional one with we are familiar.

The highly structured junior high school which appears to run so well may, in fact, be inhibiting the appropriate development of people. At a time of life when independent action needs to be learned, conformity is more honored than is individual expression. At a time of life when students are hypersensitive to criticism, sarcastic and judgmental comments from teachers along with a narrowly directed program almost ensures that students will experience low self-esteem. In 1987 Education Week reported a two-year study involving 3,000 students which revealed that elementary school students have greater opportunities to make decisions and to express opinions than do junior high students.

Anthony Bryk of the University of Chicago suggests that beneath the veneer of the recent educational reform movement there is an unaddressed question of aims. Many current school problems are not fundamentally issues of efficiency and effectiveness, even they may appear to be so.

Rather, they arise out of a desiccated sense of institution purpose that fosters alienating experiences for students and teachers alike. If this assessment is correct, then current problems are not likely to be resolved through the piecemeal adjustments to school operations that are now occurring. A regeneration rather than a reform of schools may be in order (Bryk, 1988, p. 256).

Bryk has studied community schools and Roman Catholic schools closely and his conclusions lead to another question. If it is true that our community schools are in need of such regeneration, then what about Christian schools? Have they escaped the need for regeneration? It would be difficult to say without a close, in-depth study of the schools. We need to carefully examine our schools to see whether they are following a pattern of preparing students for successfully competing in an individualistic, secular, materialistic world or whether they truly are preparing students to become responsible disciples of Jesus Christ in such a world.

Middle school students are not only supposed to be learning how to live as disciples of Christ in their future lives. They also need to be living as disciples while they are in school. Therefore, the ethos of the school must be one that encourages and demands discipleship. Part of our task, then, lies in understanding how to create an environment that promotes such learning.

One of the problems in education (including Christian education) has been the gap between the findings from the world of psychology about how environments are created and maintained for learning and the use of that knowledge in classrooms. Often by the time teachers have been informed about a given theory of instruction, the theory has been so misinterpreted that teachers are left bewildered, and applications of the theory are pushed aside while teachers return to procedures with which they are most comfortable.

Chapter 1 of this book will describe the history of how junior high schools and middle schools came to be and will examine differing views of education for middle school students. Chapter 2 will describe the physical, intellectual, and emotional characteristics of middle school students and the way they learn. Chapter 3 will explain what we look for when we define successful schooling for this level. Chapter 4 will describe a type of Christian middle school that would meet the needs of students at this age level and would also be in keeping with the goals of Christian education, and Chapter 5 will show ways in which such a school can be planned and developed.

Part II of the book has been written by educators and administrators who are presently working with Christian middle schools. Kenneth Kuipers, who describes the role of the administrator, has been a teacher in a community middle school and is now principal of Holland Christian Middle School in Holland, Michigan. Daniel Day and David Koetje, writers of the chapter on advisor-advisee relationships, are principals at Seymour Christian School and Oakdale Christian School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Vernon Groenendyk, who describes exploratory units, has been a middle school teacher and is presently principal at West Side Christian School in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The writers of the interdisciplinary units in the appendix are teachers who are involved in planning and teaching the units describe.

What Is a Christian Middle School?

1. Junior High Schools and Middle Schools

Junior high schools were started around 1910 in order to relieve overcrowded conditions and to reduce the dropout rate in high schools. As both elementary and secondary schools recognized a need for more room, the solution appeared to be to build schools or additions to existing schools for the students in the middle, where they would be separated from the innocent younger children and also from the attitudes and problems associated with older students. It was hoped that if students were better prepared for high school, the dropout rate would decrease.

The curriculum and organization of the junior high school tended to imitate the curriculum and organization of the high school, with little attention paid to the educational needs of the pre- and early adolescent student. Activities such as varsity athletics, cheerleading, marching bands, and even cap-and-gown graduation exercises helped to encourage the attitude that the school was truly a “junior” high school. Competition in academics, athletics, and social relationships accentuated the kind of egocentrism unique to this age group, often resulting in an uncaring atmosphere. In smaller schools, where grades seven and eight were viewed as the upper extension of the elementary school, many of the attitudes characteristic of the junior high school were found.

The early name, “junior high school,” was an unfortunate one in that it allowed teachers, administrators, and parents to think of schooling at that level as primarily the lower part of the secondary school. But it is no more appropriate to plan curriculum and instruction along such lines than to see grades six through eight as merely an expansion of the elementary school.

Although the junior high school came under attack from its conception for failing to respond to the developmental needs of the students it was designed to serve, no proposal for an alternative captured the interest of the educational community until the middle school concept came into being in the 1960s. At that time, there was a renewed effort to design a program of education particularly for the needs of students at this age level. Table 1 illustrates the unique, transitional nature of this design.

Elementary

Middle

High

Teacher-Student Relationship

Parental

Advisor

Instructor

Teacher Organization

Self-contained

Interdisciplinary Team

Department

Curricular Emphasis

Skills

Exploration

Depth

Schedule

Self-contained

Block

Periods

Instruction

Student-directed

Balance

Teacher-directed

Student Groups

Chronological

Multi-age Development

Subject

Building Plan

Classroom Areas

Team Areas

Department Areas

Psychomotor Development

Skills & Games

Skills & Intramurals

Skills & Interscholastics

Utilization of Media

Classroom Groups

Balance

Individual Study

Guidance

Diagnostic/Dev.

Helper

Career-Vocational

Teacher Preparation

Child-oriented Generalist

Flexible Resource

Disciplines Specialist

Table 1 from Wiles & Bondi, 1981, p. 9

The challenge of the “middle school” was to understand unique characteristics of the learner and the learning task at particular stage of life, drawing its philosophy and rationale from this understanding.

Table 2, on the following page, describes the changes in philosophy, curriculum, and instruction brought about by the move from junior high to middle school.

One can recognize the child-centered nature of the middle school in contrast to the junior high school, which is knowledge-centered. However, even though the motivation behind designing curriculum and instruction in keeping with the way students at this age learn is good, a problem has arisen in some schools. Too many teachers have emphasized personalizing instruction and opening up classrooms to such extent that they have neglected one of their important tasks, that of teaching the basic learning skills which must be part of the central focus of schooling at that level.

The Junior High School

The Middle School

Philosophy

Emphasis on knowledge, group learning, and societal norms. Views the learner as an adolescent and tries to determine how to overcome the problems presented by adolescence.

Emphasis on positive self-concept and the importance of the individual. Stresses the uniqueness of the transescent learner. Stresses learning how to learn.

Curriculum

Stresses teaching a body of knowledge, using competition in emphasizing the mastery of facts, skills, and concepts, and goals which have been predetermined for the group. In athletics, both intramural and interscholastic sports are recommended with a strong emphasis on interscholastic.

Involves the learner in exploration, creativity, interdisciplinary instruction by means of an integrated curriculum. In athletics only intramural sports are recommended.

Instruction

Emphasis is on a teacher-centered and controlled instruction, textbook learning, and lecture classrooms with some discussion. Commonly employs group-paced learning only.

Emphasis is on a variety of teaching techniques, allowing for planning time on the part of teachers to ensure an integrated curriculum. Student involvement in determining goals. Individually paced learning where it is needed by struggling students or by students who are capable of moving at a faster rate.

Table 2 from Klingele, 1979, p. 5

Many Christian school parents and teachers, on the other hand, have equated a child-centered approach to schooling with humanism, forgetting that a knowledge-centered approach borrowed from the junior high school grows out of a behavioristic “let’s fill them all up with knowledge and they will all be ready for high school” view. Christian educators have often adopted the curriculum of the public junior high schools and have overlooked the effect of this curriculum on the spirit of the school. Too often they have been afraid to make significant changes in curriculum or in instructional techniques because they have been uncertain how, in light of a Christian theory of instruction, to apply new findings concerning human development to the classroom.

A Christian Middle School

It doesn’t really matter what name we give to this level of schooling. Neither the traditional junior high school concept of school nor the middle school concept provides the direction to adequately fulfill the goals of Christian education for students at this age level. Christian schools are driven by a conviction that our world is a creation brought into existence by God and, as such, is a world of laws and things satisfying those laws (Wolterstorff, 1980). We have a fundamental belief in the dignity and worth of each person as an image- bearer of God. We believe God has given us responsibilities to ourselves, our fellow human beings, and the world around us. We have a vision of a just social world. Thus, the spirit that drives these schools, their curriculum, the type of instruction and students’ and teachers’ responses to others must reflect our beliefs.

Christian schools must reflect our convictions not only in what is taught but in the way it is taught. The structure of the school, the planning of curriculum, and the way instruction is carried out must all reflect our basic beliefs so that the students will grow into the vision, will live it, and will carry it forward throughout their lives. Our schools need to adopt an explicit agenda for helping children and young people learn to be and become responsible disciples of Jesus Christ. We have never believed that it is sufficient for Christian schools to limit their job to the teaching of basic academic skills, and we must make certain that we do not allow the present reform movement to force us into such a direction.

Using Klingele’s format for comparing junior high schools and middle schools I have developed an outline to show how a Christian middle school might be different from the other two. This is presented in Table 3 (page 17).

We need to ask ourselves questions such as: How do students learn about the dignity and worth of their fellow humans? How do they learn what accepting their responsibilities to themselves and to fellow human beings really means for their lives? What kind of school environment will promote that learning? What curriculum and what kinds of activities will promote the concept that justice is needed not only for the poor and downtrodden in society but that justice must also be part of the everyday life in the school community? How can we make certain that our Christian schools have an ethos of caring?

We can only answer such questions when we have a clear understanding of how learning occurs at each level of development. The next chapter will describe the learner characteristics of students in grades six, seven, and eight.

THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE SCHOOL

Philosophy

Emphasis is on learning to take responsibility for self, for others, and for the world around them as image bearers of God. Stresses the uniqueness of the learner at this stage of development.

Curriculum

Stresses the responsibilities of Christians living and working in a community of servants of Jesus Christ. Emphasis is on learning how to learn and live and how to help others learn and live. Involves the learner in exploration, creativity, and interdisciplinary instruction by means of an integrated curriculum. In athletics only intramural sports are recommended.

Instruction

Emphasis is on a variety of teaching techniques, allowing for planning time on the part of teachers to ensure an integrated curriculum. Student involvement is necessary in determining how to accomplish goals. Instructional strategies are selected for promoting responsibility for one’s own learning and for helping each other learn. Activities for learning servanthood will be integrated with the rest of the curriculum.

Table 3

Discussion Questions for Chapter 1

1. How did your junior high school or middle school come into being? Under what guiding principles was it established?

2. Does your school fulfill the goals that were set up when the school was first established? Have the goals remained the same?

3. What can be done to ensure that all of the parents in your school community understand the principles governing your school?

4. What do students learn concerning human dignity and worth at your school? How do they learn it? Do their actions show they have learned it?

5. How would you characterize the ethos of your school? Do you think parents and staff would characterize it the same way? How might you find out?

6. What are the guiding forces that shape the ethos of your school? If you feel that the spirit of your school needs reshaping, where might your staff go for help in this matter? To what extent is the spirit that shapes your school a concern of the churches in which your school community worships?

2. Learner Characteristics of Transescent Students

“Ask her yourself!”

“No, you ask her. She’s your mom.”

I was working in the kitchen when I heard the raised voices from the group of six junior high boys who had been talking in our family room. Sensing that there was a problem, I walked in and sat down with them, asking what was going on.

Joey began the explanation. “We were talking about George. You know, he’s the kid who was killed in the accident last week.” George was from another town and I hadn’t known him, but they had told me about the accident earlier. “What we want to know is this. Is George in heaven or in hell now? And if he’s in hell it must be God’s fault.”

I tried not to show how shocked I felt because I knew they were very serious in their concern. “You’ll have to explain your reasoning to me before I can answer.”

The boys were uneasy but finally my son, Bill, said, “We don’t think you know how bad George really was. He was nice to his parents and then did exactly the opposite of what they said. He swore a lot when there weren’t any parents around.”

“He was even worse than us, Mrs. Stronks,” said Jerry. For some reason, that remark gave me very little comfort. “We think he was too bad to go to heaven. And if he didn’t, we think it was God’s fault.”

“You’ll have to explain that to me.”

“Well, you know lots of boys our age get into some kind of trouble. But then they grow up and just before they get married they make profession of faith. And after that they have children and pretty soon they become deacons and then elders in church. It will happen to us, too. And it would have happened to George, if God had let him live long enough. But God let him die now before he was old enough to change. That’s why we think it’s God’s fault.”

Conversations like this are what make living and working with middle grade students interesting and challenging. There has been more information published on adolescent thought in the past decade than in the six previous decades combined (Santrock, 1987). In spite of that, we continue to think of the early adolescent as headed toward a period when he or she will likely be rebellious, deviant, and full of problems.

The majority of adolescents do not follow the pattern of the deviant minority suggested by negative stereotypes. Adelson (1979) points out that we have what he calls a “generalization gap,” meaning that our beliefs about students in middle school and high school are based on generalizations rather than on carefully conducted research. What we need is information about the needs of this age group in order to understand the implications for curriculum and instruction. We will begin with a description of the transescent person.

Transescence refers to the period in human development prior to the onset of puberty and continuing through the early stages of adolescence. This typically includes the ages from ten to fourteen.

Physical and Emotional Characteristics

There is an old saying that there is nothing more unequal than equal treatment of unequals. Transescent students display a broader range of physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics than do students at any other level of schooling.

Physically, individuals in these ages have rapid but irregular growth and appear to be especially clumsy and awkward. Such rapid growth may cause body movements to become awkward. The growth may even be painful and sitting for long periods of time is more difficult for students at these ages than at other times of life. They quickly become restless and need opportunities for movement. Rapid growth also may cause tiredness and a decrease in endurance. Yet, at a time when their bodies are growing rapidly and they are most in need of good nutrition, these young people make notoriously poor nutritional choices.

Different parts of the body grow at different rates. The hands and feet grow faster than the arms and legs. Many boys demonstrate with pride that they are able to pick up a basketball with one hand but recognize that their penmanship isn’t as neat as it was in earlier years. They need to be taught how to write with these larger, thicker hands.

Growth spurts are different for boys than for girls. While girls normally have growth spurts between the ages of eleven and thirteen, the growth spurts of boys normally do not occur until sometime between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. This difference may cause problems in relationships between students.

Records indicate that biologically today’s early adolescents are approximately two years ahead of the young people for whom the first junior high schools were established (Santrock, 1987). The average age for the onset of puberty in North America is presently twelve years. Socially, we consider today’s adolescents to be younger than their grandparents were at this age and yet the early onset of puberty requires that they take responsibility for their sexual behavior at a much younger age than was required of earlier generations. Along with this early physical maturation, students are overly conscious of their physical appearance.

Emotionally, transescents are impulsive; they crave acceptance and approval by peers; and they resent authority. Students at this age adopt an air of pseudo-sophistication in order to cover up their worries, doubts, and feelings of uncertainty. They long for independence but are uncertain how to handle responsibility when they get it. They may appear rebellious toward adults and oblivious of adult criticism, but they feel hurt because they believe that adults cannot understand them. They appear to think that their parents aren’t very bright and their lives are almost over, but they look to their parents and teachers as models for their own lives.

At a time when they seem insensitive and inconsiderate of others they also are compassionate and determined to save the world. They demand fairness and consistent values in others but often make no such demands on themselves. They seek attention, sometimes inappropriately, and yet do not want to stand out in the crowd. They rapidly move from one mood to another and display strong emotions for each mood swing.

They struggle for independence from their parents, but at the same time they look back longingly to parental values. Research shows that, although young people appear to be more highly influenced by their peers, parents are really the strongest influence. It is true that divorce and separation have touched many homes. It is also true that in many homes both parents are employed and are struggling with conflicting responsibilities to job, community, church, and family. In spite of the fact that these situations occur, it is still true that the majority of young adolescents feel good about their parents and enjoy spending time with them. However, it is also true that the shift back and forth in loyalty between peers and family often causes conflict both within themselves and in their relationships with their family (Benson, Williams, & Johnson, 1987).

Along with a desire for more independence is the desire to interact as much as possible with the peer group. These young people want to belong to a group and to conform to the values of the group, often emphasizing group loyalty to the point of cruelty to others. The peer group has an important influence on the life of the middle school student. It is from the peer group that the individual student receives feedback concerning his or her worth, abilities, and behavior. Middle school students appear to judge themselves and estimate their own value in ways that are in keeping with how they compare with their peers.

Bronfenbrenner argues that children in North America are more strongly influenced by peer pressure than are children in other cultures (Bronfenbrenner, 1970). If that is true, perhaps there are ways of educating within our own culture so that middle school student will be more ready to withstand the pressure of peers when it leads in an unproductive direction. Devereaux (1970) found that Russian children are more likely than American children to resist peer pressure when such pressure conflicts with the norms set by their parents and other adults who are important in their lives. Santrock explains it this way:

The reason for these findings becomes clearer when the Soviet socialization process is evaluated. As soon as schooling begins in Russia, the peer group is assigned important duties in assisting the teacher. Conformity to group norms is stressed throughout education, and subordination of the individual to the group is omnipresent. Group competition between grades, schools, rooms, and rows within rooms emphasized. Although these practices are not foreign to schools in the United States, they are not as systematized as they are in the Soviet Union. In the United States, the peer group may undermine the socialization practices of adults; in the Soviet Union, however, peer group norms even in adolescence support adult norms. (p. 265)

Something similar takes place in Japanese schools. The point is not that we want to embrace the pattern of the Russians or Japanese. However, there may be valuable lessons we can learn from their patterns of instruction.

It is important for us to create a school environment that will help our young people respond to their peers in ways that are in keep with learning responsible discipleship. In recent years programs have been designed by some schools to reduce the age segregation of adolescents by arranging interaction with younger children through cross-age tutoring and with older persons through community service projects. The compassion learned in such settings often carries over into the interaction with the peer group.

Intellectual Characteristics

Intellectually, transescents are inquisitive and curious. Piaget, in providing a conceptual framework for intellectual development, discussed late childhood and early adolescence as the beginning of the ability to do formal operations. Piaget pointed out that among individuals at this stage there is an increase in the ability to reason, to generalize, and to make deductions. However, more recent research shows that for many individuals in the United States, this ability does not come until much later in adolescence (Toepfer, 1979). Recent studies have shown that over 75% of middle level students display concrete rather than abstract reasoning abilities.

This does not mean that abstract reasoning cannot come earlier, but the ability to reason apparently does not appear as early as was formerly thought. Instead, in early adolescence there is more likely to be a consolidation of concrete operational thought. However, some transescents are moving toward the ability to draw conclusions from fewer and fewer concrete facts and are becoming more able to solve abstract problems.

Early adolescents begin to conjure up imaginary situations or hypothetical events and will try to reason logically about them. As young people move into this type of reasoning, they sometimes identify the inconsistencies of their parents and teachers or of the teaching they receive. The thoughtful parent or teacher will need to be patient and receptive to such thinking and will carefully provide a perspective on the situation, even when the questions and the explanations are painful. Parents and teachers will need to learn to focus more on the thinking process than on the content of statements made by these young people.

