MIDDLE
SCHOOLERS FACE SPECIAL ACADEMIC HURDLES
By Dr. Raymond Huntington
Remember the days when your son or daughter rushed
in from school, gave you a big hug and gleefully
sought praise for a top grade on an assignment or
test? That may seem like ancient history if your
child is now in middle school. More likely you’ve
noticed your child shying away from physical
affection, experiencing odd and dramatic mood
swings, and becoming a lot more interested in
popularity and peer pressure than pleasing you.
If so, you’re not alone. From the chat rooms of
popular parenting Web sites, to the pages of
parenting magazines to school and community forums
around the nation, scores of parents of children
going through the “tween” years will tell you
they’re going through troubled times as well. Many
will also tell you that these issues are having a
serious impact on their children’s progress in
school. Children who are grappling with social and
emotional pressures are often distracted in the
classroom and too preoccupied to give homework the
attention it deserves.
This is particularly troublesome given the
increasing demands of middle school learning. In
mathematics, lessons in basic computation are giving
way to complex problem-solving. In reading, lessons
focus more on comprehension, and require students to
articulate what they have learned in oral and
written form. Subjects ranging from science to
history to the social studies likewise require more
critical thinking. And progress in all of these
subjects becomes especially vital for building a
foundation for increasingly challenging work in high
school and beyond.
So while in many ways school may be getting "harder"
-- or at least more complex – your child’s equally
complex behavioral changes can make learning a
volatile proposition at best.
So what should parents do?
Expect some changes and know what to look for. Talk
with your child's guidance counselor to find out
more about other pressures that may be arising in
the school environment, and school-based solutions
that may be under way. Take a close look at your
child’s academic progress during the past year. Is
he or she maintaining good grades and solid study
habits? If not, is it because of social/emotional
issues or because of specific learning skills?
If you learn from teachers that your son or daughter
is struggling, you need to take prompt action to
shore up these deficiencies. Your child’s teachers
and guidance counselors should have a list of school
or community-based options for supplemental
instruction. Once your child is involved in these
activities you need to use the same skills you apply
to monitoring homework. Find out what types of
assignments are involved and when they’re supposed
to be completed. Check with teachers on a weekly
basis to determine if the extra work is translating
to progress in the classroom.
Think about potential mentors for your child. While
your son or daughter may suddenly be no fan of overt
parental control, he or she may still value advice
from other adults or responsible older youth.
Ideally, this should be someone your child can talk
to about emotional issues and someone who can
reinforce your views about keeping on track
academically regardless of the difficulties of this
age. It’s an added bonus if this individual has the
time and ability to help with homework or special
assignments that can help build skills and
knowledge.
Find a productive, smart extracurricular activity.
If your son or daughter is struggling academically,
it may sound counterintuitive to look for another
activity to fill the day. And yet the right activity
could actually help your child become more
academically motivated and self-assured. If your son
is anxious about being too small to play football
but loves to read, start your own at-home book club
with rewards every time a book is completed. If your
daughter’s having trouble fitting in with the
popular kids but designed her first Web page when
she was 10, look for a technology club or other
accelerated learning opportunity that can help her
hone these skills and meet girls with similar
abilities and remind her that there really is life
after the 8th grade. While most children struggle
some subjects, most have a natural aptitude for at
least one. Activities like these can keep your child
build a sense of self worth and smooth the way past
the inevitable disappointments of this challenging
period in his or her life.
In the meantime, take some deep breaths and try not
to worry. With consistent assurance that your child
is loved and ever-vigilant monitoring of the
academic bottom line, you can both survive the
“terrible tweens” older and wiser for the experience
of getting through it together.
# # #
Dr. Raymond J. and Eileen Huntington are co-founders
of Huntington Learning Center, which has helped
children achieve success in school for 26 years. For
more information about how Huntington can help your
child, visit
www.huntingtonlearning.com or call 1 800
CAN LEARN.
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