Middle School

I am on record as not looking forward to the middle-school years.I have asked every mother I know if there is a way -- short of the institutionalization of my children or me -- that I can get out of being the parent of a middle-school child, and I have been told repeatedly that there is not.The years 11 to 13 are not pretty, but there is no way to get to blossoming young adulthood except through them.My dismay deepened the night of the middle-school open house for incoming sixth-graders. I was looking for an educational vision for children who have mastered reading and writing, and what I got was something that looked like parents' day at summer camp.

The Eastwood school's librarian, Cheryl Madden, had just finished saying her farewells to the fifth-grade class seated attentively in their dress-up clothes in the front-row seats. She ended with a line from a quote, saying that "one can go backward toward safety or forward toward growth. " She encouraged the children to embrace the growth that will naturally come as they move on to middle school in the fall. Then she walked down the stage steps and out a side door. As she quickly disappeared down the empty hall, her chest heaved with sobs and her voice squeaked with each breath.

Floyd, a German short-haired pointer, knows all about drugs. But that's his job.The friendly dog sniffs out big bundles and even minute amounts of illegal narcotics during his hours working with the state police.He also has another job. He gives demonstrations of his tracking skills with his trainer, Tfc. Ed Karr.The duo delighted middle-school students who were attending a youth drug summit last week at Camp Ramblewood in Darlington."He loves people and loves food," Trooper Karr said. "He gets better treats than me and a chauffeur eight hours a day."

Harford County Public Schools leadership has left the realm of reality as it applies to budget management. The decision that no doubt will be getting the most attention in the coming weeks is a recommendation by the administration, and approved by the board of education, to levy fees against students who participate in after school programs ranging from athletics to band to yearbook. This is a terrible idea, and one that could well result in less money being collected through extracurricular activities than comes in at present.

Middle school conference scheduledThe Maryland Middle School Association Spring Conference will take place at North Carroll Middle School, 2401 Hanover Pike, Hampstead, Friday from 7:10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m."Leadership for Social Reform" will be the topic of this year's meeting. The conference provides the background and setting for middle-level educators to discuss and share strategies, ideas and programs aimed at the middle-school student.It is estimated that 600 to 800 educators will gather to select from 90 presentations.

EMMITSBURG - While Maryland children were enjoying summer vacation last week, many of their teachers and principals were in seminar rooms searching for ways to improve reading instruction. A primary concern: the lagging performance of middle-schoolers. Teams from middle schools in all 24 of the state's systems gathered at Mount St. Mary's College for the fourth annual Maryland Reading Network conference, while 100 public school principals focused on reading at a three-day session in suburban Baltimore.

When Mayor Jonathan S. Herman asked the Sykesville Town Council what to discuss with Carroll's school superintendent today, members all had the same answer: air conditioning at the middle school. Charles I. Ecker will meet with officials from all eight towns in the next few months to discuss municipal concerns with the school system. Although temperatures are hovering near the freezing point, Ecker will probably hear a lot about heat today. Herman, a father of four school-aged children, will relay several complaints about temperature and air quality at Sykesville Middle School.

TEMPTATION KNOCKS LOUDLY on the doors of middle-school students whose parents are still at work when they return from school. These three or four hours provide a window when teen-age pregnancy happens, when juvenile crime soars, when children become crime victims, when teens use drugs. Without structure, these are some of the pitfalls awaiting latchkey children.Although it may sound childish to youths who feel like adults trapped in children's bodies, middle-school students could benefit from after-school programs that provide recreation and academic help.

JOE AND HIS jailhouse lawyer, Paul, never know when to shut up.These two middle-school boys, who will some day talk themselves into a prison term for a parking ticket, can alibi and negotiate until you wish you were deaf.And that's exactly what they were doing as they attempted to prepare me for a worst-case scenario, report card-wise."A 'C' means average. It means you are like everyone else," said Paul, talking fast and following me around the kitchen as I tried to ignore him. "You want Joe to be like everyone else, don't you?