Research shows that students at this age are beginning to take the perspective of another person, an ability which must be present if students are to learn to think critically. They need to discuss ideas with adults who are willing to look at several sides of a question without making a hasty judgment.

Research consistently suggests that students in this age group must see a purpose in what they are asked to learn and tend to learn more easily when they are actively involved in learning. The instructional strategies used in their classrooms must reflect awareness of this need.

Toepfer suggests that the learning difficulties of some middle school students may be caused by the large degree of overchallenge to learners not ready for formal operations thinking. Researchers have shown that 20% of students who functioned at the B level or in grades one through five turn away from academic matters and flounder in grades six, seven, and eight. Of this number, 75% never again achieve at their previous academic level. This phenomenon occurs more frequently in students who are considered to be gifted than in other students.

The increase in emotional illnesses and frustration with academic work in the junior and senior high school age group may be intensified by placing transescent learners in situations requiring advanced thinking skills which they do not have. Toepfer observes that teachers continue to assume that youngsters of normal or superior ability can be manipulated into learning new thinking skills and facts, and he suggests that a focus of middle grade educators must be upon prevention of the “turn-off” that occurs by overchallenge (Toepfer, 1979).

On the other hand, when schools are determined to use only group-paced instruction, there is a likelihood of “teaching to the lowest common denominator.” This kind of teaching allows the group to move only at the pace of the slower learners in the group. In some situations the more gifted students may tune out completely rather than having to endure instruction that is inappropriate for them. What is needed is an environment in which academically gifted students may learn to develop their gifts but also may learn to take responsibility for helping those who are not so gifted.

The goals and objectives of the middle school level need to be broader than those of the elementary or the high school. In addition to working toward skill development and continuing the learnings of the basic subject areas, middle school must provide new experiences to help students identify their interest areas and aptitudes.

Vygotsky viewed intellectual development as an unbroken process of self-activity which moves from stage to stage, always characterized by the appearance of new abilities which were not present at previous levels. This development does not simply happen because of what is going on inside of the child. Rather, it is a result of the child’s interactions with other people and events in the environment as he or she moves through the various stages of growth.

Vygotsky identified what he called crisis stages and stable stages and said that movement through these stages can happen sharply and critically or gradually (Zender & Zender, 1974). The crisis period emerges almost unnoticeably, according to Vygotsky, but builds, until there are sharp displacements and confusion marked by changes in the personality of the child exhibited by impetuous, stormy behavior. The crisis stage then flows into a relatively steady and stable period in which the new personality traits, which have been developing, come to light.

Vygotsky noted that an important trait of the crisis periods is that they are often marked by the appearance of problems in school. Students who have followed a normal path in school suddenly seem to show a decrease in academic achievement, a loss of interest in school activities, and conflict with peers.

While it is true that one does not find these patterns in every child because the critical periods unfold in a variety of ways, it is also important that we look carefully at the ages when these crisis stages occur. The crisis between the second and third birthdays is often marked by stubborn, obstinate, capricious, selfish behavior. The crisis of the seven-year-old often is recognized by a display of an imperious will and uncivil mood. And the crisis of the thirteen-year-old, according to Vygotsky, is characterized by a loss of old interests, conflicting personality moods, and a decline in academic achievement.

Some neuroscientists explain the patterns of behavior during the crisis and stable periods by tying them with brain growth spurts. Brain growth spurts are said to occur between the ages of two to four, six to eight, ten to twelve, and fourteen to sixteen. During these periods of growth, axons and dendrites lengthen and branch so that new neural networks increase dramatically. The instructional environment of the individual takes on a new meaning because the individual is qualitatively more capable of absorbing new kinds of intellectual inputs (Epstein, 1974).

During the period between the peak growths there are troughs or periods of slow brain growth. These slow growth periods occur between the ages of four to six, eight to ten, and twelve to fourteen. Apparently it is during these trough periods that the new competencies have a chance to develop and mature.

Epstein suggests that during the twelve to fourteen age period, instruction should be characterized far more by increments in already initiated skills then in the acquisition of new intellectual skills. This does not mean that the expected achievement levels of students at this age would be lowered. Rather, the curriculum should be altered in keeping with the way students at this age learn which means that we must include a much larger component of experience and practice of skills, relating the practice of these skills to the world around the student.

Knowledge about brain growth development is still in its infancy and it would be unwise to base curriculum changes solely on preliminary conclusions. However, four decades of work by stage theorists have provided us with a wealth of information concerning observable learning changes in middle school children, and if ignore that information in planning curriculum, we do so at the expense of the young people we are trying to educate.

Spiritual Development

How does faith develop in the transescent? The question is a frightening one, but it is very important for those of us who are in the business of educating for faith development—in the Christian school, or in the church, or at home as parents.

We believe that faith is a gift. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts and makes it possible for us to have faith. In a real sense, faith something we can have, and it must originate with God. But faith also is something we must do. All through Hebrews 11 we read of people who are commended for living their faith. And the Book of James is full of the idea that people do things as a result of faith.

Just as other aspects of the human being grow and develop mature, so does faith grow and develop and mature. We need to examine the pattern of faith development if we are to understand how to educate young people in ways that will enhance their spiritual growth.

As in other areas of development, at the middle school level faith is strengthened and developed by the active involvement of students in acts of faith. At this level they need more than anything else to feel that they belong to a group of believers and that their active participation can make a contribution to the life of that community of believers. While the teachings of faith are important to the development of a middle level student, their own faith will be strengthened most by activities which are the result of that faith. At school, activities promoting servanthood in the classroom, on the playground, or in the community will provide opportunities for growth. Coming to have deeper, more mature faith in Jesus Christ means involving the whole self in that faith. And that means using more than just the intellect.

Multiple Intelligence of Middle Level Students

Two twelve-year-old boys each spend an hour alone with an examiner taking an intelligence test. They answer many questions (What does “nonsense” mean? How many inches are there in three feet?). They manipulate blocks to form specific shapes. They describe what is funny about pictures. At the end of the hour the examiner spends some time calculating scores and then comes up with a number for each of them. The number is their I.Q.

Howard Gardner (1983) says that such a way of measuring and describing an individual’s intelligence is inappropriate. He believes intelligence is quite different from the ability to answer questions correctly on a test. Intelligence, according to Gardner, includes the ability to solve problems or to make products that are important in one or more cultural settings.

Gardner believes there are at least seven different kinds of intelligence. Every normal person possesses varying degrees of each of these intelligences, but they are combined and blended differently in each person. We know of linguistic intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily kinesthetic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence.

We used to think that adult roles depended largely on the flowering of a single one of these intelligences. It is more likely that competence in the adult world requires a combination of intelligences, although one or two may be stronger than the others. When a person is highly endowed with the abilities and skills of one intelligence we say he or she is “at power” in that area. Others who are more likely to fail tasks involving that intelligence are said to be “at risk” in that area.

If it is true that people have highly individualized combinations of intelligences, then it must also be true that they learn in highly individualized ways. Perhaps what we have come to call “learning styles” has something to do with the blend of intelligences of different students. At the middle school level, traditional classroom procedures rely heavily on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, and knowledge in all areas is filtered and expressed through these intelligences.

It is important for teachers to keep in mind other types of abilities and talents. Students with high degrees of spatial intelligence will understand history better through art, architecture, and geography. Students with high interpersonal intelligences will understand history better through biographies and dramatic reenactments. When it comes to notetaking, students with high spatial intelligence respond to mapping of the material while students with high logical-mathematical intelligence will respond to the hierarchy of the traditional outline.

Gardner has gone on to describe what a school would look like if instruction were carried out in keeping with multiple intelligence theory (Blythe and Gardner, 1990). It may not be necessary or wise for school planners to follow his example. However, what is necessary is that the schools arrange opportunities for middle students to explore many different areas of life in ways that allow them to come to know their own gifts and abilities. Traditional subjects taught in a variety of ways should address the varied intelligences of students and make use of the varied abilities of the teachers. Exploratory courses using many kinds of learning activities should do the same. Assessment should be in a variety of ways and should, as much as possible, take place in the context of a variety of projects.

Transescents’ View of Themselves

Transescents are unique in the way they view themselves in world. David Elkind (1978) has described two types of thinking that are part of the unique egocentrism found in the early adolescent. Elkind says that the “imaginary audience” and the “personal fable” always underlie egocentric thought at the emergence of formal operations. The imaginary audience is the belief that others are all paying as much attention to the adolescent’s actions as he or she. This imaginary audience may be the reason for attention-getting behavior, so common in early adolescence, or for the conviction on the part of the eighth grader that all eyes in the classroom are riveted on his or her complexion. It is this imaginary audience that makes it so difficult for the student at this age to enter a cafeteria alone or to walk through the library. There is safety in moving in groups because then the imaginary audience will be watching the group instead of the individual.

The “personal fable” refers to the adolescent’s sense of personal uniqueness, which suggests to the adolescent that no one, particularly not any parent or teacher, has ever felt quite the way he or she does. Along with that goes the conviction of invincibility, a particularly dangerous attitude in a world of drugs, AIDS, and teenage pregnancies.

Elkind does not imply that either of these views must be a part of early adolescent thought. It is, perhaps, possible for students at this age to learn to see the world differently, but we must instruct them in ways that will help them do so.

Berenboim’s research (1985) suggests that the personality of the early adolescent seems to consist of several elements that were absent during the early elementary years.

First, when the adolescent is given information about another person, she considers previously acquired information as well, not relying solely on the concrete information at hand. Second, the adolescent has more of a tendency than the elementary school child to detect the contextual or situational variability in her and other’s behavior, rather than thinking that she and others always behave consistently. Third, rather than merely accepting surface traits as a valid description of another person or herself, the adolescent begins to look for deeper, more complex-even hidden-causes of personality (Santrock, 1985, p. 155).

These factors work together to determine personality, and it is because of this new way of thinking that students are learning to be capable of less irrational thought. They need to be instructed in ways that will help them become more critical of the first ideas that occur to them on any topic. Although these complex ways of thinking about self and others do not usually appear until early adolescence, the discerning teacher will recognize that students do not always use their ability to think in these ways. Instruction for these students must be arranged in such a way as to encourage the most advanced thinking of which they are capable in order to move them forward.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 2

1. What questions have your students asked which show they are thinking in new ways?

2. Do you see a turning away from learning evident in students in your classes?

3. What examples of Elkind’s imaginary audience and personal fable have you found in your students?

4. What new thinking capabilities have you observed in your students?

5. Taking into consideration the success that some other cultures have had in helping adolescents learn to resist peer pressure when it conflicts with the norms of parents and teachers, might we modify our instruction and parenting to influence students in ways that are in keeping with our goals for educating?

6. What examples of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences you seen in your students? How might that influence the way we instruct and assess?

3. What Makes a Middle School Successful?

“I don’t understand what those teachers think they are doing.” A small group of parents had come to see me concerning the kind of schooling their children were receiving now that the school had changed from a junior high to a middle school.

“Our kids need to learn to be competitive if they are going to be ready for life. Above all, they need more facts if they are going to be ready for high school. It really has us worried. In fact, if the school isn’t going to do its job of teaching our children to be competitive, we are considering sending our children to special summer camps that stress competition. We want them to be ready to take their places in the competitive American society.”

What is excellent schooling for this age group? It is difficult to answer that question because there is no consensus about middle school. No other level of education is so poorly defined. Some teachers at this level have prepared to teach in high school, with little background or knowledge of child and early adolescent development. Others are elementary teachers with insufficient preparation in subject areas which they will be teaching. Parents often are puzzled about new behavior patterns and concerned about what kind of schooling their children should receive as they move toward more independence. With all these strikes against them, it is truly a wonder that middle schools function as well as they do.

The problem with doing research on middle schools is that often when a school changes from a junior high school to a middle school, the change is in name only. What happens in many cases is that a high school foresees a dwindling enrollment and recognizes that there will soon be empty classrooms. At the same time there is an increase in number of students in the lower grades. So the school board makes a decision to move the ninth grade into the high school. Along with the move there is an agreement to call the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades “middle school,” but in some cases there is no change in concept of schooling for those grades. The name has been changed, but the school continues to follow the pattern of the traditional junior high. In such cases, research on the effect of change will show nothing at all because there has been no change.

We are at a time when there is new sophistication in educational research. We have learned from the business world how to do “outlier studies.” In business if you want to know how to be successful you look at businesses which have been identified as being better than mediocre. Then you concentrate on trying to learn what makes the best become the best. While in business outlier research concentrates on highly profitable, productive corporations, in education the studies focus on a search for the most successful schools and teachers.

Effective Schools and Successful Schools

There is a great deal of literature available concerning characteristics of effective schools for grades six, seven, and eight. However, effective schools are not necessarily successful schools. Effective schools are considered to be those schools which are safe and orderly and where students perform reasonably well on achievement tests. Effectiveness is the least we should expect of schools. Successful schools, however, according to George and Oldaker, are schools which are not only effective, but have a reputation for academic excellence, have good attendance, have good student behavior in school, have parents who are satisfied with the school, have students who are satisfied with school life, and have a reputation for excellence in the community (George & Oldaker, 1985).

One of the first outlier studies in education at middle school level was done by Rutter in 12 schools in inner city London. In Rutter’s study all of the schools examined were called junior highs, and had the same grade levels, the same physical characteristics, the same socio-economic background of students. Rutter’s study, along with many others, confirms the importance of a school having high academic standards, promoting direct instruction along with homework, and other related matters which help teachers, students, and parents take schooling seriously. However, Rutter found the really significant difference between the successful and unsuccessful schools was in the area of psychosocial environment (Rutter, Maughan, Mortimore, & Ouston, 1979).

Academically successful schools were those in which the teachers and students thought of themselves as members of the same team. Teachers and students in these successful schools created an “ethos of caring.” The teachers were working and planning together, were promoting increased responsibilities and participation of students, and were establishing stable teaching and friendship groups that lasted from year to year. Rutter concluded, after four years of study, that the crucial differences between the academically successful schools and those that were unsuccessful depended on whether or not the school effectively attended to the social side of learning.

When you compare Rutter’s findings with our own goals in the Christian school there is an interesting similarity. We want to help our students become academically successful. We want to help students understand their responsibility in caring for each other, in planning as a group, and in working toward a common goal. We want them to develop an ethos of caring while they are being and becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. If those goals are important to us, then we will need to give careful consideration to the social side of learning.

In 1984 Phi Delta Kappan published a study of 500 schools (Levine, Levine & Eubanks) looking for characteristics of schools that had “good discipline.” Schools in which students had exceptionally good behavior were unique in the following ways: 1) they found ways to improve how people worked together to solve problems; 2) they developed the means to reduce authority and status differences among all persons in the school; 3) they increased and widened the students’ sense of belonging in the school; 4) they found ways to deal with the personal problems that affect life within the school, often by using advisor-advisee programs; and 5) they tried to improve the physical and organizational arrangements so that these factors reinforced other activities.

Examining Your Own School

Most studies conclude that specific characteristics are found in schools that are successful in such areas as scores on achievement tests, attendance, behavior in school, parental satisfaction with school, student satisfaction with school life, and a reputation for excellence in the community. In addition, if a Christian middle school is going to promote responsible discipleship, other characteristics will be present. The following statements can be used for discussion by teachers, parents, and school boards examining their own schools.

In the school in which I teach:

1. Teachers and students work together and think of themselves as members of a team in school matters.

- always occurs

- sometimes occurs but needs improvement

2. There is an “ethos of caring” among students and among teachers.

- always present

- sometimes present but needs improvement

3. Teachers work together and plan jointly to promote increased responsibility and participation of students.

- always occurs

- sometimes occurs

- seldom occurs

4. Stable teaching and friendship groups develop and last more than one year.

- always occurs

- sometimes occurs but needs improvement

5. Teachers and students work together to solve problems instead of teachers imposing restrictions.

- always occurs

- sometimes occurs

- seldom occurs

6. Means have been found to increase and widen the students’ sense of belonging in the school.

- yes, to a great extent

- needs improvement

7. Teacher advisor-advisee programs are in place.

- yes

- not at the present time

8. The school has been arranged so that cooperation in all areas is the norm rather than relying on academic or athletic competition.

- yes, to a great extent

- needs improvement

9. The curriculum has been carefully structured to promote a positive learning climate, not just because it leads to academic achievement, but because it is something which possesses intrinsic value in the education of young adolescents.

- yes, to a great extent

- needs improvement

10. Students are clearly working toward taking responsibility for their own learning.

- yes, to a great extent

- needs improvement

11. Students are showing willingness to take responsibility for each other’s learning and nurture.

- yes, to a great extent

- needs improvement

12. The curriculum is diversified enough so that students are able to explore and develop their varied gifts.

- yes, to a great extent

- needs improvement

Unsuccessful Middle Schools

But what of schools which are not considered successful? Among the characteristics that keep them from succeeding are the following:

1. Failure to work out carefully stated goals for the school and failure to use school goals in ongoing planning.

2. Lack of strong, instructional leadership on the part of the principal, which results in a lack of unity of purpose. This is often because the principal has not had training for this kind of administration.

3. Lack of in-school time for curriculum planning by teachers. Without such planning, integrated units failed to take shape and appropriate instruction failed to occur.

4. Failure to consult with elementary and high school representatives in planning the program.

5. Planning is only for short-term units rather than for long-term goals.

6. Teachers have been poorly prepared for the change because of lack of in-service training. Their own teacher preparation programs have been part of elementary or secondary degree programs and therefore inadequate for this level.

7. Failure to budget adequately for the necessary changes.

8. Teaching methods which emulate the traditional junior high and high school models with emphasis on lecture, recitation, static grouping, and a heavy reliance on the textbook for setting the curriculum.

9. Too little regard for achievement test scores.

10. Little communication and sharing among teachers and administrators from other middle schools with common goals.

Report of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development

Recently the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development released a report on schooling for this age group (Turning Points, 1989). The conclusion was that education that is appropriate for young adolescents involves eight essential principles.

1. School should be a place where close relationships with adults and peers create a climate for personal growth and intellectual development (p. 37). The report concludes that large middle schools guarantee that the intellectual and emotional needs of youth will go unmet. What students need at this level is to be able to rely on a small, caring group of adults who provide coordinated, integrated, meaningful educational experiences while getting to know students well enough to teach them as individuals.

2. Every student in the middle grades should learn to think critically through mastery of an appropriate body of knowledge, lead a healthy life, behave ethically, and assume the responsibilities of citizenship in a pluralistic society (p. 42). The report calls for teaching a core of common knowledge at this level that integrates English, fine arts, foreign languages, history, literature grammar, mathematics, science, and social studies. But often a broad core will lack depth, and the report calls for students taught to think about and express themselves about topics that range across each subject, rather than simply demonstrating competency in the subject matter. In addition, students must learn study and to test successfully.

3. All young adolescents should have the opportunity to succeed in every aspect of the middle-grade program, regardless of previous achievement or the pace at which they learn (p. 49). The report calls for ensuring successful completion of the core instructional program on the part of every student. Schools must encourage students who fall short of success to try again, schools must use every means to help them succeed. These means include using small groups for learning, scheduling classroom periods to maximize learning, and expanding the structure of opportunity for learning.

