Reading Log--Week 2

Many decisions about the logistics of schools (starting and ending times, school calendar, configuration of grades) are made because of factors other than developmental needs of students.  Sometimes, the decisions actually contradict the needs of the students.  The pushing up of young people from elementary to secondary going from largely happening at ninth grade to moving up to the sixth grade was a result of crowded schools, not needs of students.

In the district where I teach, this conversation recently bubbled up anew.  Severe budget constraints led the district leadership to propose a new 7-12 model, rather than the existing 6-8 and 9-12 model we now have.  The benefit would be savings in closing middle schools, but there was enormous community uproar.  The leadership team presented research that says fewer transitions are much better for secondary students (which is consistent with the research presented in this week’s reading by Simmons and Blyth in “Focus on the Wonder Years”).  When community resistance to this model reached fever pitch, the leadership team changed course and dropped the 7-12 proposal.  One wonders why they would do that if they were truly convinced that it would be better for students to pursue that option.

The findings of the Carnegie research from 1989 were especially disturbing: A volatile mismatch exists between the organization and curriculum of middle grades schools, and the intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal needs of young adolescents.” (Rand, p. 14)

Another topic from this week’s readings that I find fascinating is the influence that ‘tweens can have on retailers.  They wield enormous buying power, as noted in Hulbert’s New York Times article.  I wonder to what degree parental guilt may play into this.  Parents of tweens today frequently had children at an older age than their own parents did, and many of them are at a different (perhaps more time-consuming) point in their careers than their parents were.  Certainly, more of them live in two-career households than their parents did.  These extra demands on their time can create a lot of guilt when it comes to having children and having enough time and attention for them.  Many parents have more money than they do time, and they are willing to spend freely on their children if it seems to make them happy.

Sources:

Focus on the Wonder Years, Chapter 2
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2004/RAND_MG139.pdf

Hulbert, A. (2004, November). Tweens 'R' Us. New York Times Magazine, November 28, 2004.
Available http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/magazine/28WWLN.html

Jayson, S. (2009, February 4). It's cooler than ever to be a tween, but is childhood lost? USA Today.
Available http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-03-tweens-behavior_N.htm

Tween Summit website (http://www.tweensummit.com/)