"Ask her yourself."

"No, you ask her. She's your mom."

I was working in the kitchen when I heard the raised voices from the group of six junior high boys who had been talking in our family room. Sensing that there was a problem, I walked in and sat down with them, asking what was going on.

Joey began the explanation. "We were talking about George. You know, he's the kid who was killed in the accident last week." George was from another town and I hadn't known him, but they had told me about the accident earlier. "What we want to know is this. Is George in heaven or in hell now? And if he's in hell it must be God's fault."

I tried not to show how shocked I felt because I knew they were very serious in their concern. "You'll have to explain your reasoning to me before I can answer."

The boys were uneasy but finally my son, Bill, said, "We don't think you know how bad George really was. He was nice to his parents and then did exactly the opposite of what they said. He swore a lot when there weren't any parents around."

"He was even worse than us, Mrs. Stronks," said Jerry. For some reason, that remark gave me very little comfort. "We think he was too bad to go to heaven. And if he didn't, we think it was God's fault."

"You'll have to explain that to me."

"Well, you know lots of boys our age get into some kind of trouble. But then they grow up and just before they get married they make profession of faith. And after that they have children and pretty soon they become deacons and then elders in church. It will happen to us, too. And it would have happened to George, if God had let him live long enough. But God let him die now before he was old enough to change. That's why we think it's God's fault."

Conversations like this are what make living and working with middle grade students

interesting and challenging. There has been more information published on adolescent thought in the past decade than in the six previous decades combined (Santrock, 1987). In spite of that, we continue to think of the early adolescent as headed toward a period when he or she will likely be rebellious, deviant, and full of problems.

The majority of adolescents do not follow the pattern of the deviant minority suggested by negative stereotypes. Adelson (1979) points out that we have what he calls a "generalization gap," meaning that our beliefs about students in middle school and high school are based on generalizations rather than on carefully conducted research. What we need is information about the needs of this age group in order to understand the implications for curriculum and instruction. We will begin with a description of the transescent person.

Transescence refers to the period in human development prior to the onset of puberty and continuing through the early stages of adolescence. This typically includes the ages from ten to fourteen.

There is an old saying that there is nothing more unequal than equal treatment of unequals. Transescent students display a broader range of physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics than do students at any other level of schooling.

Physically, individuals in these ages have rapid but irregular growth and appear to be especially clumsy and awkward. Such rapid growth may cause body movements to become awkward. The growth may even be painful and sitting for long periods of time is more difficult for students at these ages than at other times of life. They quickly become restless and need opportunities for movement. Rapid growth also may cause tiredness and a decrease in endurance. Yet, at a time when their bodies are growing rapidly and they are most in need of good nutrition, these young people make notoriously poor nutritional choices.

Different parts of the body grow at different rates. The hands and feet grow faster than the arms and legs. Many boys demonstrate with pride that they are able to pick up a basketball with one hand but recognize that their penmanship isn't as neat as it was in earlier years. They need to be taught how to write with these larger, thicker hands.

Growth spurts are different for boys than for girls. While girls normally have growth spurts between the ages of eleven and thirteen, the growth spurts of boys normally do not occur until sometime between the ages

of thirteen and fifteen. This difference may cause problems in relationships between students.

Records indicate that biologically today's early adolescents are approximately two years ahead of the young people for whom the first junior high schools were established (Santrock, 1987). The average age for the onset of puberty in North America is presently twelve years. Socially, we consider today's adolescents to be younger than their grandparents were at this age and yet the early onset of puberty requires that they take responsibility for their sexual behavior at a much younger age than was required of earlier generations. Along with this early physical maturation, students are overly conscious of their physical appearance.

Emotionally, transescents are impulsive; they crave acceptance and approval by peers; and they resent authority. Students at this age adopt an air of pseudo-sophistication in order to cover up their worries, doubts, and feelings of uncertainty. They long for independence but are uncertain how to handle responsibility when they get it. They may appear rebellious toward adults and oblivious of adult criticism, but they feel hurt because they believe that adults cannot understand them. They appear to think that their parents aren't very bright and their lives are almost over, but they look to their parents and teachers as models for their own lives.