4. Decisions concerning the experience of middle-grade students should be made by adults who know them best (p. 54). The report states that teachers must have greater authority to make decisions and responsibility for the consequences of those decisions. Students should be able to witness teachers making decisions and discussing important ideas so that increasingly the students themselves can become part of decisions affecting their education.

5. Teachers in middle-grade schools should be selected specially educated to teach young adolescents (p. 58). Administrators and teachers of middle school students should understand adolescent development and be sensitive to cultural differences. They will need education in principles of guidance to serve as advisors. Teachers who are certified to teach in either elementary or secondary levels should take graduate courses directed toward middle school teaching and then receive a supplemental endorsement to teach at that level.

6. Young adolescents must be healthy in order to learn (p. 60). Middle-grade schools must accept responsibility and be provided with sufficient resources to ensure that health services are accessible to young adolescents and that schools become health-promoting environments.

7. Families and middle-grade schools must be allied through trust and respect if young adolescents are to succeed in school (p. 66). In the belief that they should increasingly disengage from their young adolescents, some parents have come to view involvement in their child’s education as unnecessary. Many middle-grade schools do not encourage parent involvement, and some teachers and administrators consider parents to be part of the problem. While young adolescents need greater autonomy, they also need to see that parents and school staff have mutual trust and respect. Middle-grade schools must re-engage families by offering parents meaningful roles in school governance, keeping parents informed about curriculum and instruction, and offering families information about ways they can support the learning process at home and at school.

8. Schools and community organizations should share responsibility for each middle-grade student’s success. The report states that this can be done by placing students in community services, ensuring student access to health and social services, making certain that the community supports the middle-grade education program, making certain that the community augments resources for teachers and students, and encouraging the community to help expand career guidance for students.

Research has shown that the most successful middle schools are carefully organized and structured to help students at a very tumultuous, unsettled time in their lives. They are structured in ways that do not require more self-discipline than students are capable of exercising but provide students with the opportunity to learn self-discipline. They do not offer more freedom than students can handle but help students learn to use freedom wisely.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 3

1. Are you as a staff in agreement in your responses to the questionnaire? Where do disagreements occur?

2. How can you work together to avoid the mistakes of the unsuccessful schools?

3. What is your response to the report of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development?

4. Instruction in a Christian Middle School

“The sixth grade class in which I student-taught was honestly one of the most exciting educational situations I can imagine. The school had just changed from a junior high to a middle school, and the teacher said she was trying to involve the students in planning for their own learning. She had so many ideas to present to the students concerning how they could go about learning the subject matter that every day was a new and wonderful experience in that classroom. It was not only that she is a Christian. It was that she saw all of life with such wonder that learning about it was a great privilege for her students.” (Comment from a student teacher, Calvin College, 1989)

When lifespan developmentalists describe the developmental tasks of the early adolescent, the list usually includes the following: handling major body changes, asserting independence from family, establishing sex role identity, dealing with peer group relationships, controlling emotions, constructing a values foundation, pursuing interest expression, using new reasoning capacities, and developing acceptable self-concept (Wiles, 1976).

While those of us concerned with Christian education might not seriously quarrel with the items on that list, the list is not complete. Students have a yearning to feel needed by others that carries with it a willingness to learn to be responsible for the learning, care, and nurture of others. Within the Christian context this need to be needed is appropriate for young people who are disciples of Jesus Christ. Self-concept for a Christian develops from a sense of the splendor of our worth because we are new persons in Jesus Christ. And we most feel the splendor of worth when we are fulfilling our mandate to take responsibility for others who are in need.

Planning a School Program in Keeping with Student Development

Using developmental tasks as the criteria for planning a school program helps us focus on possible roles of schooling. If it is the role of the school to help students become academically adequate, then the school must introduce new knowledge areas, encourage critical thinking, help students move toward taking responsibility for their own learning, help students achieve skills needed for continued learning, and help them think about how their gifts are to be used in their future lives. For that reason it is essential that the middle school place a strong emphasis on study skills integrated with every subject area and also provide exploratory units which will help them develop their career potentials.

If it is the role of the school to promote social development, then it must help students learn that they stand before God in relationship to others and must learn to take responsibility for others along with learning adequate communication skills. For that reason activities in which they will learn servanthood must be part of their instruction.

If it is the role of the school to develop self-concept and self-acceptance, then it must help students explore their values, expand their interests, and understand how humans stand before God in their relationships with him and with themselves. For that reason each student must be well-known by at least one teacher and should be able to rely on that teacher to help learn from his or her experiences in order to comprehend physical changes and changing relations with family and peers. Advisor-advisee relationships should be established, and the school day should be structured to provide opportunity for meetings between advisor and advisee to occur.

If it is the role of the school to provide aesthetic stimulation, then it must help students develop latent talents and aesthetic appreciation. If it is the role of the school to promote physical and mental health, then it must provide understanding that the person stands in relationship to himself or herself. It must provide instruction in conditioning and coordination, provide understanding of nutrition, and ensure that education about human sexuality is part of the student’s instruction.

Implications for the Curriculum

In keeping with the unique character of learning at this level it is far more important that the curriculum includes a large component in strengthening of skills for future learning than that it continues a forward movement with adding additional content (Stronks, 1984). Students at this level need careful instruction in study skills, reading to identify inferences, critical thinking, outlining, notetaking, and summarizing. They need guidance in different ways of thinking, and they need opportunities to become involved in their learning in a variety of ways. Without such opportunities they will become bored with the program, resulting in a lowering of their expectations for themselves.

Research has shown that isolated instruction in these skills does not transfer to other disciplines, so an integrated curriculum must ensure that these skills are strengthened in every subject area. For example, while in language arts the students receive careful, step-by-step instruction in the writing of essays, summaries, outlines, reports, and short research papers, teachers in other subject areas must not only know what is taught and how it is taught in the language arts class but must consistently insist that students use those skills in written products for all classes. Instruction in math classes will be characterized far more by increments in already initiated skills than in acquisition of new skills, making certain not only that the students become completely competent with math skills but also that they understand how those skills apply to human problems: filling out tax forms, paying mortgages on homes, or determining whether a family could live from the interest of a specific sum. Again, an integrated curriculum will ensure that problems encountered in the social studies class would be worked out with skills learned in the math class.

In addition to making certain that skills for future learning are strengthened, it is important that middle school students internalize the tendency to take responsibility for the learning, care, and nurture of others. They must also be able to evaluate the actions of others as to whether they are morally right or wrong (Wolterstorff, 1980). Students at this age need to feel needed, whether or not that need is apparent to their parents and teachers, and this need can only be met by helping them learn to take responsibility for those who need their help. How do students learn to take responsibility for others? They learn to do so by engaging in responsible actions. Taking responsibility for others should be so much a part of expectations of the teachers and parents in the Christian school that it is not even a matter of choice on the part of the student.

Implications for Instruction

In all areas of the curriculum emphasis must be on the students’ responsibility to help each other learn rather than pitting their talents against each other in competition. Instructional strategies especially designed for helping students learn such responsibility through cooperative efforts will be an important part of the curriculum.

Since most of the instructional strategies which promote cooperation involve some kind of group work, it is important to understand effective small group arrangements. Teachers who have done a great deal of small group work at the middle school level have found that groups of four to six work best, although Vacca and Vacca (1986) suggest that teachers would do well to begin with groups of two or three. Small groups should be heterogeneous. In an examination of thirty-one specific pieces of research on ability grouping for middle grades instruction, Johnston and Markle (1986) report the following:

The practice of grouping students by ability for instructional purposes is not supported by research. Even though a majority of teachers believes that ability grouping improves the effectiveness of schooling, the studies reviewed suggest that the practice has deleterious effects on teacher expectations and instructional practices (especially for students in lower ability groups), student perceptions of self and others, and academic performance of lower ability students.

Ability grouping interferes with opportunities for students to learn from—and learn to accept—peers of different socioeconomic backgrounds and may perpetuate notions of superior and inferior classes of citizens. The practice is especially antithetical to the goals and objectives of the middle school. (p.57)

For me, small, informal groups have always worked better when they consist of one very capable student, one student who doesn’t catch on so easily, and no more than one student with a behavior problem. The rest of the group members fall somewhere in between. Teachers who have allowed students to group themselves have run into more difficulty than teachers who use planned groups.

It is important that the teacher encourages a climate in which everyone is expected to participate in group work. This can be done by moving from group to group, carefully monitoring the activity of each group. If a student consistently tries to defeat the functioning of the group by inappropriate actions or comments, that student should be asked to leave the group and should be given an independent assignment (such as answering a list of questions on the reading material) which will be completed without the benefit of the group. Nagging and threatening by the teacher are counterproductive because they draw too much attention to the inappropriate behavior. Students will quickly catch on to the fact that group work is important and everyone must participate in a helpful manner.

One of the many examples of such instructional strategies which have been developed for this kind of learning is Intra-Act (Hoffman, 1979). Intra-Act is an appropriate strategy for use in grade five through college and is used in situations where the goal is to help students learn to actively participate in a discussion, support their opinions with evidence, and actively encourage each other to do the same. This is the way I have adapted it for use in my classes:

1. Divide the class into groups of four or five members. One student should be appointed to be the discussion leader.

2. Introduce a reading selection by building the appropriate background knowledge necessary for understanding the selection. Invite students to speculate and make predictions on the nature of the content to be learned.

3. Have each student read the selection silently. Then the team leader for each group should summarize what has been read. The group members may add additional information to the summary. The group then goes on to discuss their reactions to the selection. The summarizing discussion should not last longer than seven minutes, and the reaction discussion should not last longer than ten minutes.

4. The students are now ready to participate in a “valuing exercise.” They are told that they must not speak to each other now and must work completely independently. Each student is given a sheet of four declarative statements based on the selection’s content. These “value statements” reflect opinions people might have concerning the content of the selection.
For example, suppose the students have read a selection concerning the sanctuary movement in which Christians have illegally protected and sheltered people who have entered the United States without permission because they say they fear for their safety in their own country. The value sheet might look like the example on page 44.

5. The students write their own name above the first column and then write the name of each other group member above one of the other columns. Each student then decides whether he or she agrees or disagrees with each statement and marks the sheet in the first column. Then, based on the discussion, each student predicts how the other students in the group responded and marks each column accordingly.

6. The group members take turns revealing how each responded to the statements. The other members score their predictions, and when their predictions were incorrect they explain what was said to lead them to make such a prediction. Hoffman says it is very important that during this period students be allowed ample time to discuss, challenge, support and question one another’s responses.

7. The group members add up the correct predictions and divide that number by the number of possible predictions. This percentage score will help them determine the extent to which they are improving in their ability to support their evaluative statements with evidence and their ability to encourage each other to do so.

Names:

___

___

___

___

___

I believe people who are providing sanctuary are wrong because they are disobeying the government.

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

I believe that the sanctuary people are wrong, and the government is wrong. We should close our eyes to the whole problem and let them continue doing whatever they want to do.

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

This is a difficult question. I do not know what the answer is, but we must solve it.

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

Sometimes being a disciple of Jesus Christ means that you must disobey the laws of your government. This is such a time.

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

A/D

Intra-Act always works much better after the first experience with it because the students understand that their task in the discussion period is not only to state their own opinions and support them with evidence but also to encourage one another to do the same. If the groups stay the same, the group can keep track of its own progress in improving responsibility for discussion.

Strategies such as Intra-Act help students learn to take responsibility for stating the evidence on which they base their judgments. They also help students learn to encourage each other to state their evidence because without such participation the group cannot work effectively. Without the participation of each member the score of the group cannot be high.

Another example of an instructional strategy which helps students learn to take responsibility for their own learning as well as for the learning of others is REAP, developed by Eanet and Manzo (Eanet & Manzo, 1976). The purpose of this strategy is to help students learn how to summarize content area textbook materials and journal articles in preparation for writing a research paper. Students often have difficulty with writing summaries because the skill of summarizing is different for different subject areas. Therefore, after summarizing has been taught in the writing class, the content area teachers will have to show how that instruction applies to their subject area. REAP should be used by content area teachers in grades five through twelve rather than by language arts teachers.

Begin by telling the students that they will be expected to write a research paper and show them that one of the skills needed in doing so is the skill of summarizing written material. Then go through the following procedure:

Day 1: Prepare copies of a selection from any library book or journal article which might be used as a reference for a research paper. Distribute the selection and have the students read it silently. While the students are reading, write a prepared summary of the selection on the chalkboard or have a prepared summary on an overhead transparency. When the reading has been completed, show the summary statement and explain to the students how you went about deciding what to include in your summary and how you decided what to omit. Show them how you decided on the main idea and the supporting details of each section. In this manner you are presenting a model for summarizing, and you are developing the concept of summarizing.

Day 2: Distribute copies of a different selection for the students to read. When they have completed their reading, distribute copies of four summary statements on the material. One statement is your best effort at summarizing. One statement includes too much unimportant information. One statement includes too little information. One statement is very poor, using the author’s exact words but excluding certain sentences to make it shorter.

Each student reads the summaries and decides which is the best and what is wrong with each of the others. Then the students move into groups of five and each group comes to a consensus concerning which is the best summary and concerning the errors of the other three. This activity should take no more than ten minutes.

Day 3: The students read copies of another selection. After the reading, show the students how to write a summary by “thinking aloud.” Demonstrate the thought processes which you use in order to arrive at the major ideas and their relationships. Demonstrate the writing and rewriting which go into the preparation of an excellent summary. If the students wish to participate by verbally helping you with the thought processes, encourage them to do so.

Day 4: The students read copies of another selection, and each student writes a summary. Next they work cooperatively in pairs to develop the best summary possible, explaining to each other their reasons for their decisions. They may always refer back to the selection. Move from pair to pair, helping where needed.

Day 5: The students read another selection. Inform the students that you are testing their ability to write summaries. The students work independently. Students who show they can write summaries should be held responsible for doing so in papers which they have been assigned. Some students may need more instruction.

We have found that the dialogue in the small groups is extremely valuable in helping students learn. Those who have caught on to the procedure benefit by explaining what they have done so that the others will understand. Those who are having difficulty benefit from the extra instruction. In this way, students are taking responsibility for their own learning as well as for each other’s learning.

Another instructional strategy is semantic mapping. Semantic mapping is a procedure that helps students work together to identify important ideas and allows them to explain to each other how those ideas relate to each other (Hanf, 1971). Before the students are assigned a reading selection, the teacher introduces the topic by writing it in the center of the chalkboard and then drawing a circle around it. The teacher then asks the students what they already know about the topic, and as they respond, lists the items of information on the chalkboard. When information is given which is incorrect, the teacher still lists it, without comment. The students look at the list and predict together what are likely to be the important strands of the reading assignment. The teacher draws spokes out from the circle, listing a strand on each spoke.

The students then read the assignment. After the reading is completed they close their books and decide together whether the information they have listed is correct. They must cite evidence for their decisions.

Next they decide together whether they have listed all of the important strands on the spokes. If not, they tell the teacher which ones must still be added.

The students together list the supporting details for each strand. They do the listing without opening their textbooks since this is a thinking activity. After they have listed all the supporting details they can remember, they open their textbooks and skim to see whether any have been missed. Then they close their textbooks and complete the map by listing the details which have been missed. When the teacher and students are satisfied with the semantic map they have created, the students copy it in their notebooks.

After the teacher and students have done this type of mapping together several times, the students will be capable of doing at least part of the procedure in small groups. The goal is that, with appropriate modeling and explaining, the students will soon be able to do the entire procedure in small groups, beginning with the step immediately after the teacher has written and circled the central topic on the chalkboard. The group products can then be compared in follow-up discussion.

Mapping is more than just another way of making notes from a reading selection. The group dialogue helps each member come to a clearer understanding of the relationships in the assignment. We also have evidence that the dialogue helps the weaker students more clearly understand terms such as “main idea” and “supporting details.”

Descriptions of instructional strategies designed to help students work together can be found in many places. Journals such as The Reading Teacher, Journal of Reading, and the professional education journals in many content areas are full of such strategies. College textbooks on reading in the content areas are another rich source (Tierney, Readence, & Dishner, 1990). Usually the strategies which are described will have to be adapted for use in a particular classroom.

Teaching with these instructional strategies can completely change the environment of the classroom, especially when the teacher points out the reasons why such strategies are being used. Many students grasp the idea of responsibility quickly, even after having spent most of their earlier years in very competitive environments.

Because most of these students are at the concrete operational stage, instruction should make use of a great many visual aids and examples to ensure understanding. This is particularly true for instruction relating to the mental process of categorization, as in the areas of grammar, outlining, mathematics, science, and chronology. Visual aids are more effective when they are completed with the teacher and students planning and working together rather than being constructed by the teacher for the students.

Along with other methods for helping our students come to understand the global nature of our world today, it is essential that they have careful instruction in at least one foreign language. Research on the learning of foreign languages indicates that a second language studied before the age of twelve is more likely to be retained and used (Jansen, 1983; Butts, 1960). For that reason, a second language should be introduced into the curriculum at least by grade five and continue through secondary school. The initial emphasis in instruction should be on speaking, reading, vocabulary development, and patterned drills rather than on instruction in grammar. It is likely that a few students will need remedial instruction in specific areas such as reading and math, and this instruction could take place while the other students are receiving foreign language instruction.

With this curriculum, students who are gifted in specific academic areas would be given individual opportunities to move forward at their own pace, but they would also be expected to set aside time for helping fellow students who are struggling. In athletics, only intramural competition would be allowed, with students who excel in that area assuming the responsibility for helping those who struggle.

Another way of instructing students for servanthood is to have each student develop a helping relationship with one other individual who is in need. For example, in the middle of the week every student would spend at least an hour with either an elderly person in a rest home, with children in daycare centers, with a mentally or physically handicapped person, or with a younger child who has learning difficulties. The point of this experience would be that the student would help that person in whatever way was needed and would, in the process, develop an understanding and a concern for the welfare of others. The student’s relationship with that person would continue weekly through one semester in order to develop empathy for the needs for human dignity in our society. We often make the claim that in our Christian schools we are instructing for servanthood in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, but too often our instruction takes the form of telling the students what to do. Students learn servanthood by doing acts of service for others and by learning to care deeply for those they are helping. We need to arrange instruction for such learning.

At the end of the semester, each student would be assigned a new person to help. This activity would help to counteract the imaginary audience and personal fable aspects of egocentrism along with the need for peer approval which is often so detrimental to learning during the period of transescence. A design for this part of the curriculum will be more clearly described in Chapter 10. We should not excuse or explain away sinful actions on the part of the early adolescent by saying that it is a normal occurrence for that particular stage in development. Rather, we should arrange instruction that will move students away from sinful attitudes and toward lives of service.

