Junior High

[SummerSolstice]

One of the many things I like about writing fantasy is that you don't have to do a speck of research if you don't want to. This lovely fact means that I have never researched for a story... until now.

The latest fantasy I'm writing takes place in part within the modern world. My main character is going to middle school/junior high for the first time. The only problem is, I haven't a clue how to write it. I started homeschooling precisely the year I would have moved on, and then continued to homeschool until I went to college this fall. My younger brother began homeschooling before his grade school years were even over. Thus, my experience in the field is basically nil.

If any of the younger set (< 20 or so, I guess) would be willing to share a description of what junior high is/was like, (as detailed as possible!) I won't need to corner and interrogate a twelve-year-old. ^_^ Stories or impressions of how it felt starting out (Was it fun? Scary? Confusing? Lonely?) would be especially appreciated. Thanks y'all!

[higley]

Hm! Well, my middle school consisted of the seventh and eighth grades, as the sixth graders had their own building.

I remember actually getting lost in my school on the way to one of my first classes; all the stairways looked the same and so did the halls! All the kids were separated into "teams," three to a grade. You would take classes with other kids in your team. An organizational method, I suppose; our school was rather large. Certain teachers taught for certain teams, not much crossover.

Gym class was required, and you were issued a really cheap gym "uniform." Basically, it's a t-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts with the school's logo on it. You had to wear your uniforms and have tennis shoes or else you got marked down for it.

Classes were basic; you had science, math, social science (geography + history), english, home ec, etc., and advanced classes for those able to take them. Home ec was required for all seventh graders and you did the whole crying baby for a day thing. We learned how to cook and sew.

The schedule was made up of periods; for example, you might say you had algebra second period and lunch fifth period. After lunch was a short recess where nobody really did anything but hang around.

Kids are generally okay, it's not really 'till highschool that you get a lot of the drama and cattiness. There is still a social heirarchy that exists, with cheerleaders and football players at the top and 'outcasts' at the bottom.

Hope that helps a little at least. :)

[Shannanigan]

edit: everything higley said was my experience, too. Here's some more I thought up...

I apologize ahead of time if this is not really G-rated, but honestly, this was my experience in what was considered a very good and classy California public junior high. Some celebrities even sent their kids here. I'm sure most junior highs were much, much worse...

Junior high for me started with a new school in the 6th grade. It was very scary at first, and I remember having my mom buy me "cool, fashionable" clothes so that I would fit in...but I still didn't. The kids already had their own friends, and I hadn't learned a lot of the stuff other kids had learned because my elementary school was mostly hispanic, so all the "sex jokes" and drug names and that stuff was in Spanish and I didn't understand...I spent my lunchtime alone in the library or in the computer lab, I think.

I felt like an outcast in 6th grade, and quickly became my English teacher's "teacher's pet." Most people left me alone.

7th grade must have been better because I got a "boyfriend" who really just wrote letters to me and I would write back. And we'd walk each other to class. Our first kiss was a dare...by my little brother...how sad, lol. I have a memory of my "boyfriend" telling some guy that there was no way he could get weed in just one day, and the next day the guy came up to us and opened his jacket to show us a bag he had gotten...I tell you American junior high school kids are even more ridiculous now...

In 8th grade I found a few other losers like me, because I joined "steering committee" which was just basically student government for the 8th graders. We sat on the 8th grade lawn together being dorks...none of us were very attractive, lol, but I'm glad I wasn't one of the "popular girls" because they all looked the same...brown-haired barbies with just as much in their head as barbie has...at some point I remember someone telling me that everyone thought I was a "nark," like I worked for the police to find kids who had drugs. I thought that was hilarious. I remember 8th grade as being my happiest year, very sentimental, emotional, did lots and lots of writing and lots of growing. I was even in a drama class. Good times.

Let me know if you need more specifics...I have them but don't know jhow deep it needs to go...you can PM me if you want :)

[RobinHood3000]

Delusions of maturity and a self-satisfied sense of importance.

[papayahed]

Delusions of maturity and a self-satisfied sense of importance.


yep, I'd agree.

[Virgil]

:bawling: I got into a fight with another kid and got put on probation. And it wasn't even my fault. It gave me a reputation that I carried all through Junior High. Thank God it started over a new in High School.

[SummerSolstice]

Heh, wow. Thanks, guys! Everything you can share does help. Even the most seemingly boring little detail is gold for me, especially since Irene (my character) is a very quiet, thoughtful, observant girl. Everything you can remember is something she'd pay attention to. Anybody else got some stories? :D

[Whifflingpin]

Delusions of maturity and a self-satisfied sense of importance.

Yep, that's me, but i thought you were supposed to be talking about Junior High.

.