I CONSIDER MIDDLE school to be a holding pen for adolescents and respite care for their beleaguered parents, and my only complaint with this system is that they don't keep the kids overnight and on weekends.Eleven to 14 is a difficult age, and I wonder if educator Maria Montessori was not correct when she visualized sending these kids to work on farms until they had completed all the physical and emotional changes that make them so unpleasant in close quarters, such as your kitchen while you are making dinner.

The State Board of Education granted Anne Arundel County Public Schools' request last week to waive the 180-day school calendar requirement for Southern Middle School, allowing classes to end on Thursday, June 13. School officials said the early closing is needed to help facilitate the move of Lothian Elementary School into space at Southern Middle while the new Lothian Elementary is built over the next two years. Southern joins eight other schools with similar early closings — Annapolis High School, Central and Severn River middle schools, Phoenix Academy and Crofton, Lothian, Mills-Parole and Point Pleasant elementary schools.

Students at West Middle School will perform Meredith Willson's “ Music Man, Junior” this weekend a t the West Middle School Auditorium, 60 Monroe St., Westminster. Performances are Friday, May 3 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 4 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 and are available at the West Middle Box Office. “Music Man Junior” is the story of 'Professor' Harold Hill, a traveling salesman who comes to a small town in Iowa hoping to make his fortune by selling his music and band equipment to the area's youth.

Folly Quarter Middle School in Ellicott City has been in existence only 10 years, but has already gathered a collection of awards and honors that includes a Healthy Howard Gold Award and being designated a "green" school for environmental awareness. On Monday, the Maryland State Department of Education will formally add blue to that color chart, recognizing Folly Quarter as a Maryland Blue Ribbon School. "Winning the Blue Ribbon Award made Folly Quarter Middle School feel accomplished," said Rena Patel, an eighth-grader.

Fallston High School and Fallston Middle School were placed on lockdown Friday morning following a report of a suspicious person in the area. A caller from the neighborhood reported seeing someone who might be carrying a rifle, but a search of the area did not find anyone, Eddie Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office, said around 11:30 a.m. Parents of students at the neighboring schools on Carrs Mill Road were informed of...

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office said a 13-year-old female has been charged with making a false bomb threat in an incident that cleared West Middle School on Tuesday. Just before 11 a.m. school officials contacted the sheriff's office after a student recovered a note that included a threat to "bomb" the Westminster school. The middle school was evacuated while officers from law enforcement agencies inspected the building with explosive detection canine teams. The threat was found to be a hoax, and students were returned to class by noon.

The middle school years are the most mystifying time. They enter middle school in the sixth grade as little kids and exit in the eighth grade well on their way to becoming young adults. In the years in between, they try to figure out their own identities, including who their friends will be. What do you do when you don't like the friends your child is hanging around with? I've been wrestling with this question. On the one hand, I think it is impossible to dictate to my son who his friends should and shouldn't be. He'll probably want to do the opposite of what I say anyway.

On Wednesday afternoons, Bryn Mawr School sophomore Lindsay Hamilton can be found in the Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library helping Masuma Islam with her homework. Sitting at a small table in the basement, Lindsay goes over Latin, math and other assignments with Masuma, who attends Roland Park Middle School. Lindsay also teaches her organizational skills and memory tricks. "I'm more comfortable asking Lindsay questions," said Masuma, 11, a sixth-grader from the city's Remington neighborhood who has been working with Lindsay since October.

In a cramped engineering classroom at the Johns Hopkins University yesterday morning, 40 students set out to solve problems. A firetruck had to be able to navigate through a forest. A school bus needed to traverse rural areas. A stadium had to be able to withstand a tropical climate. Upperclassmen engineering majors might have struggled to find solutions, but these students, none of whom was older than 14, found answers in about three hours.

The Patterson Mill Middle School Drama Company performed "Pirates of Penzance Jr. " on March 22 to 24. Cast members included Todd Campo, Valerie Ziegler, Grace Fisher, Kaitlyn Iwanowski, Caleb Blomquist, Jonathan Myers, Cameron Warlick, Ali Leary, Hannah Moots, Anna Odell, Elise Alders, Ellie Byers, Makayla Hauk-Meyer, Hannah Lorenzo, Caroline McCarthy, Caren Meckelnberg, Lauren Piercy, Regan Rich, Meg Thompson, Jody Bogner, Cheyenne Croteau, Jade...