Let’s rewrite the things middle schoolers say.
There are a slew of recent Tik Tok videos devoted to “Things Middle Schoolers Say” and they are full of snide comments, targeted insults, side eyes and insecure groupthink. None of that sounds too far off from my middle school experience. But wait, what if we could get middle schoolers thinking differently, and more positively, about themselves, their friendships, their bodies and their worth. And what if that switch in thinking could have a permanent positive impact on their brain. “Whaaat? Not possible.” you say?
We at Human Better EDU are mid-way through a third semester with a group of middle school girls. Just listen to the things they are saying, all a far cry from the snarky Tik Toks.
Jay Giedd, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and a leading expert in the teen brain, says parents and educators need to direct more attention to middle school years. “The brain specializes during these years”, he says. “It is a time of amazing opportunity for learning new skills and for our behavioral health interventions to have maximal impact.”
Sandy Kress, a leading education official from the Bush administration shares a similar view, saying, “The middle grades were the last best chance that we have to get youngsters on the right path.”
So let’s do it. Let’s teach middle schoolers tools to build their self-worth, to flip negative thinking, to stay accountable to themselves, and to have hard conversations with grace, during the period when their brains are formulating important neural pathways. Then these life skills just might stick, because as science shows, middle school matters.
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If you are interested in learning more about our life design programming for students, either in your living room or your school, email HB EDU President & Founder, Gaby Jordan at gaby@humanbetteredu.org.