The integrated nature of the curriculum would ensure that students express themselves in a variety of ways concerning these relationships. Oral histories would be taken and presented in written form, poetry would be written about the feelings and lives of the individuals or about the relationship, discussions and debates would center on care for those in need in our society. And the emphasis in the language arts class would be on such written products. Art projects would include sketches and paintings of the individual or of the setting. New cognitive information would be taught in relation to these activities and would supplement the student’s total growth in ethical responsibility to society and to individuals. Social studies and math classes would provide the facts needed for solving societal problems and ensuring dignity in human existence.

Implications for Evaluation

Evaluation of the student’s progress during this period should include teacher-made tests along with a careful examination of achievement test scores to make certain that gains in factual knowledge and skills are being made. But evaluation should also include a three-way conference two times during each academic year. The parents, the teacher, and the student should discuss the student’s willingness to take responsibility for his or her own learning as reflected in use of study skills and in academic strengths and weaknesses. They should also discuss the student’s willingness to take responsibility for the learning, care, and nurture of fellow classmates and of other individuals.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 4

1. Is it the task of the Christian middle school to develop self-concept? To provide aesthetic appreciation? To promote physical and mental health? How does your school go about working toward such development?

2. In your school is the focus on strengthening of skills for future learning or on a continued forward movement with additional content? What skills are taught? How do you make certain they are maintained?

3. What difficulties have you encountered when working with small groups? How might those difficulties be overcome?

4. Do you use ability grouping in your school? Does the use of ability groups help or hinder the caring spirit you are trying to promote in your school? Considering the results of the research on ability grouping, do you think it is profitable to do so?

5. Do you believe that teaching for responsible discipleship necessarily means that students should be involved in servanthood activities in the community outside of the school? If not, how could such learning be accomplished?

6. Some schools arrange for students to have walkathons, during which payment is made for charitable causes, based on the number of miles walked. Do you think students learn as much about servanthood in such situations as they would if they really did acts of service for others as part of the school curriculum?

7. Would it be helpful to have parent-board-teacher discussions of these matters?

5. Planning a Christian Middle School

The organization of the school should encourage the smooth operation of the academic program, clear communication among teachers and administrators, and maximum teacher and student control over the quality of the learning environment. The organization of the school should contribute to a sense of belonging on the part of the people who work and learn there, and should mitigate against anonymity and alienation from the primary mission of the school.

To achieve academic productivity, schools should be organized so that decisions are made at the lowest possible level in the organization. Curriculum and instruction decisions, classroom management decisions, and student service decisions should be made in the classroom or by teams of teachers working closely with students and other school personnel. (An Agenda for Excellence at the Middle Level, 1985)

In 1985 the U.S. Office of Education published a report entitled An Agenda for Excellence at the Middle Level, which has become the middle school equivalent of A Nation at Risk. This report recommends some fundamental changes for schooling at the middle level. The report states that since we cannot hope to teach young adolescents all they need to know for the future, we must teach them how to learn and in doing this must provide high quality intellectual climates in our middle level schools. The elements that must receive the highest priority attention are:

1. clearly articulated core values which will guide individual behavior and institutional policies and practices;

2. an alteration of the culture and climate of the school so that it supports excellence and achievement rather than intellectual conformity and mediocrity;

3. development of personal attributes and behaviors that will lead to success in school and a realistic adjustment to adult life;

4. a curriculum that will develop intellectual skills and an understanding of humankind that will permit the student to gather information, organize it in a meaningful fashion, evaluate its veracity and utility, form reasonable conclusions about it, and plan for individual and collective action;

5. teachers who are caring, enthusiastic, optimistic, and well-versed in adolescent development, in pedagogy, and in their subject areas;

6. school organization that encourages the smooth operation of the academic program, clear communication among teachers and administrators, and maximum teacher and student control over the quality of the learning environment;

7. educating students to use technology competently and thoughtfully;

8. a principal who is a strong, instructional leader with a clear sense of mission.

Changing from a Junior High to a Middle School

It should not be concluded that middle school curriculum and instruction should be unstructured. Quite the opposite is true. The most fully functioning middle schools are those that are the most highly structured. This structure appears in several ways. The schools are specific about demands on students but do not demand more self-discipline than is appropriate for students at that age level. The schools are specific about involving students in planning of curriculum and instruction in order to teach independence and responsibility but do not offer more freedom than students at that level can handle. The schools are specific about the need for guidance and advising on the part of the teachers but do not allow for such guidance and advising to be done only in an informal and somewhat haphazard manner.

In order to provide such structure the move from the traditional junior high to the middle school must be carefully planned, leaving little to chance. The following steps seem to be necessary aspects in the planning.

1. Clarifying the purpose statement. It is extremely important that planning for a Christian middle school begins with a carefully developed statement of the basis for education at the school. Most of our Christian schools have such a statement for the whole school, but the part which is specifically directed toward the middle school will need to be examined in order to determine whether it reflects the findings of recent research in child and adolescent development.

2. Writing objectives. The next step is to work out objective’s which are in keeping with that statement. While it is important that those planning the curriculum and instruction for a given school work out these statements and objectives for themselves, it might be wise for them to collect from other schools examples of the work which they have done. Smaller staffs in particular often find themselves very burdened with a great deal of work for the limited help available.

The Grand Rapids Christian Schools have adopted the following nurture objectives for their middle schools (Grand Rapids Christian Schools Plan for Middle School, 1986):

A. Restoration and Integration

The school will teach reality and learning as centered in God. Students will be made aware of the destructive results of sin and the need for rebirth and restoration. Students are called to faith in God and stewardship in life. The school will continue to provide education that promotes learning about God’s creation.

Implications—Students will study and examine:

1. how personal faith develops as they relate with peers and adults.

2. the actions and beliefs of others.

3. how their faith applies to issues in life and society.

B. Exploration

Schools will provide students with opportunities to explore curriculum areas which enrich their lives, help them determine their interests, and prepare them for continued study in future years.

Implications—The curriculum will be effected in two areas:

1. short introductory courses will be offered throughout the year.

2. within all courses there will be continued awareness of the exploratory nature of middle school education.

C. Differentiation

Schools will provide programs and structures that meet developmental needs, interests, talents, and abilities of students.

Implications—Programs and instruction will provide:

1. a gradual transition from a self-contained fifth grade to a departmentalized ninth grade.

2. continued teaching of basic skills and study skills at the student’s developmental level.

3. concrete illustrations and examples which build to the abstract.

4. discovery/activity oriented learning which includes problem solving experiences.

5. opportunities to question, reason, and demonstrate intellectual curiosity.

6. opportunities to work in learning groups.

D. Guidance

Schools will provide appropriate guidance through the curriculum, through the staff, and through specialists outside the school staff.

Implications—This guidance program will include:

1. assistance in assessing one’s behavior in group settings for purposes of improving interpersonal relations.

2. instruction toward responsible behavior in classroom and other school settings.

3. opportunities to explore and discuss educational goals and vocational/professional pursuits.

4. instruction and assistance in developing positive spiritual traits.

5. personal and academic guidance responsibilities.

E. Socialization

Schools will provide students opportunities to interact in group activities which foster social development.

Implications—Social activities will:

1. help students develop leadership skills.

2. teach students to cooperate with others.

3. show students how to analyze and evaluate their own contribution in light of the contributions of others.

4. provide opportunities for large group interaction.

F. Maturation

Schools will provide students with direction that leads them toward independent thought and actions governed by responsible Christian values.

Implications

1. Students will be encouraged to analyze issues from the perspective of personal ideas and from the perspective of biblical guidelines.

2. Teachers will model and articulate Christian values and independent thought.

3. The staff will provide a means for parents, students, and school to be involved in the total development of the student and community (pp. 3–4).

3. Determining the implications of the objectives. After the nurture objectives have been decided on, it is appropriate to determine what implications the use of the objectives will have on the entire program of the school. The document from the Grand Rapids Christian Schools lists these implications.

A. Restoration and Integration

1. The total school curriculum will be taught from a biblical perspective.

2. Students will learn a process of decision making based on biblical guidelines.

3. School programs and activities will help students develop a positive self-image through such activities as exploratory courses, career days, and seminars.

4. Students will participate in planned opportunities for worship and devotions through such activities as chapels, voluntary student Bible clubs, and classroom devotions.

5. Students will learn and demonstrate stewardship through school/community service programs, projects, and units which focus on global issues.

B. Exploration

1. Students will be offered courses and other opportunities that allow them to explore and inquire into areas outside of the “core” curriculum.

2. Students will be assigned to certain areas of exploratory learning and will be allowed to choose others.

3. The nature of the curriculum will be exploratory. The developmental levels of the students will determine the degree of “in-depth” instruction.

4. Individual exploration, with guidance and structure, will be promoted and encouraged.

5. Library and media center facilities will be an integral part of exploratory learning.

6. The school will be community based with ample opportunity for education outside of the classroom and school.

7. Activities and strategies which stimulate the creativity of the middle school learner will be selected.

C. Differentiation

1. There will be a gradual transition from self-contained to departmentalized classrooms.

1. Grade six will begin the transition by having two teachers responsible for the five basic subjects.

2. Grade seven will incorporate some departmentalization.

3. Grade eight will be mostly departmentalized.

4. There will be a wide variety of teaching and learning activities that correspond with

1. different levels of intellectual development.

2. a wide variety of reading levels.

3. a variety of attention spans.

4. different levels of physical development.

5. There will be continued teaching of basic skills in math, reading, and writing.

6. Activities and strategies will be used to provide the middle school student with opportunities to improve and develop research skills.

7. There will be teaching/learning activities to increase and develop study skills in the disciplines.

8. Opportunities will be given to work in learning groups for academic and social growth.

D. Guidance

1. Using biblical norms, teachers and students will evaluate effective behavior for group settings.

2. Students and teachers will evaluate the social behavior of individuals in group settings for purposes of personal growth.

3. Teachers will promote desired behavior in the classroom, school building and grounds, and in extracurricular activities.

4. Instruction in behavior will focus on self-responsibility as well as external expectations.

5. Homeroom teachers will have the responsibility for determining personal and academic needs and for initiating procedures to secure needed assistance.

6. Career exploration opportunities will be made available to the students.

7. Special personnel will be available for planning and implementing guidance/counseling services.

E. Socialization

1. Students will use self-evaluation tools to analyze and evaluate their behavior, social interactions, and curriculum.

2. Disciplining students will include self-evaluation of the problem and personal goal setting for improvement of behavior.

3. Group activities aimed at creating healthy social interactions will be provided for the students.

4. Students will be provided the opportunity to develop leadership skill through participation in such areas as:

1. student government.

2. intramural.

3. chapel and assembly planning.

4. school safety programs.

5. fine arts activities.

6. The school’s discipline code will encourage Christian discipleship.

7. The discipline code will be presented and explained to the students and reviewed and evaluated by the students.

8. All areas of the curriculum will promote respect for and acceptance of other students’ ideas and contributions.

F. Maturation

1. Students will be involved in activities that promote stewardship.

2. Students will be involved in community projects.

3. Students will be encouraged to attend conferences and seminars relating to community issues.

4. Teachers will model and articulate Christian values.

5. Teachers will be responsible for all students in the school.

6. Teachers will model independent thought through expression of personal opinions.

7. Parents and community will participate in the development of the students through activities such as field trips, student performances, displays of student work, and classroom visits.

8. Parents and appropriate community members will be consulted for discipline strategies. (pp. 5–7)

4. Organizing the school for interdisciplinary instruction. The objectives and implications adopted by the board and staff are extremely important to the development of the middle school because they provide guidance during the transition period and also for later stages. In most cases, if the objectives are truly in keeping with the recommendations concerning education at the middle level, they will lead to a recognition that a reorganization of the school will be required. The reason that a reorganization will be necessary is because most Christian junior high schools as well as the seventh and eighth grade classes which are part of the elementary school are based on a disciplinary approach, with separate subjects taught in separate time periods. As difficult as it is for teachers to move toward an interdisciplinary approach, this approach is needed in the Christian middle school to ensure integration of learning. Not all areas of the curriculum need to become part of this approach, but a very serious attempt must be made to show the students the integrated nature of God’s world.

However, such an approach requires a common planning time for the teaching team, and this planning time should consist of at least 90 minutes per week. This time is not to be used for general staff meetings but for planning learning units, planning integrated learning experiences, assessing student needs, planning for those needs, and discussing the amount of homework and testing which students are receiving. The reorganization of the school day must allow for the teaching of some interdisciplinary units and for planning time.

Successful administration of the middle school is extremely important. One key is that the administrator must have training in directing this kind of schooling. The administrator must be knowledgeable about the goals of schooling at this level and also about what those goals mean for the structure of the school, for curriculum, and for instruction. He or she must understand that the way in which the school is organized for instruction is as important to the success of the school as the instruction itself.

Another key to successful administration is that the planning must be done by the faculty and administration together, with the administrator carrying out the organization of the plan so that the faculty can devote time to planning instruction and teaching.

It is important to point out that not all Christian middle schools need to be alike because there is no one organizational structure which is synonymous with middle school. While the goals of different schools will be similar, they will be different in that they reflect the specific needs of different communities. The structure of the curriculum and the planning of the school day must be arranged so that they reflect the goals of the school and allow for the resources of the school to be used in the best possible way.

There are at least three ways of organizing the school so that integration of learning will occur (Vars, 1986). One way is by correlating separate subjects. With this arrangement, several subjects are correlated by teachers who have arranged their courses so that a particular topic is dealt with in different courses at about the same time. For example, while the social studies teacher is dealing with racial issues and the problems caused by poverty, the Bible teacher may be teaching about justice, and the English teacher may have students read Sounder. Meanwhile the mathematics teacher may build experiences around concepts and story problems dealing with the cost of food, rent, house payments, taxes, and welfare. At the same time the science teacher might be involving students in matters concerning nutrition and planning good nutrition with a small amount of money, or might focus on the dangers of lead poisoning or other environmental factors faced by the poor. Meanwhile the music and art teachers will be planning activities along the same lines. Servanthood activities seem to fail naturally into such a unit.

If the teachers have agreed to correlate separate courses, then they must also agree to continual communication about that correlation and must be willing to make necessary adjustments. Such adjustments are not easy for teachers who are used to teaching in a disciplinary setting, so it is important that they do not begin by trying to correlate every day of the semester. A school might begin by correlating one or two topics and keep adding more each year so that eventually most of the instruction for the school year is done in a correlated manner.

A second kind of organization is that of the interdisciplinary team. This kind of organization is needed in schools that have more than 200 students. In order to encourage the greater amount of prosocial behavior found in smaller schools, it is recommended that larger schools arrange their students in smaller groups in order to encourage a more personalized climate. In a large school system it is too easy for students to feel alienated and therefore not responsible for their behavior.

With the interdisciplinary team organization a group of teachers is officially designated as a team and given shared responsibility for teaching a given group of students. A common pattern is to assign 100 or 125 students to a team consisting of an English teacher, a social studies teacher, a science teacher, and a math teacher. These teachers are given a common planning period and they work together to plan for team teaching that draws upon several subject areas.

The team is given the freedom of using the instructional time periods in any kind of arrangement. Sometimes the entire group of students is together in order to receive the instruction which the teachers present as a team. Sometimes the group is broken up in different ways. But always the teachers focus on the same theme or teach concepts related to the same problem.

The third organizational pattern is called block time. With this arrangement the responsibility for integrating content from several subjects is given to a few teachers who have appropriate certification in those areas. For example, each teacher on the team might be asked to teach English, social studies, science, and Bible to the same group of seventh graders, building instruction about a thematic or interdisciplinary approach. If the four periods are scheduled one after the other, the teachers gain maximum flexibility in the use of time. This pattern is often found in the sixth grade classes since it follows the self-contained pattern of the elementary school, with the added expectation that the subjects be integrated. Block time instruction provides an easy transition from elementary school to middle school.

The kind of organization will depend on many factors: the size of the student body, the size of the faculty, and the personalities and personal preferences of the faculty. None of these should be ignored when planning an organizational pattern.

5. Planning the curriculum for interdisciplinary instruction. Once an organizational pattern has been chosen, the curriculum must be planned. One way to arrange the curriculum is according to the correlated approach, which fits well with the correlated plan for organizing the school although it may also be carried out by a team or by a block-time teacher. With this plan the students have separate teachers for each subject area, but there is coordination of the total instruction program. This coordination helps the students see the unity or relationships among the topics or units being studied.

If the correlated approach is to be used, the staff will need a significant amount of time to plan the curriculum. As a first step in this plan, each member of the teaching staff should introduce the content presently being taught in each course. As the teachers listen to these reports, they should begin to list possible connections which can be made. Once they have the possible connections in mind, they can begin to design a preliminary curriculum guide for each grade. Along with this guide, a large chart could show how the correlation would work. The next step is to select a unit of instruction and to write the section of the curriculum guide for that unit. In addition, the teachers will be having weekly planning meetings in which the guide and chart can be fleshed out.

In his excellent monograph Interdisciplinary Teaching in the Middle Grades Gordon Vars (1987) has provided guidance for planning an interdisciplinary unit and also has given suggestions for scheduling for such units. An explanation of how to go about planning thematic units for use in the Christian school can be found in Van Brummelen’s Walking with God in the Classroom (1988). Van Brummelen describes how to write a thematic statement for the unit and then gives examples of such statements. He goes on to explain how to choose the objectives for the unit, organize learning activities, ask appropriate questions that will lead the students forward in their thinking, select appropriate resource materials, and evaluate learning in ways that assess the effectiveness of the curriculum and teaching methods in relation to the goals of the school.

Examples of interdisciplinary units and units for theme weeks can be found in Appendix A. Each of these units has been prepared for use in Christian schools. Additional units for the middle level may be ordered from the organizations listed in Appendix B.

This way of preparing interdisciplinary units is not at all new, of course. Good teachers have been teaching like this for many years, but they have been doing so instinctively because they felt it was good education. What is different with the middle school concept is that the goals of the school and of the curriculum require all teachers to actively plan for such interdisciplinary instruction.

In addition to correlating subject matter teachers will also want to correlate the teaching and reinforcing of a variety of learning skills. Some school districts have a specific curriculum for teaching skills, but in most cases individual teachers choose the skills they wish to teach and reinforce.

Examples of the types of learning skills appropriate to this level include following directions, penmanship skills, maintaining a notebook, interviewing skills, studying for a test, test-taking skills, thinking skills (such as cause-and-effect relationships and predicting outcomes), vocabulary development, use of context clues, making inferences, taking notes from a lecture, and specific study skills. If one of the most important tasks of schooling at this level is learning how to learn, skill instruction and maintenance are an extremely important part of the curriculum. Not even the weakest student should leave middle school without having learned these skills and without having the use of these skills supervised. In addition, students must come to understand that the reason they are learning to use these skills is because they are learning to take responsibility for their own learning.

Some schools have set aside a period each day for teaching these skills. However, skills are not maintained if they are taught only once, and they do not seem to transfer well from one subject area to another. They need to be reinforced in every subject area where they will be used. Some teaching teams plan together to teach one or two skills each week. After the skill has been taught, the teachers know that they must arrange instruction so that the skill will be maintained.

