No More Pencils, No More Books – And No More Middle School!
Photo Credit: Shutterstock Today is the last day my youngest attended middle school. (It’s also the last day of my oldest’s summer vacation! He starts summer term at the university on Monday.) My youngest had their promotion ceremony yesterday (8 th grade graduation). When I shared pictures and a video from it on Facebook, I got to talking with some people about everything that my youngest has been through during middle school. To say the least, middle school was NOT easy for them. They experienced bullying, harassment for being gay, a physical altercation with someone trying to steal something from them, problems with teachers, their mental health issues affecting their learning experience, and a serious sense of feeling lost and alone. (This was made worse when they started losing friends due to their social awkwardness and poor social skills.) I honestly contemplated transferring them to another school because it got so bad. But they insisted that they wanted to ...