Blog about Middle Schools

The arguement in this article is whether or not to eliminate the transition from middle school to high school by simply making schools K-5 and 6-12 instead of the traditional K-6, then middle school 7 and 8, and finally high school 9-12. The idea is that the children are at a difficult time in their life during this period and it would be easier for them to make the transition sooner and already be acclimated into the school. On top of that the staff would have much more time to work with the children to prepare them for life after school and the students would be closer to their teachers from past years. On the other hand this is a costly endeavour and one not easily done. It would also mean you would have students varying from ages 11-19 in the same school together.
I'm not sure how I feel about this idea yet. I suppose I would need to learn more about it but from what I have read so far it seems like too much of a double edged sword to be worth the risk. Yes students could benefit from the guidance of their older peers but that guidance could not always be positive. For example students could be introduced to drugs and alcohol at a much earlier age. Overcrowding would seem like it would be a huge problem for some urban areas to implement this idea since it would be six grades worth of students in one school. At this point it just does not seem practical to make the switch because there is not enough hard evidence to say that this is significantly better then the method already in place.