1. It was a neighborhood school. It was 3 blocks from our house. It extended our already wonderful community.
My son had been in a local daycare/Pre-K in our housing complex previously, and 7 students from there joined him in Kindergarten at the local public elementary school! Additionally, he started Hebrew School in the neighborhood, one afternoon a week. That is now 2 afternoons a week and there are 7 kids from his grade there as well!
Versus – our middle school is 4 blocks away, it is still in the neighborhood with a nice group of friends that we know. But it is in a district that stretches for miles and miles and there are even children in our school from outside Manhattan!
2. Kindergarten “Read To Your Kids” Time.
For the first 6 months of Kindergarten all parents were asked to stay 20 minutes into the first period to read to their children. As a SAHD this was no problem. The benefit of this for me was that I got to meet the other 20 amazing parents/families in my son’s class. 6 years later these are my best friends at school. That time, somehow while we were completely focused on our kids, helped the parents to bond!
Versus – No contact with other parents in middle school. I have had to attend a PTA meeting and work at the book fair to try to meet other parents. There are far less that are involved and available to meet.
3. Extracurricular Classes.
I have a niece in Staten Island who is the same age as my son. Because we are both in one of the five boroughs of New York City, we all partake of the exact same curriculum. I question my sister-in-law all the time to find out what differences exist between the education of her daughter and my son. One major thing are the extra subjects my son gets included in his school week. We have full time gym, art, music, literacy media (computers) , and science teachers. They do not have most of these subjects, let alone full time teachers for the instruction.
Versus – My son has drama class which he loves, two periods of gym which he loves, a computer class which he loves, and a health class where he is learning a lot. Now if we could only transfer this affection for his classes to his academic subjects!
4. Nurturing teachers.
My son had 2 EVIL teachers in elementary school. So bad that there are complaints on file. The others teachers were superb!
My son loved his art teacher so much that one year he told me he wanted to stay in the building for middle school (there is one upstairs) and then go to college and come back to his elementary school as the art teacher. I told the art teacher that I felt there was no bigger compliment than letting a teacher know he was so admired that his student wanted to be him. Needless to say, my son cried himself to sleep the night of graduation at the thought of not having another 6 years with this amazing teacher. It was heartbreaking!
The other favorite teacher was his music teacher. The guy was a tough one but told great jokes. My son is artistic and musical so he loved these teachers.
Versus – No Art. Perhaps we will have it in the upper grades. My son was a semi-finalist for an art project in 5th grade. The contest was city wide and included all grades so I am going to go out on a limb and say he has a lot of Art talent. You know he is a duct tape weapons maker at home! No Art in 6th grade is rough for us.
No evil teachers, but this hands on parent would like to see them held accountable for their behavior to the students and the parents. They seem to be unsupervised which is not a good thing.
5. The School.
Versus – The first tri-mester at middle school was horrible. The transition was more than my son could handle – almost. And we had no idea. He kept all his fears in. We only found out when homework wasn’t being done and his behavior was awkward. Thankfully whatever fears he had, dissipated when he realized this was a good school, just a little bigger. Acknowledgement from students in upper grades makes him feel more at home here and he is now well adjusted, I am happy to report, and happy in middle school!
I always wondered why my old upper elementary was close to close to lower .I MEAN 2 streets away but I can say I learned great there.
I am sure your son is learning a lot academicly he just does not want to show it yet.Maybe he is waiting to surprise you.
I think the biggest change is going from one teacher and spending all your time with that teacher to going to a teacher for each subject. My son liked that aspect of Junior High. My daughter didn’t. I didn’t as much because I liked just knowing one teacher. Both my children missed the holiday parties and recess that didn’t get in Junior High school.
I really enjoyed the period when my oldest kids were in elementary. It was if everyone was an extended family. There were always family events. In junior high and high school there just wasn’t much for parents to be involved with. I attend all of my daughter’s sports games, but it still isn’t the same. I miss being connected to other parents.
Teacher and other parent connections are what can make or break your experience! Glad to hear all is well! I’m sure that’s a weight lifted!
My son attends middle school in Staten Island. He is in the Honors Program. He has a talent class, computers and Science everyday with a phenomenal Science teacher.
We had our fair share of both good & bad (evil) teachers throughout the years of education in Queens. What I learned with my first son was that in the later part of junior high the entire High School process is very rushed. With 2 more sons to go we started looking at both public & private high schools in the seventh grade. We went at our own pace, tours ect.
I certainly don’t want to rush the clock for you, however you are a very dedicated parent with an awesome son. I want you to enjoy the process, it’s not to early to start.
There really are some differences between school districts and elementary and middle school. I thoought middle school was the worst. The kids were bullies and it was somewhat difficult for my sons. High school was much better