Are you insane?

“Oh, bless your heart!”
“Do you enjoy torture and insane little heathens?”
“You’d have to be crazy to teach that age group.”
“Are you insane?”

Yes – I am and I do. I teach middle school. Seventh grade English to be exact and I love it (some days). Those responses are what I usually hear when I tell people my occupation along with you poor, unfortunate soul stares.

Am I insane? Well – let’s just say I get this age group. First of all, my youngest of three children just completed eighth grade and will begin her high school career this fall. I suppose I’ve had children in middle school for roughly nine years total now, plus I’ve been a youth leader for this age group off and on my whole adult life. They are quirky and change personalities quicker (and more often) than my oldest daughter changes clothes.

I have seen a student start off the week as a quiet, reserved child, then morph into a jock, then a skater, next a brainiac, the class clown, then the gangster-bad-boy-wanna-be all within a week’s time. Kids do this to see which personality receives the most attention. Middle school can be “all about me” and attention seeking, but it can also be a time of testing for a student, especially if they try avoiding the spotlight.

A time of testing or trial by fire. This is a quality that makes up an archetypal hero in literature; it’s also a quality that makes up the life of a middle school student. Their morals are tested. Their faith is tested. Their way of thinking is challenged. Their families often undergo big changes: a new sibling, divorce, remarriage, step-siblings, moving and sometimes the death of a parent. Middle school can be the furnace that burns away the dross and fashions them into the young man or woman they are meant to be.

Their personalities begin to solidify. Two of my three children navigated the murky waters of middle school relatively unharmed. One child finished his middle school year through home school because of the personal demons he needed to vanquish. He later emerged a stronger person. If I could tell a parent one thing, and on occasion I have, it would be this: “stand strong and be there for your child because sometimes it’s going to get worse before it gets better. But you need to be his life support. You need to be his parent.”

“Do you enjoy torture and insane little heathens? You must be crazy to teach that age group.” Well, I must because I’m beginning my seventh year. This is a hard group to teach but I believe any grade level has its challenges. When I was a substitute teacher, I used that time to scope out different grade levels. I didn’t click with younger elementary and high school; back then high school seemed scary. Middle school kids have their ups and downs too but there’s never a dull moment. I don’t need to watch Glee, Mean Girls, or other shows like that. I have plenty of drama in my classroom, as well as comedy and occasionally a tragedy or musical.

“Bless your heart.” My brother-in-law used to say that you can say just about anything good or bad about a person if you just follow up with “Bless their heart.” For example, “He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, bless his heart.” Guess it softens the remark. So go ahead and say it, “You teach middle school, bless your heart.” And it does bless my heart.

It blesses my heart to read the end of the year essays my seventh graders write about what they liked or didn’t like about English. So far, the number one thing has been the simple act of “believing in them” or “putting up with them.” But my favorite quote of all came from a young man who more or less said, “I thought this year was going to be hell, but you somehow transformed it into heaven for me.”

Well, bless his heart. That is why I am a middle school teacher.

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