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The case for K-8 schools

May 3, 2017
Middle school students get a bad rap. They are stereotyped as difficult to handle and difficult to teach, but in a small multi-age school like Peachtown, we are fortunate to see so many positive qualities in this age group. My sixth- through eighth-grade classes are an absolute pleasure to teach. Certainly, one can expect moody, hormonal seventh-graders and too much idle chatter, but as a group they are eager, independent learners, with reasonably mature manners and values.
Peachtown was founded as a K-6 school in 1990. A few years later, we included prekindergarten and extended through eighth grade. We’ve never regretted it. Carrying students through eighth grade is the reward for many years of teaching. Historically, elementary schools were K-8, and developmentally the eighth grade demarcation makes sense. Age 14 is one of those points in child development when a sea change in maturation occurs. Of course, anyone who has worked with teenagers knows that good judgement and impulse control are still issues, but upon leaving eighth grade, they really are young adults.
So what happened to the K-8 school? Small progressive schools were thriving in the '20s and '30s, but the move away from small neighborhood elementary schools to large consolidated districts interrupted the momentum of the progressive education movement. The burgeoning enrollments of post-WWII baby boomers and the emergence of school buses and family cars made larger schools appealing.
My father-in-law, the youngest of nine children, was the first to go to high school thanks to the purchase of a family car. In the southern hills of Indiana, the trip to the nearest high school was just too far to go on horseback. In the '30s, my own father risked his life riding from Scipio to Auburn High with his brother, who made at least one drive to school with the hand throttle set, his feet on the dashboard and a stogie in his mouth. He just grinned and exclaimed what a fine “see-gar” he had. Recall what I said above regarding good judgement and impulse control.
The rapidity of school consolidation was remarkable. In 1930, there were over 250,000 public schools in the United States. In 2013, there were under 99,000 schools; from 1930 to 1950 alone, over 100,000 schools were closed. Rapid school construction and reshuffling of students in ever-changing building configurations set the process in motion. Spurred on by the different curricular needs of adolescent students, schools began to shift away from K-8 to intermediate, junior and junior high schools; eventually, the 6-8 or 5-8 middle school became the norm.
Even though educators have put great effort into developing specialized curricula and healthy social environments for middle schools, I think it’s a pity that schools ever moved away from the K-8 model. While curricular needs are certainly different in the higher intermediate grades, they don’t require separate spaces to accommodate. The charm of a wide range of ages is the natural familial environment it fosters. The young children look up to the older children, and in return the older students are natural caregivers to the young.
Adolescence is a time marked by vulnerability, insecurity, high emotion and self-involvement — one of the most confusing and difficult times of life. Grounding these years in familiar surroundings, in an environment where students have stature, respect and a secure sense of place, allows them to explore, test and sometimes fail without fear of repercussion. Older elementary students who spend their days surrounded by younger students modify their behavior, and their earned position in the school relieves them of that middle school struggle of trying to be someone bigger or older than they are.
The passage from childhood through adolescence to young adulthood, in an optimal environment, is a steady, tempered emergence. Ironically, the longer children have to just be children, the more graceful their growth and the better the outcome. In a K-8 program, students seamlessly outgrow their childhood school ready to tackle high school. It’s an old idea, but a good one.

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