[bluevictim]

Here is my most painful memory of Junior High. Like higley's school, there was a certain social hierarchy (except with surfers in addition to football players and little leaguers at the top). I was definitely not in the "in" crowd. In gym class, which we called "P.E." (Physical Education), I was always among the last to be picked when the "team captains" would choose teams. However, I was usually not last. There were a couple of kids who were consistently picked dead last. These kids were real outcasts (and not just in P.E.). I was pretty much evil incarnate to these outcasts. I'd tease them and harass them all the time with a few of my friends (I only had a few friends). I never physically fought any of them myself, but I started a fight between one of them and a friend of mine once by stealing his halloween candy. I'm not exactly sure why I was so mean to them. They never instigated anything, and they never retaliated. I certainly never suffered anything of the sort from the kids in the "in" crowd. I guess I never put myself in the outcasts' shoes, even though I knew I was supposed to. I just hope I got most of that out of my system.

On a lighter note, I remember getting yelled at once for what I thought was a strange reason. We were having "debates" in class. The teacher had set up two desks, one for each debater. On each of the desks, she taped a cardboard sign indicating which side of the debate the desk was for. The signs were taped so that they were hanging down in front of the desk, free to swing back and forth. During one of the debates, the teacher decided to take a break for, I don't know, ten minutes or so. I didn't really have any friends to talk to, so I was just wandering around the room and I nudged one of the signs with my foot to make it swing -- just awkward fidgetting because all the other kids were socializing with each other. Before my foot was down, the teacher jumped at me and started yelling at me for showing disrespect. "Those signs are there for a reason!" she yelled. The tirade went on for quite a while as all the other kids stared. I remember that, among other things, she said she was "sick of the cynical smirk" that I always had. That was when I figured out that I wasn't on her good side.

As for periods, lockers, and stuff, my school was quite similar to higley's, except we didn't have stairs, we didn't have any kind of "team" system, and my middle school was 6th grade through 8th grade.

[TEND]

:bawling: I got into a fight with another kid and got put on probation. And it wasn't even my fault. It gave me a reputation that I carried all through Junior High. Thank God it started over a new in High School.

Haha, no kidding? I had the same thing, except in High School I was/am a lot more mature, and everyone thinks I'm a "wimp" because I never fight (with fists or otherwise) no matter how much someone insults me. But I don't get many insults to start with, so I don't mind the occasional "Why didn't you fight that guy? You're such a pussy."

Yeah, I just remember being really different than I am in my junior high years. First years when most of the guys started really paying attention to girls, so there was competition for girlfriends. I remember really enjoying meeting all the new people who went to different elementary schools, and especially all the new girls :lol:. But always trying to be as "cool" as possible, often going against my morals and better judgement. I remember embarassing myself way too many times trying to impress girls and trying to look cool or tough in front of the boys and yes, back than I would fight or at least have words with anyone that looked at me cockeyed.

One time, I really remember, was when I got in a fight with a kid in grade 9, who was twice my size, and like really into the drug scene (even when I was trying to be cool I never liked that, something to do with my Dad being a police officer I'm sure) and apparently he had a reputation (beating everyone, stabbing a kid) which I had no idea until after the fact. Anyways, he was saying stuff about some of my friends (who knew him) and they sort of backed down, and he was talking extremely crudely to some of the girls around, so me of course, thinking I'm invincible and of course being completely ignorant (it's bliss) stepped up. So we did some talking, and he pushed me and I pushed back, and we started going at it, before some parents came by and broke us up. I saw him like a year after that, and he had no idea who I was (a little too much smoke I'm sure) so I figured, he hurt himself worse than I ever could :p .

Anyways thats basically what I remember from Junior High, trying to be cool, trying to be tough, and trying to get as far with a girl as possible :lol:. Funny how absolutely none of those apply to me now, oh how we change....

[Shannanigan]

I was definitely not in the "in" crowd.

Somehow, I don't think anybody who is on a literature forum today would have been in the "in" crowd back then ;) (Of course, there are always exceptions...so I could be wrong)

[mir]

my school (i'm still in junior high, i guess) doesn't really have and "in" or "out" crowd, i guess. i have lots of friends, but it's more like two groups which sort of exist separately and there's no pressure to go join the other group if you're in the one. :) though there is plenty of intermixing. anyways, one is the stereotypical girl group, all about guys and clothes and things like that; and the other one, the group i'm in and that probably your character would be in, is just as noisy but more about school and smart stuff that actually uses a brain :p and things like that. your character sounds a bit like two of my friends - worry a lot about studying and grades and schoolwork, but still willing to have fun.

that probably helps absolutely none. but you can PM me if you want some more information . .. though my school is private, all-girls, and not very normal as schools go :p

[Pensive]

Like mir, I am still a Junior High student, studying in all-girls private school. I feel really confused when I have to comment on my school, because whenever I get good marks in school I feel as there is nothing better. Self-importance, eh. But there are a few times when I make mistakes and of course, get poor marks which make me feel as there is nothing worse than the school.