If it is true that the period of transescence represents a time of change and turbulence as well as a plateau period in intellectual development, as Epstein suggests, then what greater service can we provide for our students than to make certain that they have the basic skills in thinking and in studying before they move on to the next level of intellectual development?

A second curriculum approach, fusion, goes a step beyond correlation and actually blends the content of two or more subjects. For example, literature, social studies, and music curricula may be combined into a new course called “Our National Culture.” This arrangement has also been called “unified” or “combined” subjects. Fused courses are given a larger block of time and are taught either by an individual teacher in the block arrangement or by a team in the interdisciplinary arrangement. If the course is taught by a team, each teacher usually teaches the area which he or she specializes in. Vars (1985) describes it this way:

Instead of merely teaching Esther Forbes’ Johnny Tremain at the same time the class is studying the American Revolution, the teacher may actually build the entire study of the Revolution around the book, with history content being used to set the context and to reveal the long-range outcomes of the events depicted in the novel. Likewise art and music related to that event may be fused with the literature and social studies to further enrich the experience. (p. 13)

All of the skill instruction described earlier is an important part of this or of any other curriculum arrangement. In addition, the construction of an initial scope and sequence chart is also necessary in order to be accountable for the content and skills specified by the objectives of the school or by the school district curriculum guides. Items that do not fit within any planned unit may be taught separately.

The third approach to an interdisciplinary curriculum is the core approach. Many educators who write about middle school describe core as the ultimate in integrated curriculum. Instead of merely correlating the subjects which are already taught or fusing the content of two or more subjects, the core curriculum is built around issues, problems, or concerns which the students have (Vars, 1985).

For example, transescents are very much concerned about getting along with others, so a core class might focus on interpersonal relations, drawing upon different fields of study. The unit always draws first of all upon the personal problem and then moves to the larger social dimension, including government agencies, laws, economics, psychology, and philosophy. Other problems of immediate concern to this age group are use of tobacco or drugs, the place of popular culture in their lives, career planning, nuclear weapons, or disintegrating family relationships.

Students use time-honored, problem solving steps and a great many skills in investigating these problems. They read articles and books, interview experts, and write letters to find information. They summarize information, discuss it with small groups, and report it to the larger group. They use the skill of critical thinking in supporting arguments and suspending judgment until they have more information. They come to recognize that what may have seemed to be a fairly easily answered problem turns out to be extremely complicated, affecting large areas of life.

Core teaching is not easy. It requires teachers who are flexible and willing to experiment. But even though the planning for a core unit takes a great deal of time, the same unit may be repeated at a later time with another group of students.

Objections to Interdisciplinary Units

One of the major concerns of teachers, parents, and administrators about interdisciplinary units is that it is impossible to incorporate all of the content of the traditional curriculum this way. Research on interdisciplinary instruction indicates that the depth of study and motivation for learning generated by the units compensates for the omissions (Vas, 1985), but it is also possible to combine interdisciplinary instruction with specific disciplinary instruction for areas that have been neglected.

Another concern is that with the move to middle school there will be a decrease in academic achievement. That hasn’t proven to be the case, and in the better schools the opposite has been true. In a study of exemplary middle schools, George and Oldaker (1985) found that 62% of the schools demonstrated increased scores on state assessment tests, the California Achievement Test, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and similar achievement tests after their schools became middle schools. Most of them felt the gain was due to the increased attention given to skill instruction and maintenance. But the middle school administrator will want to keep a careful watch over achievement test scores.

Teaching with interdisciplinary units is often easier for teachers with elementary preparation than for those who have prepared to be secondary teachers because of the broader education which elementary teachers have received. The specialized education of the secondary teacher often makes the planning for this kind of teaching more difficult. For that reason, Christian colleges should be offering instruction, perhaps at the graduate level, in instruction for the middle school. At the very least, a great deal of in-service help must be provided for all teachers.

It is not necessary for a staff to select one type of curriculum arrangement and to avoid all others. It seems reasonable to believe that different curriculum content areas are better taught in different ways. Perhaps part of the curriculum should be correlated, part should be fused, and part should follow the core arrangement. Perhaps part of the curriculum should remain as a separate discipline. Organizing the school day so that large blocks of time are possible when they are needed makes such flexibility possible. At all times, however, those involved in planning and arranging the curriculum need to keep in mind that middle grade learners need structure in their learning. They need to see where the instruction is leading because they are not as capable of self-direction and self-guidance as we might wish they were. But they also need to be involved in creating the structure for their learning.

As difficult as it is to change the way one teaches, planning for an interdisciplinary unit gives courage to teachers who recognize the wholeness of life and who want to teach in keeping with that wholeness. But such an approach will be threatening to teachers who have always looked at instruction differently, as a step-by-step memorization of facts until the whole picture is seen. Careful planning and preparation must be done with the entire staff so that they move forward as a unit.

Summary of Guidelines for Developing a Christian Middle School

In planning or implementing a Christian middle school the following guidelines might be helpful:

1. Begin with a series of presentations and readings concerning junior high schools and middle schools. Read the statement of purpose for your school and involve as many individuals as possible in a discussion of what that statement means for your middle school. From the very beginning, teachers, parents, and administrators should be involved in the discussions.

2. Make a thorough study of the children to be educated in your middle school. What characteristics do you expect to find in learners at that level? What goals do you have that are unique to a Christian school? How do your goals fit with the statement of purpose for your school?

3. Develop a set of objectives that arise from the goals you have stated.

4. Plan and design the essential elements that will be a part of your middle school.

5. Identify which groups or individuals are responsible for planning instruction that will fulfill the objectives you have written. What will be the responsibility of the teachers? the administrator? the parents?

6. Plan in-service training for the faculty and administrators in your school. Make certain that your in-service plans are long range as well as immediate. Plan information sessions and training sessions for parents to keep them informed and to enable them to fulfill their responsibility for their children’s learning.

7. Develop a timetable for working out your objectives. Don’t try to move too quickly.

8. Develop a plan for regularly evaluating the curriculum, instruction, and achievement of your schools.

9. Do not attempt more than can be achieved. Trying to do too much often leads to weariness and burnout on the part of the teachers. Attempt changes on a slow, but regular basis.

10. Keep a written account of all that you do as you make changes. When the faculty plans for interdisciplinary units, make certain that they are kept in written form for use at some future time. They must begin with a basic statement, continue with objectives, and then move to a description of the curriculum, instruction, and activities. Good teachers often are so busy planning and teaching that they will not want to take the time to keep written records. However, it is the role of the administrator to insist on complete plans, written in detail, for each of these units. In that way parents can be informed, the plans will be ready for future use, and the plans will be in a form that can be shared with other schools.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 5

1. What should be the elements of a statement of the basis for education at your middle school?

2. What objectives can be derived from that statement?

3. How can you arrange for in-service days in order to begin your planning of the organization of the school and the preparation of curriculum?

4. Which organizational plan seems right for your goals?

5. What kind of timeline seems appropriate for your goals?

6. How will you make certain that the entire school community (teachers, parents, board, and students) are involved in your planning?

7. Brainstorm for some themes which might possibly be used for interdisciplinary units.

How the Christian Middle School Works

6. Leadership in the Christian Middle School

Kenneth Kuipers

Few jobs are as important as that of a leader. Saying this does not imply that I have an inflated view of myself or of my job. Nor do I mean that leaders have any more value than others who are working in an organization. Rather, I want to make two points in introducing this chapter.

First, schools are a complex web of interactions and social relations which receive pressure to move in many different directions. These pressures come both from within and from without the organization. Such forces often push in different directions and at times are even at odds with each other. Someone needs to be charged with keeping the ship sailing on course under such conditions.

Middle schools are also subjected to such forces and movements. Without capable and willing leadership, all the goals and good intentions for middle level education will not be realized consistently or on a regular basis. Leadership is crucial to ensure that the mission of the middle school will be achieved.

Second, I sense that many who are in administration have come to know their own weaknesses and shortcomings. The problem comes when administrators confuse their person with their positions. It is one thing for them to know their own weaknesses, but that in no way should color their attitude toward the job that needs to be done. The job is a high calling, and people must step into it with confidence that God uses imperfect people to steer the institutions in his kingdom to their proper destinations. From time to time all leaders need to reflect on the significant role which they have. If their job is done halfheartedly or timidly, it will certainly affect the success of their institution.

Leadership, curriculum, and program development need to work together. Without effective leadership, it is not likely that the ideals written about in this book will ever become a reality. This chapter explores how leadership can bring about and maintain a caring ethos in the Christian middle school.

A Perspective on Leadership

A leader is often needed in human society to make decisions or to balance conflicting interests. Added to this basic fact of life, Christians have always recognized the effects of sin on human beings and their institutions. Greed, pride, indolence, animosity, and revenge can all come to play as human beings gather for a common purpose, regardless of how noble that purpose may be. This pervasive effect of sin and evil in our society means that authority is required to keep forces in check so that people can move in the same direction to achieve something worthwhile.

To say that Christians have accepted the concept of authority is not to say that they have endorsed unlimited authority. In fact, the Scriptures spell out a unique “servant-leadership” style of authority. In Genesis 1:28 God puts humans in charge of his universe, accountable to him but required to exercise dominion over the earth. We read in Genesis 2:15 that people were placed in position to care for the garden and to till it. The idea of royal rule or authority is linked up early in Scripture with serving the good of the earth. Authority and servanthood are inseparable as Christians think about leadership in light of Scripture.

This inseparable link is best demonstrated for us in the life of our Lord. Philippians 2:6–8 tells us that Christ did not consider his authority something to be held onto for its own sake but rather humbled himself to become obedient to death for redemption’s sake. Christ is here pictured as the living model for us to reflect on as we set out to be in positions of authority, Christian leaders need to manage, direct, encourage, and define limits so that others can most effectively plan and work toward goals which have been agreed upon.

Research and Leadership

Much has been written in the last few years on effective school leadership. A research team from the University of Texas at Austin (Rutherford, 1985) compared effective school administrators with those who were less effective. While the team did not study middle school administrators in particular, many of the findings are useful to our present discussion.

The results of the study showed that effective school administrators demonstrated the following qualities more often than did less effective administrators:

1. clear and informed vision,

2. ability to translate the vision into goals,

3. ability to maintain a supportive environment in a way that maximizes student achievement,

4. ability to monitor teacher effectiveness, and

5. ability to intervene with support and assistance that would yield improvement.

Vision

When we speak about the effective school administrator having the quality of vision we usually mean that he or she has clearly in mind an ideal for which the school should strive. In Christian schools we also usually mean that the principal is able to articulate that vision for the parents, board, and teaching staff and is able to lead them in discussions so that together they may determine what changes need to take place and how to implement change.

In interviews with administrators and with teachers on their staffs, the Texas researchers found that effective administrators had a clear vision for what they wanted their schools to be. These visions usually included goals related to the learning needs of students as well as goals related to new or changing needs within the community.

Less effective administrators, on the other hand, responded quite differently. When asked what their vision for the school was, these administrators often paused for a long time before answering. Their statements were often couched in general terms such as, “We have a good school and a good faculty, and I want to keep it that way.” Often their responses included lower level maintenance goals. “We want to have a safe and orderly school.” Some even had to go to their shelves to find the school mission statement. These less-effective administrators lacked a specific vision for their schools and thus couldn’t display great enthusiasm for the direction of the school.

What does this mean for those who lead in the Christian middle level grades? It means that they must clarify their goals. It also means they must be open to refining their goals when involved in discussions with teachers and parents or as a result of new information concerning student development.

Principals must be convinced that Christian middle level education is best when it provides students the opportunity to explore created reality. Students at this age need to go beyond the traditional curriculum to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are. They need to be carefully mentored during this exploration, so their valuable time is well spent in learning about themselves, about others, and about the creation around them.

Middle level administrators should also understand that time must be set aside for socialization. This requires more than providing playgrounds or recess time for the students. It may mean finding time and money for a counselor to be on the staff, even if only part time. It may mean establishing advisor-advisee relationships between staff and students. It may mean structuring devotions or chapels with this theme in mind. It may mean structuring the curriculum to encourage a more serious and helpful interaction between students. It may mean arranging for in-service sessions to help teachers work toward this goal. It could mean rearranging the school schedule or sponsoring social events during the year to encourage students to develop wholesome relationships with their schoolmates.

Effective middle school administrators need to study, know, and understand the developmental needs of their students and be able to translate those needs into a vision for their schools. This vision contributes to effective leadership and can become the basis for effective middle level education and nurture.

Translating the Vision

The researchers in the Texas study also found that effective principals were able to weave their vision into the fabric of the everyday operation of their schools. In schools with effective leaders the staff could also articulate the goals and visions of the school. They shared the vision because they had been involved in describing and shaping it. The comment that these faculty members often made was, “We are all pulling together.” The unity and consensus seemed to be related to the leader’s enthusiasm for the vision and his or her ability to convey this vision to the school community.

Schools with less effective administrators had faculty who were far less unified in their purpose. They seldom spoke with enthusiasm about their school or about their work. Teachers in these schools seemed to lack a common understanding of schoolwide goals and mission. They more frequently talked about departmental goals or grade level expectations or their own personal goals. They seldom mentioned the effect that their administrator was having on the school.

What does this mean for leadership in the Christian middle school? First, principals need to have enthusiasm for and commitment to the vision. Second, principals should take advantage of opportunities to communicate the vision and the mission to the faculty. Administrators need to consciously tie the vision into the hundreds of small pieces of the school day.

Not to be forgotten in this translation process is the leader’s interaction with parents. The principal’s interaction and communication with parents must build support for the mission of the school. The leader in the school is the one who directly communicates this vision to new parents and directly or indirectly continues communicating the vision to parents who have been involved with the school for some time.

Students also need to feel that they are part of the team, and they also need to be brought into the vision. This happens indirectly through communication with teachers, but it needs to more regularly be done by administrators directly through hallway interaction, discipline situations, handbooks, announcements, chapels, small group meetings, student councils or in the office on a one-to-one basis. Students must be constantly informed of the vision in order to be brought along effectively as members of the team.

Providing a Supportive Environment

The researchers found that schools with effective leaders had positive, supportive environments in which teachers were effective and students grew and flourished. Schools with less effective administrators were found to have more negative, somber environments.

Teachers who worked with the more effective administrators felt that their creative ideas were seriously appreciated, even when the implementation of those ideas might not appear workable to the administrator or fit in with other parts of the program. Less effective administrators were often seen as “not wanting to rock the boat.” At best, they would consider a new idea if it didn’t disrupt or create any kind of problem.

Schools with effective administrators had environments in which risks were taken and teachers were supported and recognized when they tried innovative approaches. This supportive atmosphere bred success. Teachers seemed to raise their own expectations in such environments. Schools with less effective principals had atmospheres which encouraged an increase of negative attitudes. They became placid places with atmospheres of unstimulating predictability.

What should Christian middle schools be doing to help create a more enlivened, supportive learning environment? One way is for the principal to refrain from practicing sole authority in problem solving and leadership and to actively encourage teachers to participate in management. Middle school students watch their adult models closely, and such students benefit from a school setting in which there is shared decision-making. Principals who promote participation find their authority not lost but increased.

Another way to provide a supportive environment in the Christian middle school is to make certain that parents are kept closely informed and involved in their children’s education. Curricular change is impossible without parental support, and that support cannot be taken for granted. Some communities are receptive to change because they believe that is the road to better education for their children. Others, however, want nothing to do with change. Middle school administrators should work toward developing attitudes toward change which are open, honest, searching, and helpful.

Another way is for middle school administrators to encourage faculties to be innovative with curriculum and with programs so that teachers will come up with new approaches to better meet the developmental needs of the preadolescent. Innovative teachers need support, interest, and affirmation from their administrator and from one another. For real enthusiasm to develop within a school, experienced and seasoned teachers need to feel as though their insights and innovations are worth something and have merit. The effective administrator will support such innovation and work with the teacher or with the teaching team to help implement change in such a way that it fits in with the school’s overall mission. Staff members need to feel reassured that the risks they take in trying new methods are worth the effort.

Monitoring

The research also found that effective leaders knew what was going on in and around their buildings. They tended to spend the larger part of their working day out of their offices, and so they were in touch with the ebb and flow of their schools. One teacher commented about her effective principal, “He is always around and about the school—in the classrooms, in hallways, at special events. You see him everywhere. He really knows what is going on in this school.”

Less effective principals spent more time in their offices tending to management and administrative details. They were far less able to give detailed accounts of what was happening in the classrooms. These administrators were much less likely to get very deeply involved in the evaluation of their teachers. Where evaluation did take place, it was done with a minimum of effort.

What can Christian school middle level administrators do to enhance their monitoring capabilities? They should constantly be gathering data about their schools. Visiting classrooms frequently can do this. It can also be done by doing some substitute teaching from time to time. Principals should attend grade level meetings, team meetings, and committee meetings or should read the reports of these meetings so as to stay informed.

A serious and systematic approach to evaluation can also be a powerful way of gathering data. An attitude of mutual concern for better instruction will promote trust and professional growth. Frequent observation will help the principal become more aware of different instructional strategies. It will also lower the stress level of the typical evaluation procedure.

Judging in various fairs and doing final reading and judging in writing contests also can reveal a great deal of what is going on by way of student learning. One-on-one and roundtable discussions with students can be as good a source of information as casual contact with teachers in the lounge or hallway. “Management by walking around” has great merit as a data gathering technique.

Intervening

The research also found that effective administrators acted directly and sincerely on their collected data. When they discovered something commendable, they did not weigh the pros and cons of recognition. They directly let the teacher and/or student know of their approval and told others about it enthusiastically. This approval not only affirmed the teacher or student, but it also gave the administrator the chance to remind everyone of the vision and goals that were important within the school.

Problem areas also received intervening. When their monitoring techniques revealed a problem, these administrators seemed to sense the need for immediate and corrective action. They were able to confront situations and people, and they worked constructively toward a successful resolution of the situation. When the desired improvement was not achieved, these principals moved in clear and decisive ways to make final corrections to the problem.

Administrators in Christian middle schools should make a practice of praising the positive things happening in their schools. This must not be artificial but must be done sincerely. Some write notes, and others offer an encouraging word. Sometimes recognition is public, but at other times it is better given privately. Whatever the method, praise must occur often or something is drastically wrong, either with the school or with the administrator.

Teacher evaluations are a natural format to let a teacher know what things deserve praise. The vast majority of teachers have many more strengths than weaknesses, and they need to be reminded of this during their careers. This kind of intervention encourages positive actions to increase and weaknesses to decrease.

Discussions that take place in the teachers’ lounge have a profound effect on the ethos of the school. Negative comments about students, about the curriculum, or about attempts to meet students’ needs in new and different ways lower the morale of the staff. Positive comments by teachers as well as by the administrator make a profound difference on the life of the school. It is important for the administrator and staff to discuss this aspect of school life and for the administrator to provide leadership in avoiding negative comments.

Many administrators find that confronting problems in their schools is an unpleasant side of their job. However, when a working relationship can be maintained and communication is honest and impartial, improvement usually can be achieved. Administrators should suggest solutions or help to develop solutions with the person or persons affected.

