Middle School Content

After this week’s readings, a lot of questions have been brought up regarding middle schools, junior highs, and high schools. A few of us have mentioned some uncertainty about certification and whether middle school teachers should have a separate certification because of the fragile time of adolescence. Here is where I take issue: CONTENT. K-8 certifications do not specify one content area, placing teachers in classrooms where they might teach all of English, Social Studies, Science, and math. My cooperating teacher has a K-8 certification, and has recently taught all of the above courses except for math because she feels quite weak in that area. She confided that my certification is a better way to go because it is more content-focused. In elementary school, the basic materials of these core subjects can be taught by one professional, but as students reach adolescence, many could be missing out on the content they should be receiving.

Dr. Cyrus Smith, a wonderful professor here at UW-M, has engrained this phrase into many of our heads: “Content determines process.” So, when a teacher is weak in content, the process used may not be the best for relaying content. It is not the fault of the K-8 certifiers, but some type of change needs to happen if we are to stop blaming the students for not knowing enough, reading well enough, or writing to meet standards. If teachers are not trained in their [content specific] profession, how are our middle school students going to perform in freshmen English with little prior content?