We eventually made it into the car and off to school we went. My thoughts about Eli being the middle child continued. Thinking back through his four years of life, he has always had the "middle child mentality" but he only became the middle child eight weeks ago when his little brother, Isaac was born. The Middle Child Syndrome is a real thing that has been researched throughout the years. The oldest child gets the experience of doing everything first. To mom and me, everything is new and hip so we are learning along the way, which makes it exciting for all of us. The youngest child gets the initial attention of being the "new toy" in the house and continues throughout their life to be the baby, often being spoiled and pampered. (I am the baby of six...mom still calls me the baby.) This leaves the middle child to beg for attention and to find their place within the household dynamic. We certainly try to counteract the Middle Child Syndrome, but sometimes we just don't do a very good job. As I pondered on Eli being the middle child, it made me think about how the Middle Child Syndrome parallels systems within our schools.
1. PreAP, GT, and Special Learners - I was recently in a GT training where the facilitator put about twenty people in a line, creating a human spectrum of learning needs, ranging from students receiving services in Special Education to the students in Gifted and Talented programming. To no surprise, the majority of the spectrum consisted of students "in the middle," representing students in general education classes. On my campus roughly 10% of students are served through special education services. PreAP and GT students make up approximately another 10% of students. That leaves about 80% of the student body in "general ed classes." We spend large amounts of time, money, and legislation on the 20% and often leave the rest to receive a generic, one-size-fits-all classroom. We preach differentiation to our teachers, but do we provide them the resources and professional development to meet EVERY student at their individual ability and learning style?
2. "Core" Curriculum - Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies are considered our "core content" areas. Generally speaking, every student studies these courses every year in an industrial assembly line fashion. Then there are electives designed to "enrich" a student's learning experience. Students choose whether they want to take these courses or not. Right in the middle are the Fine Arts and Physical Education classes where there are some requirement for these courses, but they are not required every year. We know why it is important for students to grow up with healthy habits and a physically active lifestyle, but we treat PE like the middle child, not giving it much attention until the affects of not having more of it are out of control. Likewise, with fine arts, studies overwhelmingly show the importance the arts play in brain development and cognition, but we still treat it like a fringe benefit. In a global market where high demand jobs such as App Developer and Social Media Manager didn't even exist a decade ago, shouldn't we be putting our educational emphasis and how to be creative? There is no better place to start than in the arts.
3. Discipline - As I entered the world of administration, I was naive about how much of my day would be devoted to discipline. I work at a school where there are not a ton of discipline problems, but it still takes up a good portion of my day. I can only imagine being on a campus where this is more of a challenge. In regards to discipline, we tend to spend the bulk of our time on the "fire" that is currently burning; the he-said-she-said drama or the physical contact that is just around the corner. On my campus, we also do a pretty good job with celebrating those that go above and beyond to be great citizens, although we could always do more. But as I think about this in terms of the middle child, I don't think we do a very good job at noticing the rank-and-file student for the great way they act all the time. They may not go out of their way to clean the halls or help in a teacher in a dynamic way, but they come to school and work hard and do what is expected of them. If we spent more time celebrating THAT student, would that have an effect on the others?
If we looked hard enough I think we could find the middle child in many of our systems in education. Bringing up the bottom while celebrating and challenging the top in every system is important, but we can work harder with identifying the middle child and giving them the attention they so desperately crave. I don't think Eli will ever stop having the "Middle Child Syndrome" but being aware and counteracting his demeanor with my attention will make great strides in growing his sense of belonging. What is the "middle child" on your campus?