Finally, administrators must make certain that adequate recognition is being provided for student achievement. In the middle school this should not just be in areas of academics and sports. It needs to be as broad as the goals of the school. If the vision includes integration, exploration, and socialization, the recognition must reflect this fact. This could be in the form of pats on the back, written notes, awards assemblies at the end of the year, ribbons for fairs, or featured writers of the week. Whatever the method, the administrator must also intervene in the lives of the students to ensure there will be continued improvement and growth toward the shared vision.

Some Character Traits of Successful Leaders

The qualities of leadership come more naturally to some people than to others. Some administrators will find that they already have many of these qualities but other qualities will have to be developed. It is important to believe that people can change, and most leaders will want to return to the list periodically in order to be reminded to keep improving in different areas.

The same can be said of the list of key character traits for the leaders of successful middle schools found below. The list has been accumulated over the years from various places.

- Serving attitude. Successful leaders are always guided by the human and spiritual goals they seek to attain.

- Team member. Successful leaders say “we” more than “I” and say “Let’s go” rather than “Go.”

- Integrity. The word of a successful leader can be counted on.

- Approachable. Successful leaders are open to receiving good news as well as bad news, the enjoyable as well as the less enjoyable parts of life.

- Inclusive. Successful leaders work hard to make everyone in the organization feel part of the team.

- Positive. Successful leaders readily see the good in others and readily praise them.

- High expectations. Successful leaders set high standards for themselves as well as for others around them.

- Trust others. Successful leaders share responsibility easily and are not overbearingly repressive.

- Show initiative. Successful leaders don’t wait for things to happen but move in to make them happen.

- Resourceful. Successful leaders will not settle for limits of available resources but will work to find other ways to accomplish goals if needed.

- Trusting. Successful leaders see God’s hand in the successes and difficulties of the school.

- Communicative. Successful leaders get information out effectively as well as listen to others’ concerns and ideas.

- Organized. Successful leaders plan for improvement and harmony.

- Risktakers. Success is often gained through many failed attempts. Successful leaders must be willing to accept this as a condition of life.

- Mature. Successful leaders are willing to work with and accept a variety of people in productive ways.

- Tactful. A successful leader is able to get others to accept the direction that is being set.

- Fairness. A successful leader plays no favorites and is open to different points of view.

- Sense of Humor. Successful leaders are willing to laugh at themselves as well as enjoy the presence of others.

- Common Sense. A successful leader shows good judgment based on all the available facts.

This chapter has given an outline of what it takes to be a leader in a successful Christian middle school. Much of what has been said applies to leadership in any level of schooling or in any organization. Effective Christian middle school leaders need to constantly keep the vision and the mission of the school before the school community. The vision and mission must be the driving force of their actions and attitudes if the middle school is to be all that it has set out to be.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 6

1. Are you, as a staff, able to articulate the vision you have developed for your school?

2. Would you characterize the environment of your school as positive, cheerful, and conducive to teaching and learning? What is the responsibility of the administrator in creating such an environment? What is the responsibility of the teaching staff in creating such an environment? Does the board have a responsibility in this matter? Do the parents?

3. What are the best ways for the monitoring of instruction to occur in your school? Should the administrator visit classes? How often? How should you plan for such visits? Should teachers visit each other’s classes?

4. Should the principal be the instructional leader in your school? What does that mean? Does the teaching staff allow him or her to carry out that role? Are there other instructional leaders in your school?

5. In what ways does your school presently translate the vision? What are some additional creative ways in which this could be done more effectively?

6. What factors can have negative impact on a school climate? What strategies might be used to effectively change these factors?

7. Brainstorm ways in which instruction can be more appropriate for middle level learning. How can the leader effectively support and encourage these methods?

7. Exploratory Courses

Vernon K. Groenendyk

Add Some Watercolor to your Life

Have you ever wanted to paint a beautiful picture but haven’t had the time or the knowledge of how to do it? Try painting a watercolor picture. You will need desire to work and a great deal of patience. This course will offer you the technique, the time, the place, and the material.

Scalpel, Rana Pipiens, and You

Using a frog we will develop the ability to use dissection instruments and make careful observations. External and internal structures will be identified. Each structure will be described as to size, shape, location, and structural design. Comparisons to other animals and humans will be made.

Your City—Past and Present

Take a look back to the early days of your city. See how it has changed and grown. Study photographs to learn more about logging, industry, transportation, building, and recreation in the oldest part of the city. Visit selected famous places. Explore your genealogy.

Musical Theater

Have you ever had the urge to get up on stage and belt out a song? As the audience claps and cheers, you gain a feeling of great satisfaction. Now is the time to begin rehearsals—you won’t be timid or shy. Sign up now and bring along your movin’ shoes.

Rock Music: A Christian Perspective

Something that affects millions of young people and adults is being used and misused in our society. Rock music is a powerful tool in conveying drugs, immorality, and violence to young people. This class will look at past and present rock groups and carefully analyze what they are actually saying through symbolism, text, or backward masking. Using the Bible and Christian books, students will be taught how to be discriminating listeners using Christian beliefs as a foundation for their thinking.

The West Side Story

If you are interested in learning how to write a newspaper, here is your chance. Become involved in discussing topics, interviewing people, and writing articles that relate to your school.

(Summaries from exploratory courses that have been used with students in a Christian middle school.)

One of the many characteristics of the middle school student is a desire to explore. This need goes beyond the exploratory experience that occurs in the core subject areas. George and Lawrence (1982) state it this way:

Middle school educators know that the students have entered a combustive period in their lives, a period of rapid physical growth, intellectual blossoming, tumultuous social and emotional change. It is a time when they begin to see their world in wholly different ways, a time in life when exploration of their many potential selves becomes paramount. The most effective schools for emerging adolescents ought, logically, to be those which recognize and facilitate this process of exploration that is so central to their developmental process. Providing for exploration, then, becomes a primary goal of the fully functioning middle school. (p. 149)

In an earlier chapter we said that if students have different blends of a variety of intelligences, they will be interested in different areas and will learn in different ways. If some students are “at promise” in certain areas and others are “at risk” in certain areas, then it is important that the curriculum offers a variety of opportunities for students to explore different areas. Exploratory courses such as those described at the beginning of this chapter offer such opportunities.

We know that many students graduate from high school without a clear career direction for their lives. Some of these students find that direction during their college years. Others, however, have great difficulty in selecting a major area of study and leave college with the same lack of direction. Still others choose not to attend college but leave high school with little notion of the type of work they are best suited for.

Career selection begins at the middle school level with providing opportunities for exploring a great many areas of interest. It is important for administrators and teachers to work together to develop the means and find the time in the middle school program to fulfill this need for exploration.

What are exploratory courses and how do they fit the objectives of a Christian school? The Grand Rapids Christian Schools Plan for Middle School defines exploratory courses as introductory courses that “help provide students with opportunities to explore curriculum areas which enrich their lives, help them determine interests, and prepare them for continued study in future years.” Often course topics are determined by the interests and expertise of the teachers or community volunteers who may be available.

Areas of interest might include the following: music, art, drama, language, science/math (calculator contests, problem solving, Olympiads), social studies (local historical studies, genealogy, simulations. current events, inventions), hobbies (photography, collectibles), writing (school newspaper, yearbook), study skills, and athletics (aerobics, weight lifting, bicycling, officiating). We live in an interesting world and God gave us the capacity and urge to explore it. Out of this participation in exploration comes part of our response to creation.

Objectives for Exploratory Courses

Based on their philosophy of how and what a middle school student should learn, the Grand Rapids Christian Middle School Committee wrote nurture objectives for meeting the special needs of the middle school child. The following statements are implications based on the nurture objective for exploration.

1. Students will be offered courses and other opportunities that allow them to explore and inquire into areas outside of the “core” curriculum.

2. Students will be assigned to certain areas of exploratory learning and will be allowed to choose others.

3. The nature of the curriculum will be exploratory. The developmental levels of the students will determine the degree of “in-depth” instruction.

4. Individual exploration, with guidance and structure, will be promoted and encouraged.

5. Library and media center facilities will be an integral part of exploratory learning.

6. The school will be community based with ample opportunity for education outside of the classroom and school.

7. Activities and strategies which stimulate the creativity of the middle school learner will be selected. (p. 59)

Arranging for Instruction

As was stated before, these courses are often developed and taught by the teaching staff. However, it should be noted that community resources (parents, grandparents, business people, etc.) are also useful in the teaching of exploratory courses.

The amount of time spent on exploratory courses may vary. They could fit into one class period per day for a two- to four-week period, one class period two days per week for six weeks, or one class period one day per week for nine weeks. The idea is to have some continuity in scheduling the classes but not to overschedule the number of sessions so that the students lose interest in them. The length of the exploratory classes may be arranged to fit into the time schedule of the core classes taught in the middle school.

Students can be assigned to exploratory courses in different ways. Students may make choices from a list of topics, or they may be randomly assigned to courses. The program could also be arranged so that some exploratory courses are electives and some are required. The advantage to allowing for selection is that all of the students in a class will have interests in the topic. However, the advantage to randomly assigning students is that students will explore topics that are completely new to them.

Involving the Parents

It is important to have the parents involved. An introductory letter should be sent home with the listing of the exploratory classes. The letter would include the exploratory course titles with the course summaries. At the beginning of this chapter were samples of exploratory summaries that would be sent home along with the letter.

Evaluation

How is student evaluation carried on in exploratory classes? Since school program time is used, there must be accountability for the time that the students are involved in the classes. Because of the exploratory nature of the courses, the evaluation of the student’s work in the class should be approached in a different way from that of the core courses. The focus should be on the student’s attitude and performance and not on a letter grade that would be given as an indication of the student’s progress. Following is an example of an exploratory evaluation report that would be given to the students at the end of the exploratory course:

EXPLORATORY COURSE REPORT CARD

COURSE: __________________

STUDENT: __________________

TEACHER: __________________

HOMEROOM TEACHER: __________________

Application:

Consistently prepared for class ___

Used class time well ___

Attitude:

Demonstrated interest in class ___

Cooperated with teacher and classmates ___

Demonstrated respect for subject ___

Performance:

Learned objectives of the class ___

KEY:

4 = Excellent

3 = Satisfactory

2 = Inadequate

1 = Unacceptable

Additional comments:

Parent Signature: _____________

The exploratory report would be given to the students to share with their parents. After reviewing the report with the student, a parent would sign the report and the student would return it to school.

Exploratory courses are a small, but important, part of the middle school puzzle. By no means have we explored all of the possibilities for organizing, scheduling, and implementing exploratory courses into the middle school program. What is important is that we understand the needs of middle school children and work to incorporate educational opportunities such as exploratory courses into the middle school program.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 7

1. Is it valuable or worthwhile for your school to schedule exploratory course instruction for middle school students? How do exploratory courses fit the Christian philosophy of the instruction for a middle school student?

2. What kinds of topics would you want to include as part of your exploratory course program? Who would teach these classes? Would there be some courses that you would require all students to take or would you allow the students to make all of the course selections? How would these courses be scheduled into your middle school program?

3. How would you communicate an exploratory course program in a positive way to both the students and the parents? What form should evaluation take?

8. Advisor/Advisee Relationships

Daniel Day and David Koetje

Let’s visit New Christian Middle School, a school of 150 students in grades six, seven, and eight.

Scene One. Anticipation has been building for weeks for one of the annual school-sponsored skating parties at Oscar’s Roller Rink. Students have always looked forward to these events since they occur somewhat infrequently and there are few other organized school activities. Sue is a student in grade eight and, although she has few friends, she has generally enjoyed school. The skating party is scheduled for Friday night.

On Monday Sue tells her mother she is not going. Her friends have all been called by others. Sue has not received a single call. Her mom insists, however, that Sue attend the event because “You’ll meet some kids there who you can skate with.”

Sue us not eager, but she does attend the party. The first organized “couples only” skate is announced. All of her friends are paired off, and Sue is left to the sidelines. The evening unfolds with many of the other popular parts of the skating events announced. With each passing announcement there is more isolation and loneliness. Sue is able to leave the skating party by 8:15 without anyone noticing. She comes home to tell her mother, “This is the last time for me!” Both mother and daughter spend more than a few minutes in tears.

Scene Two. The tardy bell was still echoing in Mrs. Dobrowski’s third hour music class when Mario blurted out, “Mrs. Dobrowski, I forgot my notebook!”

“Sit down quietly, please!” instructed Mrs. D.

“But my outline is in it,” exclaimed Mario.

“Simply recopy it from a friend,” coached Mrs. D.

Mario mumbled something under his breath as he slouched in his chair.

No more than ten minutes had gone by when Jenny Swainson grabbed Mario’s hand shouting, “Give it here!”

“What’s going on?” inquired Mrs. D.

“Mario took my pencil,” Jenny quickly responded.

“Please give it to me,” Mrs. D said as she looked sternly into Mario’s eye, holding out her hand.

With a flick of the wrist, Mario flipped the pencil toward Mrs. D’s hand. The pencil hit her palm and fell to the floor.

“Mario, please pick up the pencil,” demanded Mrs. D.

Five seconds went slowly by. Mario gave no indication that he was going to pick it up. Seven seconds passed . . . ten seconds. Mario remained seated.

Scene Three. Daryl has come to history classroom with the textbook and his notebook but no assignment. Mrs. Mersma wasn’t surprised; that was a familiar pattern for Daryl. In fact, Mrs. Mersma had faced the same situation with Daryl in her first hour English class. In frustration, she followed Daryl to his locker. Sure enough! There the assignment lay, half finished, on the bottom of his locker, alongside a half-completed English assignment.

These scenes are repeated with variations in Christian middle schools throughout our continent. And with hundreds of situations like these occurring in a school week, it is difficult to be sure that there is an ethos of caring in a school. Can situations such as the ones that were described here be eliminated or is that asking for the impossible?

If it is true that students learn better in a safe, warm, caring environment and if it is true that the Christian school community as a whole is an image bearer of God, then we must work to eliminate negative situations. It is absolutely necessary that the spirit that pervades the school is a positive, Christian spirit. This does not mean that we are calling for a superficial type of niceness. It simply means that teachers and administrators must establish a positive environment. In Helping Children Grow: Healthy Emotions Mary VanderGoot (1987) writes movingly about what students need from teachers in this regard.

What students need more than either positive and irrelevant feedback, or stern and arbitrary discipline, is honest reactions from adults who can be straightforward with a whole range of feelings and emotions. Students need this emotional richness, because they count on others to be mirrors in which they can see and evaluate themselves along the whole range of negative to positive emotions. In order to be able to trust the feelings about themselves that they gain from encounters with teachers, students need to sense the emotional richness and balance of their teachers. (p. 117)

One way of establishing this type of environment comes in the form of an advisor/advisee program. This chapter will describe some of the characteristics of such a program and how it can work in a Christian middle school. An advisor/advisee program has several elements, each attempting to address individual student needs while weaving its way through the total school program. The needs include spiritual, academic, emotional, and social, and therefore the program must display the following characteristics.

Building partnerships. Perhaps the most important part of the advisor/advisee program is the intent to meet the diverse needs of middle school youth. Coping with stress, uncertainty, peer pressure, spiritual doubts, and emotional strain is a common part of students’ lives at this age. The sensitive Christian middle school will structure ways to build supportive partnerships between students and their peers as well as between students and teachers.

Building ownership. Middle school students need to develop a sense that school exists for them. They are not simply cogs that work their way through the maze called curriculum. They are a vital part of the total school program and they should be involved in making decisions, offering advice, exploring opportunities, and developing a sense of ownership.

Discovering self. Every Christian child faces the question “Who am I?” The answer to that question comes from a process which includes openness and caring. Students need to feel the desire of teachers and administrators to listen to their concerns and questions about their place in the community of God’s people.

New Christian School’s Multi-faceted Advisor/Advisee Program

Building partnerships, building ownership, and assisting students in their self-discovery journey are desired characteristics that need to be developed throughout the entire school program. What follows are some key elements of that program.

Homeroom. The homeroom experience is an important part of the Christian middle school experience. Having daily devotions together helps to underline biblical principles. Eating lunch together as a group helps to build partnerships. Arranging for students to report to the homeroom for the last ten minutes of the day gives the entire class a chance to review assignments that are due the following day. It also allows for homeroom teachers to check individual student assignment sheets and to check notebook organization.

Teacher/Advisory Program. With a teacher/advisory program, each teacher/advisor is responsible for approximately 20 students within a grade level. All teachers, including librarians, coaches, and special needs teachers, serve as advisors. Advisory groups meet at least weekly to develop a feeling of unity and trust. Some schools set aside one period of each day to provide time for exploratory courses, independent reading, and grade level activities. When this is the case, advisory groups could meet during that period.

The most important responsibility of the teacher/advisor is to get to know the student on a personal basis. Advisors should know their students’ school progress, learning styles, aptitudes, interests, and family and health background. They should know how their students get along with peers. They are the ones who have conferences with parents in order to discuss the student’s progress in school.

Most of the advisory time is spent in group activities. The advisees are actively involved in planning these activities which range from talking about getting along in school socially to helping each other organize notebooks. During these sessions students can explore concepts of self, conflict management, human relationships, decision making, goal setting, listening, or creative problem solving. Descriptions of several teacher/advisory programs can be found in Advisor-Advisee Programs: Why, What and How by Michael James (1986).

Mentor/Tutor Program. Mentor/tutor programs are designed so that a student who underachieves academically or who lacks social skills is matched with an adult who serves as a mentor. If a teacher/advisory program is in place, the mentor/tutor program would become part of it. The purpose of this program is listed below.

1. To establish rapport between teacher and student in order to increase acclimation to school and school tasks, including helping with adjustment and organization difficulties. It will also allow student concerns to be articulated and resolved.

2. To provide monitoring of the student’s performance in academics and social and emotional development. This can be done through the use of assignment sheets, tutoring on specific tasks and concepts, communication with classroom teachers regarding regular performance, and communication with parent(s) and guardians.

3. To provide tutoring in specific class assignments such as reports, reading assignments, test preparation, oral testing and retakes, and completion of written assignments.

It works best when teacher/mentors arrange for one-on-one time with their students at least once each week, outside of the advisory group. Touching base with students and their teachers would occur more frequently than that, but it is important that a regularly scheduled weekly meeting be planned. Methods and frequency of communication with parents will be worked out between teacher/mentor and parents.

Student Council. Too often student councils have been student fundraising groups consisting of a handful of popular elected members. The Christian middle school student council could be an all-volunteer group working with a faculty advisor. The student council operates under the following assumptions:

1. Student council will be an arena where student leadership and organizational skills can be nurtured and developed. The advisor serves as a leadership/mentor, guiding each council member as he or she develops personal organizational skills.

2. Student council will develop systems, procedures, or methods that will instill in the student body a sense of ownership in the school program. Possibilities might include organizing special days, providing input into school discipline policy, arranging student “gab sessions” with the principal, organizing student Bible study groups, or structuring community service projects.

3. Student council will develop methods and activities that will build school pride and a positive identity. Possibilities might include organizing service projects, selling t-shirts, or planning fundraisers for certain building or classroom improvements.

