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These warped little mini-cultures are manufactured in Hollywood, and promoted by the media megacorps as a means of control. I can say the same thing about “teenagerism” in general.

The concept never existed in traditional society; it had to be invented in post-1945 America. Before then, there were no “teens”, just young adults, treated consistently. This does not imply “the good old days”; premodern societies had many faults too.

“Teen-age” is a ghetto for older children and young adults. There’s not even a meaningful break between that stage and true adulthood - nor a reliable maturity test.

Uh huh. That’s the conclusion that the students come to, because the teachers aren’t giving them anything else useful to do. You don’t turn stupid just because you acquire a sex drive.

The issue here is not kids turning stupid at all. It is that middle school (whether by accident or design) empowers the stupid, cruel, and atavistic kids at everyone else’s expense.

What you do is become increasingly frustrated with your interminably long childhood,

That’s another point. So is the not-so-good job market for modern youth; with so much overskilling, and fear of competition by the 30-and-up somethings already entrenched.

with the incredible amounts of time you’re forced to waste listening to drivel rather than learning anything useful, and with the adults whose overriding goal seems to be to keep you ignorant and helpless as long as humanly possible and prevent you from growing up. This will tend to make one rather moody and cranky and not at all inclined to diligently do obvious make-work.

Like I said, the slum nature of middle schools, public school in general, and modern adolescence.

Being academically rigorous can’t hurt, and can work wonders. For one thing, the students will be too busy to torment each other and set up warped little mini-cultures that encourage bad habits and prepare the students for a vicious adult society that (thankfully) doesn’t exist.

“But I suspect LOTS of people are just miserable in the 11-15 years, and that’s only partly compounded by the law-of-the-jungle attitude in some schools. ”

And the other part is that, without academic rigor, they’re wasting their time, stuck in a hell-hole that isn’t even advancing them toward productive adulthood.

“Middle school, junior high, whatever, it’s really all about hormones. The kids are shot up with them and are near impossible to handle, as ricki notes.”

That’s pure nonsense. 30 year olds are shot up with hormones too… they just know how to behave in civilized society (because someone finally got around to teaching them, although not during middle school) and have much more to lose.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that there are really no realistic academic objective in those years, just survival; of the teachers and students.”

Uh huh. That’s the conclusion that the students come to, because the teachers aren’t giving them anything else useful to do. You don’t turn stupid just because you acquire a sex drive. What you do is become increasingly frustrated with your interminably long childhood, with the incredible amounts of time you’re forced to waste listening to drivel rather than learning anything useful, and with the adults whose overriding goal seems to be to keep you ignorant and helpless as long as humanly possible and prevent you from growing up. This will tend to make one rather moody and cranky and not at all inclined to diligently do obvious make-work.

Because constructive segregation meets their personal needs.

There are alternatives to both public and parochial (religious) schools. These include schools based on vocation and personality - some of which already exist. There already include religious schools, as I mentioned; and academic ones, athletic ones, artistic ones, and many others.

By “vocation”, I mean the old definition, similar to calling, rather than just vocational schools (though they can be included.)

As for personality, people do develop one at an early age. Many of the stereotypes (such as slacker, goth, jock, geek, skater, hipster) are based on very real personality traits, upon which people of all ages naturally segregate.

If there is any kind of useful segregation at ages 12-14 it is to educate boys and girls separately.

How about educating individuals separately? That’s yet another possibility open to some.

In fact, in a culture which gives conflicting signals about male and female sex roles and is increasing unable to socialize young men into a positive masculine identity, single-sex schooling seems to be a necessity

I do not dispute that single-sex schools can be useful for certain people.

If there is any kind of useful segregation at ages 12-14 it is to educate boys and girls separately. In fact, in a culture which gives conflicting signals about male and female sex roles and is increasing unable to socialize young men into a positive masculine identity, single-sex schooling seems to be a necessity.

I actually remember the times I was cruel to other children with more regret and pain than anything any other child did to hurt me. I wish I had been stopped from doing it by a responsible adult.

I don’t know that the best solution is, either.

I would suggest homeschooling/ unschooling, but that is difficult, expensive, and not for everyone. But I suspect that the brilliant, innovative, visionary young people that would be the most ruined by middle school (or school at all) would be best served by homeschooling.

Private and alternative schools are another idea, but they are expensive, and not all of them are good. Many of them have the same problems as public school. One advantage of private schools is that they can be selective about who to admit, and thus keep out the real SOBs.

Single-sex schools? Maybe.

I’m surprised that nobody thought of inventing cubicle schools! Cubicles work so well in the adult office world; they might have a use in schools, to personalize and academize them more.

I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not, especially about the Greyhound bus station. But consider, that nobody had to spend 6 hours a day at the Greyhound bus station, or other such scummy places, unless they worked there. And they could legally quit their jobs. And what was the suicide rate of these employees?

Who thought of the idea anyway? Is it another import from Prussia

Probably Horace Mann and John Dewey.