"Study as if you were to live forever, live as if you were to die tomorrow." (Maria Mitchell)

LINDA PERLSTEIN

Much to my delight (and dare I say surprise) the literature conference at Grand Valley on February 11 was not only enjoyable but enlightening as well.

The first speaker was Linda Perlstein. Linda is best known for her book: Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers. Her synopsis of the experiences she had while researching the book were intruiging and more or less humorous.

Linda's rememberences of "spin the bottle," "craving lucky charms," and "desperately wanting Calvin Klein Jeans" during her middle school years are similiar yet very different to those middle schoolers of the 2000's.

After going to class, eating lunch, joining carpools, attending dances, watching athletic practices, and listening in on principal/student conferences, Linda gained a lot of insight about middle schoolers--perhaps things she may or may not have wanted to know!

However, after learning as much as she could about these adolescents, she gave some useful insight to teachers and essentially to parents. Middle Schoolers' frontal lobes aren't fully developed yet, so it's natural for their organization skills and judgement skills to be "off." Their priorities are mainly friends, sports, the opposite sex, and definitely not school.

Linda says that too often teachers design goals for students that are out of their realm of understanding, the most effective way of drawing students in is relating life and learning to current events. Most of all, don't stop teaching what is really important despite what the MEAPS and standardized testing requires.

After listening to Linda speak about Middle Schoolers, I actually began to think that it wouldn't be so bad to teach their grades. I just have to look beyond my shameful stereotype that this age just brings greasy hair, testoterone raged boys seeking fights, and girls who cry because they got a zit and they're sure their crush will disgustedly stare at it all day.

It would truly be a unique experience to teach Middle Schoolers.