Open Door Policy. A significant amount of informal advising takes place in the morning before school begins. Keeping the doors locked before the opening bell prevents that important interaction from happening. In addition, a warm “good morning” is a better way to start the day than “Stay outside until the bell rings.” Take note of which students congregate in the classroom or in the media center before school begins. Often these are the students who perceive themselves to be on the fringe of most social groups.

There has been significant growth in the use of advisor/advisee programs in recent years. In 1968 there was no record of such programs existing. However in 1988, 40% of middle schools surveyed were using some form of advisor/advisee programs. Surveys of teachers involved in these programs show that the majority of them feel the program assists them with the ability to better respond to student needs and allows them to have more confidence in working with students. These teachers perceive themselves as good coaches who motivate and care for students.

In a survey of 3,400 middle school teachers completed in the late 1980s, Putbrese draws the following conclusions concerning the benefit of advisor/advisee programs.

1. Advisory programs improve teacher/student relationships. The advisory process is one that fosters relationships, and those relationships can be characterized as warm and nurturing.

2. Advisory programs give students more of a feeling of control over decisions. Students are part of a process that can help change or shape school policies and programs.

3. Advisory programs promote an atmosphere of equality. Students made statements such as, “There are no favorites at this school. Everyone gets treated alike.”

4. Advisory programs provide opportunity for group work. Students in schools with advisory programs learn to work in groups more effectively than those in schools without advisory programs.

5. Advisory programs improve the sharing of feelings between students. While this was more true for girls in the advisory programs than for boys, there was a significant increase in the sharing of feelings in schools that had these programs.

6. Advisory programs help to maximize the altruistic nature of early adolescents. In Christian schools it would seem that this would be a natural outcome of a caring, open staff-and- student relationship.

7. Advisory programs appear to make teachers more aware of and attentive to student behavior. It was clear from the study that teachers took the initiative more frequently and that they took responsibility for social behavior of all kinds. There was an atmosphere in which the staff felt free to intervene at an earlier time than without the advisory program.

A Christian middle school that values an ethos of caring, responsibility, and justice might be well served by planning for an advisor/advisee program.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 8

1. What kind of advisor/advisee program would help fulfill the goals of your school?

2. Which grade levels should be included?

3. Should advisors volunteer, or should advising be a required part of every teacher’s duties?

4. How should advisory groups be formed? Should the principal make the advisor/advisee assignments, or should students be allowed to select their advisors?

5. Will you plan for teacher/mentor assignments?

6. Is a student council an important part of your school?

7. Should a middle school have a guidance counselor, or would the advisor/advisee program take the place of that? What are the advantages or disadvantages of either arrangement?

8. How should the scheduling for group meetings be arranged?

9. How will you inform parents about the program? What fears and concerns might parents have about this matter? How can you work to allay those fears?

9. Teaching for Servanthood

The school will teach reality and learning as centered in God. Students will be made aware of the destructive results of sin and the need for rebirth and restoration. Students are called to faith in God and stewardship in life. The school will continue to provide education that promotes learning about God’s creation.

The implications for this are that students will study and examine how personal faith develops as they relate with peers and adults, will study and examine the actions and beliefs of others, and will study and examine how their faith applies to issues in life and society. (GRCS Plan for Middle School, p. 3)

A responsibility theory of education means that all areas of the curriculum should emphasize learning to take responsibility for the earth and for the creatures on that earth. It means that students should be instructed in ways that will ensure that they take responsibility for their own learning and for the learning, care, and nurture of others. That is what we call servanthood.

One dictionary definition of servanthood is “the state of being ardently devoted to another person or to a cause.” If our students are to learn this kind of servanthood, then they must learn to be ardently devoted to the needs of people here on earth and to the environment which we inhabit. Tony Campolo once said that the kingdom can’t come unless there are kingdom people serving others and acting like Jesus would act. There is joy in responding to the needs of those who hurt. There is joy in caring for our planet. Christian young people need to come to know that joy. Just as we arrange for them to get the cognitive knowledge and basic skills that are needed to care for the earth, so must we arrange for them to come to know the joy of serving others. God wants to do his work through us, his people, and our students must know that.

Is this kind of learning the task of the Christian middle school? In recent times it has been suggested that the learning of character and of concern for others is the task of the church and of the home. The school’s task has been seen as stressing cognitive abilities. Noddings suggests that “our forebears were right in establishing the education of a moral people as the primary aim of schooling, but they were often shortsighted and arrogant in their description of what it means to be moral” (p. 218).

I am suggesting that we must stop separating cognitive learning from the learning of discipleship because the two go together. While learning discipleship is the task of the home and the church, it is also very much the task of every level of the Christian school. By the time students reach high school, many of their attitudes toward others have been formed in a very self-centered way. The typical middle school student is convinced that he or she is the center of a small universe of family and school.

We may not allow our students to develop sinful attitudes toward others by explaining that “they are at the early adolescent stage.” Rather, we must arrange instruction, which will move students away from sinful attitudes and toward lives of service. But discipleship cannot be learned only by talking and listening. Discipleship must be learned by doing.

Teaching for Discipleship

If it is true that students in middle school need to learn discipleship while they are in school, how can the school go about teaching discipleship? What kind of plan can be used?

Some school arrangements for teaching discipleship have already been touched on in earlier chapters. For example, in all areas of the curriculum the emphasis should be on the students’ responsibility to help one another learn rather than pitting their talents against each other in competition. Instructional strategies especially designed for such cooperative efforts must be an important part of the curriculum. That is teaching for discipleship.

In addition, students who are at promise in specific academic areas must be given individual opportunities to move forward at their own pace but must also be expected to set aside time for helping fellow students who are struggling. That is teaching for discipleship.

And if students who are at promise in the area of athletics assume the responsibility for helping those who struggle, that, too, is teaching for discipleship.

In fact, we cannot actually teach discipleship. That would be teaching changed attitudes, and only the Holy Spirit can go into the hearts of our young people and renew them and change their attitudes. Our task is to arrange a curriculum and ways of instructing to make it more possible for such changes in attitudes to occur.

We have a great deal of information from sociological research that suggests that the most effective way to get people’s attitudes to change is to arrange and require a change in actions. We should arrange certain kinds of action for our middle school students in order to encourage a change in their attitudes and understandings.

For example, a number of schools have arranged the curriculum so that students will study the effects of waste disposal on the environment. They visit waste management sites, discuss the problems with different kinds of waste products, talk with government officials about the problems and possible solutions, and spend time cleaning up beaches, parks, or other areas where garbage is often tossed. At school they separate the garbage into appropriate containers for disposal and are encouraged to do so at home. These activities help them understand how Christians can respond to the mandate to care for creation.

In Chapter 4 it was suggested that somewhere in the middle school a focal point of the curriculum should be a helping relationship which each student will develop with one other individual who is in need. For example, in the middle of the week, during school time, every student will spend an hour and a half either with an elderly person in a rest home, or with children in a daycare center, or with a mentally or physically handicapped person, or with a younger child who has learning difficulties.

In an excellent monograph called Educating for Responsible Service (1989) Joan Stob makes a number of interesting suggestions about the need to cultivate the tendency to serve and ways to structure the classroom for service.

But how can such experiences be arranged? The school day is already full, so how can time be found for servanthood activities? Among the guidelines for planning a middle school is the suggestion that the administrator arranges a 90-minute planning period each week. During this planning period the teachers will meet to arrange for the integration which is required. One possibility is to have this meeting during the last hour and a half of the school day on Wednesdays. At the same time, the students will participate in their individual service activities, with transportation and supervision provided by parent volunteers.

A coordinator of activities would be appointed and then the teachers would give the coordinator the list of placements and the students’ names. The coordinator would contact parents who might volunteer their services for transportation.

I am aware that finding volunteer help can be difficult. But such difficulties can be worked out. For example, in one school parents who could not volunteer to take their turns with needed work, were asked to make a contribution in order to hire someone else to do it. Above all, the coordination should not be given to a teacher or administrator who already has his or her hands full with other tasks.

Can such a program work? Are any schools trying it? It seems as if most of the programs that presently exist are at the high school level. The problem is that if we wait that long, student attitudes will already have been established. Attitudes of sympathy and concern for others need to be developed while the students are still at the transescent stage. That is why we need to move these learning activities into the middle school.

Why Is Integration Necessary?

When I have asked at schools having a service component, “Do your teachers plan instruction so that service activities are integrated with the rest of the curriculum?” the usual response was, “Not really. However, the topic does come up from time to time in other classes.” It seems to me that schools that take the adventuresome, brave step of requiring service of their students miss out on a wonderful opportunity if they do not integrate the learning from those activities with the other areas of the curriculum.

If the service activity stands by itself, it will be a valuable activity and students will learn to empathize with others. But there is much that they cannot possibly learn without a teacher to arrange for specific kinds of learning.

1. They will not learn how the financial needs of an individual or a family are either helped or hurt by actions of the rest of society.

2. They will not learn the good and bad effects of government programs on the lives of those in need.

3. They will not learn which government agencies can be of help to people and in what areas government agencies do not help.

4. They will not have an opportunity to talk about their helping situation, to share their feelings and concerns with others. This sharing intensifies learning and helps students internalize it.

5. Without follow-up instruction the teacher may never know what inappropriate learnings or attitudes are occurring.

How Might Integration Be Accomplished?

As an example of how all of this might work, take an eighth grade class in which the students have been involved with helping elderly people. They have visited them in their homes, cleaning sidewalks or washing windows when needed. They have visited some of them in a rest home, reading to them or playing games with them. Stephen Tchudi and Margie Huerta (1983) describe how a group of Michigan teachers explored the topic of the elderly from as many different points of view and from as many different interdisciplinary perspectives as possible, in order to determine whether it was possible to find worthwhile activities for integration. Here are some of their suggestions along with some of my own. (This is not an integrated unit, but these are activities that might be part of such a unit.)

Science

- How old do various animals live to be? Which animal has the longest lifespan? Which one has the briefest lifespan? Prepare a chart or display showing these relative lifespans.

- What happens to cells when they grow old? Why don’t we continue to grow new cells forever? Read about the aging of cells or conduct experiments and present your findings.

- Do you share any of your grandparents’ personality or physical traits? Interview your parents and study family photographs to discover resemblances. How do these come about? Prepare a photo-display to prove your points.

- Read about or interview a doctor on lifelong eating habits. What does your eating style determine about the length of your life?

- What can you find out about the effects of aging on intelligence or mental processes? Present your findings in a written or oral report.

Mathematics

- How many people are alive on earth now? How old are they? Design a world map showing population centers and the approximate percentages of people in various age brackets.

- Trace the increasing average life expectancy in the United States or Canada from colonial times to the present. Prepare a display or a talk showing what has happened. What does science/mathematics project to be the average lifespan 50 or 100 years from now?

- Formulate a year’s budget for a person over 65 taking into account social security benefits. How difficult is it for an elderly person to get along financially in retirement?

- Explore the statistics on food production in the world today. Where does the world’s food come from? Who consumes the most food? Who eats the least amount? Prepare the copy for a television or radio program that explores some of the problems of world hunger.

Art and Music

- Study photographs of elderly people. What did the camera “see” in these people? Translate your impressions into words. Or take your own pictures of other elderly people.

- Read the biographies and autobiographies of artists who were still creating late in life: Picasso, Casals, Toscanini, O’Keeffe, Nevelson. What kept them going? Prepare a class presentation on some of these artists.

- Study the ways in which the elderly are portrayed in paintings. What clues does a painter provide to show that a person is old? Then take some photographs of older people. Are the artists correct?

- Find an elderly person who has very interesting, wrinkled skin. (This person should also be very pleased about those wrinkles.) Ask him or her to come in for a sitting so that the class may sketch portraits.

Social Science

- Prepare a report on the various social care programs for the elderly. Write an editorial on the subject.

- Investigate how different countries and cultures take care of the elderly. Then prepare an evaluation of such care in this country.

- Write an imaginary scene between a person who is about to enter a home for the elderly and his or her son or daughter How does the elderly person feel? How does the child feel?

- Find out if there is an adopt-a-grandparent program in your community and begin corresponding with a person in a home for the elderly.

History/Social Studies

- Research the American Indian treatment of their elderly and write a report for the class.

- Visit a home for the elderly and conduct a series of interviews with residents about what life was like during their youth. Use this information to compile a study of a period in twentieth century history.

- Put yourself in the role of a person who lived in an earlier era and have him or her visit our society today. What would, say, Eleanor or Franklin Roosevelt think about the modern-day U.S. or Canada? What would George Washington think? Present this as a dramatic monologue for the class. Locate an elderly person who is practicing a dying art or craft. Ask the person to teach you the basics of the craft. Use the ideas in an article, perhaps with photographs.

Civics

- Research the history of the Gray Panthers, a group of advocates for the elderly, and describe their plans or programs.

- Invite a government official to speak to the class describing current legislative proposals concerning the elderly.

- Write questions for the legislator to answer, and after the program write letters to him or her describing your position on the proposed laws.

- Do you think the elderly should have a right to die when they wish? Study the question and write a pro and con discussion, airing both sides of the issue. Then describe your own position, (Or study the subject of euthanasia and write a similar paper.)

- Research the laws and regulations concerning the establishment of homes for the elderly. What kinds of permits and credentials are required? Analyze these requirements. How do these rules and regulations protect the elderly?

Vocational/Career Education

- Learn about careers for the elderly and write a guidebook that would be helpful to an older person about to retire, in finding something interesting and worthwhile to do.

- Look into careers that involve the elderly: becoming a gerontologist, running a community recreation center, being a nurse in a rest home or nursing home, and so forth. Prepare a display showing these career choices and giving their qualifications.

- Interview an elderly person, perhaps one of your grandparents, on his or her feelings about working, (You might want to read parts of Working by Studs Turkel, first.) How do people feel about various kinds of work after spending a lifetime in such activity?

- What is “lifelong education?” Where does one get it? What is important about it? Can you see yourself being involved in lifelong education after you have finished school or college?

Religion

- Using the concordance, find biblical references to aging or to the elderly. Make a display or poster of these references.

- Find characters in the Bible who have lived into very old age and who have been influential in their old age, either in a good sense or in a bad sense.

- Interview elderly people to find out what they believe about life and death. How have their attitudes changed as they have grown older?

Athletics

- Write a booklet describing various sports and other athletic activities that the elderly can enjoy.

- Make a display of the kinds of aerobic activities the elderly can do.

This is only a partial list of the suggestions these teachers compiled. The point is that with any topic it is possible to find excellent instructional activities for integrating the experience with the rest of the curriculum in ways that will be extremely beneficial to your students.

In order for students to learn to have the tendency for taking responsibility for those in need, they need to have practice in caring. This practice in caring should take place in the classroom with the use of instructional strategies especially arranged for that purpose. But this practice in caring should also take place in the community. The object is to develop an ethos of caring through modeling, dialogue, and practice.

Discussion Questions for Chapter 9

1. Is it valuable or worthwhile for your school to arrange instruction so that the students will be actively engaged in service activities?

2. What kinds of service activities could the students in your school do? Are there agencies with which you could work? Should the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders all do the same things, or should there be a step-by-step program?

3. What form should this kind of curriculum take? Should the serving activities be done during school or outside of school? If they are done during school, how can the program be arranged and who will coordinate it? If it is done outside of school, how will you keep track of what is being done and who will coordinate it?

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Appendix A: Sample Units

Unit for Theme Week: The Sixties

Middle School Teachers,

Oakdale Christian School

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Reported by Ruth Posthumus, teacher

(Details concerning the teaching of the unit can be obtained from the teachers at Oakdale Christian School.)

“An Interdisciplinary Theme Week fits the specific goals of Oakdale Christian. Oakdale Christian School seeks to assist its students to develop healthy self-esteem, enthusiasm for learning, personal and corporate responsibility for self-development, rational and effective problem solving skills, and a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ” (Oakdale Christian School Statement of Mission).

Other specific goals that directly relate to Theme Week are:

1. The curriculum will be integrated.

2. The students will take responsibility for their own learning and for the learning of others.

3. The teachers will work together in teams both in planning and in teaching.

4. The students’ interactions will be as important as the subject matter that is taught.

5. The students will be grouped heterogeneously across grade levels to provide a positive ethos.

6. The parents will be involved.

7. The community will be involved.

8. The courses, both mini-courses and end product classes will be exploratory in nature.

9. The learning will be both teacher directed and student directed.

10. The block time scheduling will give greater flexibility.

11. All students will have the opportunity to succeed.

12. There will be opportunity for small group learning.

September

The planning for Theme Week began at the beginning of the school year. The administrator and two middle school teachers began with a brainstorming session and brought proposals for a topic and a time schedule to the middle school staff. The Sixties was chosen as the theme, and the last seven days of the first semester were chosen as the time frame.

Throughout the month of September the administrator and two teachers developed a tentative structure. It was proposed that during the first three days of Theme Week the students would take a series of eight mini-courses that would introduce content and research options that students would explore during the last four days of Theme Week. The proposals for the three day mini-classes were:

1. A World in Crisis

2. Vietnam

3. America in Turmoil

4. Music, Art, TV

5. Great Events in Sports

6. Science and Technology

7. Local Scene

8. Elections of the ’60s

It was proposed that on the last four days of the Theme Week experience the students would be involved in three major end products. Each of these end product classes would meet approximately two hours per day.

1. Each student would be involved in the writing, reporting, and producing of news.

2. Each student would be involved in some form of forensics (interpretive reading, skits, acting, etc.).

3. Each student would be involved in the development of a major display.

A Thursday evening Open House for the community was also proposed.

October

The proposal was accepted and middle school teachers were given a memo in which they could choose several courses that they would feel comfortable teaching as well as which end product team they would like to be involved with. The administrator and two teachers made the final mini-course teaching assignments and determined the end product teaching teams. The Open House date was set.

It was decided by the staff to inform the parents of the Theme Week plans at parent-teacher conferences and to provide an opportunity for parent input. Each teacher provided a sign up opportunity in which parents could identify contact persons and areas of expertise and experience.

The administrator and committee of teachers also gave the other teachers a list of suggested resource people and suggested items to be covered in the course. The middle school teachers met and discussed the suggested resource people and course content. The purpose of this meeting was to clarify the subject matter of each minicourse as well as to share with each other any additional information about the courses.

During October it was also decided that band and orchestra would continue to meet during Theme Week. Their studies would also be integrated into Theme Week, and they would perform at the open house on Thursday night.

November

During this month teachers planned their mini-courses. The administrator also provided substitutes for each teaching team for one day during the month of November. The teaching teams spent their day in the library. That day was beneficial for mini-course preparation, but it was extremely beneficial for end product course preparation. Having colleagues to share ideas with was both stimulating and productive.

December

The following course descriptions were turned in during the month of December.