Other than studies and laughing with friends on the comments which some girls make about teachers, studies and stuff, in the break or a free lesson, we play sports sometimes and other times we go off to my cousin's class who also studies in the same school, in a senior class. And then we spend the whole break talking about the "Examination system of O-Levels" and "teachers." Or sometimes books as well! Thankfully, my cousin is also into books. :D

Personally, I think that the school plays a very/perhaps most important part in one's life and depriving someone of it is really not wise. It is a pity that many of the girls in my country can't study. I hope they will be able to do so in the future. I hope!

[TEND]

Somehow, I don't think anybody who is on a literature forum today would have been in the "in" crowd back then ;) (Of course, there are always exceptions...so I could be wrong)

I like to think that I was in the "in" crowd, at least in my junior high days, I'm still kinda "in" there, but a lot different than everybody else.

[Petrarch's Love]

I was along the lines of the "quiet, thoughtful, observant" type in Junior High, like your character Irene. Probably one thing you wouldn't think of if you hadn't been to Junior High is the importance of the lunch table dynamics, which I think, at least from talking to others about their Junior High experience, is pretty universal. Often who you sat with at lunch showed who your good friends were, and sitting with other people during lunch would bond you with them. I remember being acutely aware of this dynamic because it reflected my social life, which ran the gamut from utter loneliness to being part of a couple of fairly popular (one might almost say "in") groups during my Junior High years.

In my sixth grade year I was profoundly unhappy and dealing with very difficult personal circumstances, which meant that I had almost no friends for much of the year. People in general are not always as compassionate as they might be, but Junior High kids in particular are at an age where they're very focused on figuring things out about themselves, and not as likely as people with greater life experience to understand or show sympathy to someone who's having a hard time. In fact if anything (and I hate to say it, but it's true) some kids this age are likely to be really mean to people who seem to be showing weakness (the girl who had the locker above me, for example, used to bash my head against the lockers because it bugged her that I was "too quiet"). So, I have these memories of sitting at the far end of lunch tables alone (those tables look really long when there's all that space between you and others) and watching everyone else talking from a distance. Since I was already someone who liked to write, I usually ended up writing down my observations about them to use later in stories and poems, so it was probably really a useful experience in its way, even if not exactly fun at the time.

Toward the end of my sixth and into my seventh and eight grade years, I made a few close friends, and the way of initiating the friendships was definately over lunch. We might meet during class or something, but one of us would suggest we sit together during lunch, so that lunchtime became the important time to bond and make it a real friendship. I also remember sitting at the edge of groups of kids and kind of listening in on their conversations and slowly edging in with a few remarks of my own until I somehow became a part of their group, and I started hanging out with a couple of larger groups that way, which led to slumber parties, and T.P. expeditions, and dares and double dares etc.

I also remember the great secret importance of passing notes in class. My first "boyfriend" and I used to pass notes back and forth all the time in math class, and we made up our own personal short hand code for the more important parts in case it was intercepted by the teacher.

[SummerSolstice]

Jackpot!

Exactly, exactly, eeeeexactly. People... THAT'S my problem. My biggest problem, anyway. I've always been a "wierdo" myself, but I only recognized that by connecting with myself those adjectives that float around when people talk about "wierdos." I've got only a distant and fuzzy memory from years and years ago of what social rejection feels like. My dad's a wierdo, my brother's a wierdo, all my homeschool co-op friends were wierdos (by definition!) and my mom--well, my mom spent eight or nine years worrying that someday someone, somewhere, was going to call me... a wierdo. o_o

Classes and teachers and stuff are enough of a mystery to give me a headache about this story, but people? Whatever crud I make up about how the 'normal' kids treat Irene is just that... crud I make up. Some of the stuff I'm hearing is just borderline frightening! Isn't it amazing that kids survive childhood? Or even get through it without being completely goofed up?

The other half of the story is actually that Irene is the queen of a fantasy land that isn't at all a fantasy to her. It's sort of her private country, and I'm treating it as just as real as our world, just in a different way--kind of analogous to 'Calvin and Hobbes' where Hobbes is completely real to Calvin and the reader but not to anyone else. SO, Irene is a very, very strange girl indeed in her solemn contemplativeness... Almost Sara Crewe-like without telling anyone about her 'pretendings.'

Anyway, yeah! This is great! Keep 'em comin'!! :D

[Pensive]

I also remember the great secret importance of passing notes in class. My first "boyfriend" and I used to pass notes back and forth all the time in math class, and we made up our own personal short hand code for the more important parts in case it was intercepted by the teacher.

Heh, how crafty! :lol:

A girl in our school was caught while passing notes to another, and I don't know what was written in them, but I have heard that she was nearly expelled, but being good in Additional Maths saved her. If she would have known the idea of "codes" she might have had saved herself. :p