By Erin Tiernan — Erin@concordbridge.org
Concord educators are challenging parents and students to lean into the awkwardness of the middle school years.
Getting comfortable having uncomfortable conversations about puberty and the physical, social, and emotional changes that come with it is essential to preparing well-adjusted, confident, and capable young adults, Principal Justin Cameron said.
“Middle school [is] the shortest stay in the 12 years of public education, and because the kids are in the throes of puberty, too many parents will look to just throw on a survival switch,” he told The Concord Bridge.
“But what parents are doing is sleeping on how critical this age is for the development of their child.”
Cameron blames stereotyped notions about the middle school years — the pimples, the unrequited love, the hormones and temper tantrums — for pushing too many parents into this mindset.
In reality, Cameron said these years are among the worst times for parents to be asleep at the wheel. The ages of 11 to 14 — or sixth, seventh, and eighth grade — constitute the second-most crucial time for brain development after birth, when brain development spikes from 0 to 3 years old.
Teaching kids about their bodies
Seventh-grade health teacher Meghan Laughlin said it’s also the age when kids start to push boundaries.
Laughlin said parents often write off thrill-seeking behavior or a lack of organization as “impulsiveness” or “impoliteness.”
But, she said, it’s vital to remember 14-year-olds are still children.
Technology and social media have exacerbated traditional growing pains, making adult guidance even more essential for middle schoolers, Laughlin said.
Concord’s seventh-grade sexual health curriculum covers the usual clinical definitions.
But it also delves into sexting and the consequences — social and legal — of sharing explicit photos. She explains what healthy relationships look like and connects students with information about using condoms and birth control effectively.
Parental involvement
Addressing sex ed in seventh grade, before it “becomes relevant to them,” hopefully helps students make better decisions as they mature, Laughlin said.
By state law, parents receive advance notice of sexual health lessons. They can review course content ahead of time and choose to opt their child out.
Cameron said the district works to help hesitant parents understand the importance of the teachings. Typically, fewer than 2 percent of the roughly 210 seventh-grade students opt out, he said.
Last year, Concord Middle School launched an after-school speaker series titled “Who brought Who” for students and parents to assemble and tackle sensitive topics like sexting and sexual health as a family, he said.
But Laughlin said “not every child has the opportunity to go home and have the conversation with parents,” and the school has to factor that in.
“From the perspective of health education, that might be a child’s only opportunity to learn about their body, to learn about healthy coping strategies, to learn about techniques for communicating effectively and setting goals.”
