Professional Log #12

Zernike, K. (2007, January).  The preteen: Betwixt and bedeviled.  The New York Times.  Retrieved from March 30, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/weekinreview/07zernike.html.

Zernike takes a look at the endless cycle of the junior high and middle schools discussion.  She states that both were created to serve a purpose, but that some school districts have decided to put them either back in their elementary schools or their high schools.  One of the arguments is that when you put the younger children with the older children you encourage the younger children to do things that they would not normally do.  Some have suggested that two years of high school be abolished and that buildings would be split K-6 and 7-10.  The article also discusses the possibility of looping their teachers and students; meaning that the students would remain with the same teacher throughout the grade levels in the building.

 I found that the entire article provided information about the school system.  I agree with placing students with the older students is not the correct thing to do.  If this were to happen our tweens would be going to parties to take part in the wild times of high school.  I found it interesting that money was never brought up as one of the issues why it might be smarter to integrate middle schools back into elementary schools or middle schools in with junior highs.  In the present state of the economy there has been much talk in the state of Illinois on what to do to save money in the education system.  One of the suggestions is to make one school district per county with a few exceptions, such as Chicago and Cook County.  This would take away millions of dollars spent on superintendents.  In Quincy alone an elementary school was forced to close last year because they needed the extra money for another project.  The Quincy Public School District is set up differently than any that this article described.  We have several K-3 buildings, a huge 4-6 building that is split into three wings, a junior high with 7-9, and a high school with 10-12.  The 9^th graders at the junior high are still considered high school students, but many times they are not treated as one and are left out of the big freshman events.  Several professors at the local university have suggested that we put all the elementary buildings at K-5, and the junior high becomes a 6-8.  The high school would be housed in two buildings that are next to each other; one would house 9-10 and the other 11-12.  This would probably be able to save the district money on transportation, teachers, etc.