The Social Pressures in Junior High School
>> Monday, August 2, 2010
People have varying insights about junior high school. Yes, it is the period of transition of elementary to high school. Normally, students enroll themselves in Junior high school for 7th and 8th grade, though often they are going to enroll for 6th grade there as well. It is not like the set up of elementary level where students attend classes in the same classroom and the same teacher for the entire day and the entire school year. In this level, students are face with more responsibilities - their subjects become harder and the homework load becomes heavier.
Indeed, junior high school is a tumultuous time for students. It is during this stage in which students are also entering their teenage years. This means they are not little kids anymore, but they are not grown ups either. This is the period of puberty and popularity as well as cliques that start to become a bigger issue. Many students struggle on dealing academics and the social pressure on campus. Being excluded or being singled out and picked on by other teens can take a big toll on junior high school students. As a matter of fact, bullying problems have increasingly caught the attention of the public and the media.
Junior high schools have been protested to shut down because of the violence of junior high social hierarchy and now advocate K to 8 schools where students attend the same institution from grades kindergarten to 8th grade. Advocates argue that this propose transition will help build camaraderie among students and thus, lessens the problem of peer aggression. This may proved to be true, but it would greatly depend on some factors such as the population of students, how much interaction the different grades have with each other etc. Take for example the situation wherein there is an extremely large student body; this could prevent kids from getting to know each other thus, bullying problems possibly arise.
However, despite the violence, many students continue to attend junior high school. Making the switch to K to 8 now would be too big of a move to make considering the short amount of time allotted. Some people say that kids will always be kids, and simply regrouping them would not change anything. Both students and teachers themselves should go hand in hand to address the issues of peer pressure and clique mentality but how to realize that solution remains unresolved.
Indeed, junior high school is a tumultuous time for students. It is during this stage in which students are also entering their teenage years. This means they are not little kids anymore, but they are not grown ups either. This is the period of puberty and popularity as well as cliques that start to become a bigger issue. Many students struggle on dealing academics and the social pressure on campus. Being excluded or being singled out and picked on by other teens can take a big toll on junior high school students. As a matter of fact, bullying problems have increasingly caught the attention of the public and the media.
Junior high schools have been protested to shut down because of the violence of junior high social hierarchy and now advocate K to 8 schools where students attend the same institution from grades kindergarten to 8th grade. Advocates argue that this propose transition will help build camaraderie among students and thus, lessens the problem of peer aggression. This may proved to be true, but it would greatly depend on some factors such as the population of students, how much interaction the different grades have with each other etc. Take for example the situation wherein there is an extremely large student body; this could prevent kids from getting to know each other thus, bullying problems possibly arise.
However, despite the violence, many students continue to attend junior high school. Making the switch to K to 8 now would be too big of a move to make considering the short amount of time allotted. Some people say that kids will always be kids, and simply regrouping them would not change anything. Both students and teachers themselves should go hand in hand to address the issues of peer pressure and clique mentality but how to realize that solution remains unresolved.
