not much just chillin’: the hidden lives of middle schoolers by Linda Perlstein

Linda Perlstein: She is an education reporter for the Washington Post. To write this book she spent a year in the center of Wilde Lake Middle School, a suburban middle school in Maryland. Wilde Lake is a diverse, 600 student school.

How the book is set up: Divided into four sections (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer) Perlstein follows a select group of students around and details all of their experiences for an entire year She spends a lot of time observing and interviewing –These interviews are not limited to students; they include teachers and parents

The Kids: Perlstein followed a diverse group of students around to get her information…a few of these students are:

Eric Ellis Eric ended the 7 th grade on a high note, but he enters the 8 th grade feeling that school is boring and he has no time to worry about it. His time is taken up with skateboarding, video games, and dealing with his family.

Jackie Taylor: A 7 th grader who obsesses over her and her friends new “crushes,” as they now realize that you actually have to talk to a boy before you can be his boyfriend.

Jimmy Schissel: Jimmy is a 6 th grader who is a bit chubby. Jimmy knows that his body is changing and is uncomfortable with the way he and others see him.

Lily Mason: Lily is a 6 th grader. In her first year of middle school she finds herself in a constant effort to fit in with her friends.

September 11: how to deal with a major tragedy Days after Perlstein started her observations, this tragedy happened and she was able to observe how the middle schoolers reacted. 6 th graders are not quite mature enough to grasp the severity of what has happened 8 th graders know that time relating to things that occur outside of their own something bad has happened but they have a hard little world. However, thoughts of death - their own and loved ones’- weigh heavily on teens as they enter puberty.

Helpful Topics This book covers quite a few topics. A few of these that could be helpful to a teacher are:

Changing relationships with parents. Adolescents are still needy children “…think of a preteen’s changing relationship with their parents as a reorganization, not a rejection. Wanting to be independent is not the same as wanting to be left alone.” p. 100

Why you are a role model!! Preteen’s are finally able to deal in abstract thought and see their parents as real, flawed people. They need to connect with other adults who will treat them more like an equal, that don’t know their baggage, and will give it to them straight.

Teasing and rejection. “A little rejection isn’t the worst thing— kids who are isolated in childhood tend to emerge as more self-sufficient adults, which might be why the coolest grown-ups were miserable in middle school.” p. 107

How do they pick their friends? “Research has always shown that race is one source of attraction to friends…in middle school race and income and all sorts of differences come into sharp focus and children seek out peers they can identify with on at least these basic levels.” p. 129

There are many many more topics covered in this book, and many of these topics are covered several times in different ways with different students. I believe that this book would be a useful resource for teachers and for parents of middle schoolers.

Resources: not much just chillin’: the hidden lives of middle schoolers. Linda Perlstein. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p