Making Middle Schools Destinations of Choice for Young Adolescents

Introduction

Educators and marketing executives may not seem, at quick glance, to share much in common. The languages they speak overlap very little, and even the general purposes of the fields aim in opposite directions. For those working in business fields, the prime directive is profit-finding. Educators, on the other hand, work in a tension between being efficient, (i.e. getting the most from their students in the least amount of time), and consciously not applying these capitalistic principles to their work. It may seem counterintuitive then, to look to those who study airports and passenger satisfaction for ideas on how to make middle school classroom experiences positive ones. But actually, a metaphor of passengers experiencing a layover as they travel from one point to another is perfect for exploring the role of middle schools and the experiences had by the young adolescents inside them.

A layover is a stop between flights, a connection. While non-stop flights go straight from Point A to Point B, when a flight stops somewhere en route, between the initial and final destinations, it’s called a layover (Scott’s Cheap Flights, 2014). Travelers do not tend to plan to enjoy these stops. There is not usually enough time to leave the airport and enjoy local sights, for example. The layover is meant to be survived or endured. A metaphor of middle school as a layover airport makes sense because students enter middle school already thinking about what is next. They expect the experience to be something to get through, or at times unfortunately endure, before moving on to a more desirable or exciting phase of life. Children in the U.S. must attend school until they are between 16 and 18 years old, middle schools are by definition not the final educational experience for school aged children (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2014). Our goal is to illustrate middle schools as enjoyable experiences, even ones to look forward to. Therefore, in this chapter, we take a look at middle schools in the U.S. metaphorically as layover airports and the need to transform them into destinations. How can positive learning experiences be created given the short time frame and the transitional nature inherent in even the most effective middle schools?

The metaphor of middle schools as layover airports presents the opportunity to imagine middle schools as destinations in and of themselves. This is due to the potential of metaphorical thinking to help show what is already true about something and what else might be possible about it. Characteristics of exemplar middle schools from vastly different locations with varying characteristics and needs, yet all providing positive experiences for young adolescents, are considered. This comparison will be made based on what is known about the developmental nature and needs of young adolescents served in middle schools and also on recommendations for effective middle schools made by the Association for Middle Level Education and Lighthouse Schools to Watch.

The objectives of the chapter are: (a) to help readers understand the use of metaphors in education and memory and creating a metaphor between airports and middle schools, (b) to connect the developmental characteristics of young adolescents to the need for destination middle schools, (c) To align AMLE’s “This We Believe” characteristics of effective middle schools with the need for middle schools as destinations of choice, and finally, (d) to describe exemplar middle schools and example programs across the country that are putting this research into practice.