A Parent’s Guide to Surviving Middle School

For the nine years that I was a middle-school principal, the fact of my job was often a punch line. “Better you than me,” “You’re brave,” and “Bless your heart” were among the many offers of condolence I would receive. Middle school is typically seen as something to be endured, a necessary if unfortunate way station on the road to adulthood.

Middle school gets a bad rap—probably because many of us carry our own painful memories from that tumultuous time. (I know I do.) Metamorphosis is never easy, and early adolescence is a time of rapid and staggering change—second only to infancy. Middle schoolers undergo a transformation that’s physical, cognitive, and social. Physically, their bodies are growing at unpredictable rates, leading to some clumsy moments—spilling drinks or tripping over their own feet because they haven’t quite adjusted to their longer limbs. Cognitively, they’re transitioning from concrete to abstract thinking. In English class, some students might read as an allegory for Stalinism, while others see it as a story about talking animals. Socially, they are hyperaware of their place in a group and are