Elections of the 1960s

The course will cover:

1. The presidential elections, winners and losers, 1960 Kennedy/Johnson vs. Nixon/Lodge; 1964 Johnson/Humphrey vs. Goldwater/Miller; 1968 Nixon/Agnew vs. Humphrey/Muskie

2. The 1968 Democratic Convention; Abbie Hoffman; Jerry Rubin; Tom Hayden; Richard Daly

3. Religion and politics

The format for the course will be data collection and sharing of information. Video clips of the election will be shown, the movie A Look for New Meaning—Student Protests will be shown and discussed.

Music, Art, and Television

The students will form groups according to artists, musicians, and TV personalities. The students will use magazines, pamphlets, books, handouts, and records to design collages. The students will plan an artistic happening including fashion, jargon, music, and food.

Grand Rapids Local Scene

The course will show the physical changes that have taken place in Grand Rapids by comparing slides taken in the ’60s with slides of the same locations taken in the ’80s.

Students will use the Grand Rapids Press to show how Grand Rapids reacted to events taking place in our nation and across the world during this time period. Students will discover this information by looking at copies of news articles to answer questions in a game format (Jeopardy).

The teacher will give a flavor of what life was like in the ’60s fads and fashion, cruising the circuit, urban renewal, drive-ins, development of freeways, Grand Rapids Tackers, the beach, etc.

America in Turmoil

This course will focus on the following topics:

1. Assassinations; John F. Kennedy; Robert Kennedy; Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. Black Movements; Leaders; Freedom Marches; Riots; Highlighted events

3. American Politics, Political Groups, and Figures; Black Panthers; White Panthers; SDS (Weathermen); The Chicago Seven

Students will follow the following format:

1. Introduction/Background to above topics.

2. “Problem” sheets will be distributed and students will work in small groups to find information regarding the assigned topics. Questions will be the standard Who? When? Where? What happened? Why?

3. A “pull-it-together” session during which findings will be shared and each student will develop a set of notes for end product courses.

Sports—Explosion and Expansion—Becoming Visible

Day 1

Info Blitz

- Teams—pro and college

- Persons—heroes and stars

Day 2

- Olympics (’60, ’64, ’68)

- Records of the decade—worksheet and books

- Name sheet search

Day 3

- 1968 World Series (Detroit Tigers)

Vietnam

Day 1—Trace U.S. involvement in a visual timeline format.

- 1963—Buildup of American advisors; Ho Chi Minh Trail—lifeline for the North Vietnamese

- 1964—Gulf of Tonkin resolution; Search and destroy missions

- 1965—Bombing of North Vietnam; Battle of ChuLai

- 1965–66—Doves, Hawks; Draft exemptions, deferments, National Guard; Role of Blacks in Vietnam

- 1968—Tet offensive, targets, impact, TVs role, reaction; 3/16/68—MyLai massacre; 6/13/68—Became longest war in history

- 12/1/68—Draft lottery

Days 2 and 3

- How progress was measured—body count, days in field, security of roads and railroads

- Guerrilla warfare

- Discussions and speakers on opposing sides—veterans, CO’s, draft dodgers

The Space Race

Day 1: Historical overview—timeline and film

Day 2: Rocket propulsion

Day 3: Getting into orbit—Introduction to the physics of orbiting spacecraft. Focus on energy needs, speeds necessary, etc. Use John Glenn’s first orbital flight and Apollo 11 moon landing as primary examples.

A World in Crisis

Day 1 1960 United States/Soviet Relations; U-2 Episode: The students will map the events of the U-2 episode while the teacher tells the story of Francis Gary Powers.

Day 2 October 1962, The Cuban Missile Crisis; The teacher will use Robert F. Kennedy’s book Thirteen Days to attempt to re-enact the feeling of crisis during those 13 days. The students will be assigned the names of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council. Original quotations, letters, and documents will be used whenever possible.

Day 3 Africa—gaining independence; Twenty-nine nations became independent during the 1960s. The students will use an almanac and atlas to discover which nations and how many nations on the continent of Africa became independent during the 1960s. Students will recall the American struggle for independence. What struggles, issues, consequences, benefits, etc., are a result of independence? How long will it take before the unique qualities of the African nations are recognized and they are no longer referred to as “Africa”? The students will gain an awareness of language, population, resources, literacy rate, etc. for each of the nations.

A teaching format summary was prepared to ensure variety in teaching style.

End Product Classes

The end product class formats were determined by the teaching teams. The news production end product class was divided into two parts. The eighth graders were involved in a video production, and the sixth and seventh graders were involved in the production of newspapers.

Video Production

The students will write, direct, and produce a thirty minute “Evening News” show with G.R.T.V. The students will be divided into nine teams—one anchor team and eight teams of correspondents. Each correspondent team will be responsible for coordinating the entire news production.

Each correspondent team is responsible for the following:

1. Determine and get approval for the exact stories you will be covering.

2. Locate specific graphics (pictures, album covers, video tapes, etc.) that will accompany your story.

3. Write out your script word for word.

4. Select at least one person from your group to be on camera.

5. Practice . . . Practice . . . Practice.

The eighth graders spent the last day of Theme Week at the studio taping their production. They finished their work at 5:00 P.M.

Newspaper

The students will put together a newspaper which will highlight major features of the ’60s in the following areas:

1. National

2. International

3. State

4. Local

5. Editorials and letters to the editor

6. Sports

7. Fashions and Fads

8. Entertainment

9. Advertising

Forensics

The possibilities for dramatic productions were limitless. The teaching team handed out pages of possibilities for skits, debates, speeches, readings, and lip-synchs. The students added numerous other ideas from their three-day mini-course blitz. Every student in the middle school was involved in at least one dramatic performance. For four days, two hours a day, the students practiced their work in every available corner of the school. The teaching team became directors, producers, choreographers, electricians, and encouragers. Discipline was never a problem; getting students to stop and eat lunch was.

The results were performed in a coffee shop atmosphere at the Open House. There were twenty-six performances ranging from a dramatic presentation of the Cuban Missile Crisis to a lip-synch of the Supremes.

Displays

Every student participated in the production of at least one display. The following displays were placed in the gym for the Thursday night Open House:

1. A timeline of the ’60s including information gleaned from all of the mini-courses.

2. A collage of record jackets (thanks to the parents). At the Open House a student DJ played records at that display.

3. Political cartoons.

4. A graffiti wall with signs and sayings of the times.

5. A display of the artists of the decade.

6. Tie-dye display.

7. A model of Cape Canaveral including various rocket models.

8. Enlarged baseball cards with drawings of ’60s baseball personalities.

9. A drive-in theater complete with a cardboard car and slides of Grand Rapids in the 1960s.

10. A large chart of the draft lottery numbers with the birthdays of the students’ fathers on it.

Open House

The culmination of Theme Week was an evening Open House for the parents and community. All students participated in the Open House. One half of the gym was set up as a coffee house, and the dramatic presentations were performed from the stage. The displays were arranged throughout the gymnasium. The newspapers were handed out to the guests and placed on the tables. The eighth grade GRTV news video was displayed repeatedly throughout the night.

The students served their parents coffee. A press release in the local paper covered the event.

Media Center

The Media Center was a hub of activity throughout Theme Week. The media specialists collected materials from as many local private schools as possible. They also provided space for materials that teachers collected from a wide variety of sources including the public library and local film libraries.

Evaluation

There was no formal written evaluation of Theme Week; however, the teachers spent several hours discussing and evaluating Theme Week. It was obvious, by continuous comments, that the parents and students were excited by the project. It was reported over and over again that the project stimulated conversations at home. The Open House was a great success and the gym was crowded from 7:00–9:30.

The major criticism from teachers was the lack of adequate planning time. All suggested that a Theme Week topic for the next year should be determined before summer break.

The Sixties Theme Week project was an exhilarating educational experience that met the specific goals of Oakdale Christian School.

Look Around!
Christian Awareness Unit for Junior High Students

S.C.S. and CSI District 11 Curriculum Resource Banks

Writers: Peter Busink, John Byl, Henry Contant, Ary De Moor, Peter Kleine, and Phil Van der Bos

(Note: Only parts of the unit are presented here. The complete unit may be ordered from the British Columbia and Alberta Resource Banks listed in Appendix B.)

Thematic Statement

God created human beings in his own image. In all aspects of their daily life people are called to mirror the very image of their Creator. Through the fall into sin, we have separated ourselves from God and, consequently, often reflect an image other than our created one. Through our own sin and that of society around us, we may have a poor self-image that does not do justice to our calling as responsible image bearers; one that may, for example, be reflected in insecurity, depression, loneliness, or a sense of being lost. Sometimes we may try to cover this up through false bravado or fake superiority. Also, some people have an inflated view of themselves and fall to recognize both the God-given limits of their abilities and their sinfulness. Through the grace we possess in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, we may learn to mirror God’s image as outlined in Scripture and in this way grow in our relationship with our Creator, our neighbor, the creation, and ourselves.

In this unit, students will analyze what it means to be image bearers of God. They will be shown that submitting their lives to Christ is the starting point for developing a proper self-image. They will explore how their own self-image has been shaped: the influences of a secular society, of the Christian community, of school, of their peers, of their own thinking and acting and faith. The unit will then lead them to a clearer understanding of their roles as image bearers who, when redeemed in Christ, can restore their distorted self-image and experience joyful growth and life celebration. The students will be helped to see that while our lives will continue to be marred by sin and its effects, it is by exercising this “mirroring process” that we develop a “knowing” of God as Father through Christ, a concern for our neighbors, a wholesome view of creation, and a reason for self-worth.

Unit Objectives

A. To recognize that a self-image develops within a context: the community around you and your relationship with others may shape your self-image.

B. To consider biblical passages that deal with proper self-image and self-worth in relation to our Creator.

C. To explore and understand why students may feel inferior to, superior to, or different from their peers.

D. To show how a proper view of the self leads to responsible living and action.

E. To deepen insight into some of the changes that are and will take place in the lives of early adolescents.

OBJECTIVE A: To recognize that a self-image develops within a context: the community around you and your relationship with others may shape your self-image.

Activity 1: Develop an awareness of community

- Study the words community, communal, communism, communion, and communicate. What seems to be common to all these words? Perhaps students may list some other words that have as their root, communa, which is Latin for community, or communis, Latin for common. Try to show a similarity between these words so that students may gain an understanding of the meaning of community.

- Read the short story, The Fun They Had, by Isaac Asimov. What seems to be one of the overriding themes in this short story?

Activity 2: Help the students to see they are part of a larger body, the community.

- List 5 groups that you belong to. Why do you belong to these groups? Is there something about the group you like or dislike?

Activity 3: What effect does the community have on the individual? People are shaped and directed by the expectations others have of them.

- Reproduce and hand out two separate copies of the following personality profile chart to each student.

Agressive 1  2  3  4  5  6  7 Passive

Warm 1  2  3  4  5  6  7 Cold

Lazy 1  2  3  4  5  6  7 Hardworking

1. Ask students to pick a favorite person and to write his or her name on one of the profile sheets (#1). Then tell students to fill in the chart, indicating where they feel their favorite person fits in terms of personality. Hand this sheet in.

2. Ask students to write their own names on the other profile sheet (#2). Then allow them a few minutes to fill in their chart with appropriate checkmarks.

3. Hand back profile sheet #1 to the student. Ask the students to compare or contrast their own personality with that of their favorite person. Ask for some examples from the class.

- List five characteristics that identify you as a member of your family (physical and/or environmental—this allows for adoptive family members).

- Collect information about your family roots. Make a scrapbook that traces your family lineage back for a number of generations. Include pictures, clippings, and any information which may indicate cultural similarities, denominational affiliations and other items of interest.

- Using pictures from magazines, construct a collage of the images of people who affect you. This effect may be positive or negative. This is an individual student project.

- Have students role-play a specific incident about some person in the class, a parent, or a friend. Have others write character sketches of the role played. In this way students will be able to dramatize those traits of others which seem to affect them.

- Write a description of yourself as your parents or friends see you. Give your description to your parents or friends and ask them if they agree or disagree. This activity will help the students to formulate images of themselves in relationship to the way they see themselves and others see them.

Activity 4: Not only does the community affect you but you also have an effect on the community. We must strive to present a clear image of who we are. We have to be careful to mirror the proper image within our community. Others should see us as we really are. “I am what you see!”

- Ask the following questions of the students:

1. Do you act differently in school, at home, in church? Why?

2. Does our image change to suit others? Read 2 Corinthians 10:12–13. Explain in terms of the given question. Read Philippians 2:1–8. How may this passage guide you in the way you present yourselves to others? Memorize Philippians 2:1–4. Read Ephesians 4–23–25, Ephesians 2:10, 1 Timothy 4:11–16. Explain how each of these passages may help us to develop a proper view of how we should present ourselves.

- Use Bible passages to support the fact that we must all do our part in helping the entire community to function positively. Read and evaluate with the students: 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12.

OBJECTIVE B: To consider biblical passages that deal with proper self-image and self worth in relationship to our Creator.

Activity 1: What are images?

- Help students to think about images. Ask them to define image. Then by demonstration show the students how a mirror may be used to give an image. Reflect the face of one of your students in the mirror. Ask the student what it is they see-is it the real person or the image of one? There are a number of characteristics that may be identified to make the image seem like the real thing (it looks like it); keep in mind these are characteristics and not the real person.

- Students should be able to relate to television as an image “creator.” You may also ask the students to close their eyes and imagine an image of someone-can they tell you about the person without having the actual person available? Have them write a brief description of the image they have.

Activity 2: Identifying with images

- Bring some works of art to class. You may want to give a brief lesson on the difference between a Rembrandt and a Picasso. Can the students, by being shown an example of each, identify the creator? Ask questions about design. What makes each work identifiable? You may want to use other art forms too, pottery for example. In any case, the students should be able to identify certain characteristics about each art form and therefore be able to classify it according to the creator.

- Have each student write a paragraph from a particular text. Compare handwritings and see if students can put a name to the various styles. (Make sure the students don’t put their name on the original document.)

Activity 3: Now that students have some idea as to what an image is and how they may associate certain characteristics of an image with the real thing, have them start thinking about the image of God. Make certain that you give each student an opportunity to state their idea of the image of God as it is inevitable that each one will “see” him differently.

- In your own words write a character sketch of God.

- Discussion topic: What does it mean to be created in God’s image?

- Discussion topic: What is the image of God?

Activity 4: Let the students freely share their ideas about the image of God. You will be able to show them that it seems we all have a slightly different idea about his image. Convince them that the only real way of knowing about God’s character, apart from personal experiences, is to study what his Word has to say about him.

- Select a number of the following texts for students to examine and ask them to identify the characteristic of God’s image from each selection. Since people were created in the image of God we are able to know God’s image by finding out about the image he has created us with. We realize this may not be the image people reflect today but scripture must be used to teach us the new image we can once again have through the renewing work of Jesus Christ—the image restorer.

1. Genesis 1:27, 28—people given kingship

2. Genesis 2:18—people were created to live in a state of communion

3. Genesis 3:9—God seeks us out

4. Genesis 3:13–20, 22—God was justifiably angry

5. Exodus 15:22–25—God is a Provider

6. 1 Samuel 16:6–12—God seeks out the heart

7. Job 34:10–15—God is truthful and just

8. Ezekiel 18:25–29—The Lord is just

9. Daniel 3:24–26—God comes down to us

10. Jonah 4:6–11—God pities

11. Matthew 1:21–23—God humbles himself

12. Psalm 8—the majesty of God given to people

13. Matthew 9:27–32—God is a caring, concerned Father

14. Matthew 5:3–10—The Beatitudes: righteous, peacemaker, pure in heart, merciful, meek, humble

15. 1 Peter 1:13–19—Being holy and worthy

- Read the poem, once more the creator, to gain further insight into the image of God as seen by Fred W. Tamminga.

OBJECTIVE C: To explore and understand why students may feel inferior to, superior to, or different from their peers.

I. Physical attractiveness: I am what I look like?

Activity 1: Ask your students individually to jot down what they feel about themselves in terms of physical attractiveness. What do they like or dislike? What would they change if they could? How do they think they would feel about themselves if they were “better looking”? Depending on the trust established with your class 1) have students share their feelings with each other, or 2) collect the responses and share your findings of the class with them the following day. (Eighteen out of twenty-five people felt. . . .)

Activity 2: Appearance affects judgments. Collect pictures from magazines showing physically attractive and physically unattractive people. Include pictures of all ages. Present contrasting pictures of each age group to the class and ask, “If everything except what you see in the pictures is equal 1) which child would you adopt? 2) whom would you choose for your friend? 3) who would you choose for a parent or grandparent? 4) with whom would you rather babysit or work?

Activity 3: Analyze commercials and magazine ads that advertise products such as beauty aids, suntan lotions, blue jeans, soft drinks.

Activity 4: Examine traditional childhood literature with your students to see how they center around physical attractiveness, teaching small children to appreciate the beauty cult. (The Ugly Duckling, Sleeping Beauty, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Dumbo, Snow White, Cinderella.)

Activity 5: Compare nicknames given to people with characteristics of the people. Read Gus-Gus Has Fleas by Victor Knowles. Read Unwanted by Edward Field.

Activity 6: Relate 1 Samuel 16:1–23 to the ideas we have been discussing. Write a short skit about the choosing of David to be king. Show the feelings of Jesse, Eliab, and the other rejected brothers.

II. Natural abilities: I am what I do?

Activity 1: Discuss what the following people would be like without their natural ability: Wayne Gretsky, Tracy Austin, Albert Einstein, honor student, photographer.

Activity 2: Ask students to conduct interviews with a foreign student in your school, concerning their feelings during the first weeks of school.

Activity 3: View the movie Chariots of Fire and discuss the self-worth and self-image of the main characters.

Activity 4: Study the account of David and Goliath and discuss the self-worth and self-esteem of David and Goliath.

III. Other people’s opinions: I am what others say about me?

Activity 1: Lead your students in a discussion of conformity prevalent in different age groups.

Activity 2: Do the experiment of “The Card Game” found in Preparing for Adolescence by James Dobson. Discuss social pressure and fear of rejection.

Activity 3: Read the story “Can you say no?” from Dobson’s Preparing for Adolescence. Discuss what students would do if this should happen to them.

OBJECTIVE D: To investigate how a proper view of self leads to responsible living and action.

Activity 1: Review the meaning of a proper self-image.

Activity 2: Discuss with students positive activities in school and in the community which will help us work out our self-image as God intends us to do.

OBJECTIVE E: To deepen insight into some of the changes that are and will take place in students’ lives.

- Activities for identifying and discussing physical changes

- Activities for identifying and discussing emotional changes

- Activities for identifying and discussing social changes

- Activities for identifying and discussing intellectual changes

- Activities for identifying and discussing decisions that bring about important changes in one’s life

Appendix B: Sources

Publication lists of additional units may be ordered from the following sources:

John Vanderhoek

Society of Christian Schools in British Columbia

7600 Glover Road

Langley, BC V3A 6H4

Al Greene

Alta Vista College

P.O. Box 222

Medina, WA 98039

Ary DeMoor

District 11 Association Curriculum Office

The King’s College

10766 97th St.

Edmonton, AB T5H 2M1

Education Coordinator

Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools

777 Highway 53 East, Box 7220

Ancaster, ON  L9G 3L4