At a time when they seem insensitive and inconsiderate of others they also are compassionate and determined to save the world. They demand fairness and consistent values in others but often make no such demands on themselves. They seek attention, sometimes inappropriately, and yet do not want to stand out in the crowd. They rapidly move from one mood to another and display strong emotions for each mood swing.

They struggle for independence from their parents, but at the same time they look back longingly to parental values. Research shows that, although young people appear to be more highly influenced by their peers, parents are really the strongest influence. It is true that divorce and separation have touched many homes. It is also true that in many homes both parents are employed and are struggling with conflicting responsibilities to job, community, church, and family. In spite of the fact that these situations occur, it is still true that the majority of young adolescents feel good about their parents and enjoy spending time with them. However, it is also true that the shift back and forth in loyalty between peers and family often causes conflict both within themselves and in their relation-ships with their family (Benson, Williams, & Johnson, 1987).

Along with a desire for more independence is the desire to interact as much as possible with the peer group. These young people want to belong to a group and to conform to the values of the group, often emphasizing group loyalty to the point of cruelty to others. The peer group has an important influence on the life of the middle school student. It is from the peer group that the individual student receives feedback concerning his or her worth, abilities, and behavior. Middle school students appear to judge themselves and estimate their own value in ways that are in keeping with how they compare with their peers.

Bronfenbrenner argues that children in North America are more strongly influenced by peer pressure than are children in other cultures (Bronfenbrenner, 1970). If that is true, perhaps there are ways of educating within our own culture so that middle school student will be more ready to withstand the pressure of peers when it leads in an unproductive direction. Devereaux (1970) found that Russian children are more likely than American children to resist peer pressure when such pressure conflicts with the norms set by their parents and other adults who are important in their lives. Santrock explains it this way:

Something similar takes place in Japanese schools. The point is not that we want to embrace the pattern of the Russians or Japanese. However, there may be valuable lessons we can learn from their patterns of instruction.

It is important for us to create a school environment that will help our young people respond to their peers in ways that are in keep with learning responsible discipleship. In recent years programs have been designed by some schools to reduce the age segregation of adolescents by arranging interaction with younger children through cross-age tutoring and with older persons through community service projects. The compassion learned in such settings often carries over into the interaction with the peer group.

Intellectually, transescents are inquisitive and curious. Piaget, in providing a conceptual framework for intellectual development, discussed late childhood and early adolescence as the beginning of the ability to do formal operations. Piaget pointed out that among individuals at this stage there is an increase in the ability to reason, to generalize, and to make deductions. However, more recent research shows that for many individuals in the United States, this ability does not come until much later in adolescence (Toepfer, 1979). Recent studies have shown that over 75% of middle level students display concrete rather than abstract reasoning abilities.

This does not mean that abstract reasoning cannot come earlier, but the ability to reason apparently does not appear as early as was formerly thought. Instead, in early adolescence there is more likely to be a consolidation of concrete operational thought. However, some transescents are moving toward the ability to draw conclusions from fewer and fewer concrete facts and are becoming more able to solve abstract problems.

Early adolescents begin to conjure up imaginary situations or hypothetical events and will try to reason logically about them. As young people move into this type of reasoning, they sometimes identify the inconsistencies of their parents and teachers or of the teaching they receive. The thoughtful parent or teacher will need to be patient and receptive to such thinking and will carefully provide a perspective on the situation, even when the questions and the explanations are painful. Parents and teachers will need to learn to focus more on the thinking process than on the content of statements made by these young people.

Research shows that students at this age are beginning to take the perspective of another person, an ability which must be present if students are to learn to think critically. They need to discuss ideas with adults who are willing to look at several sides of a question without making a hasty judgment.

Research consistently suggests that students in this age group must see a purpose in what they are asked to learn and tend to learn more easily when they are actively involved in learning. The instructional strategies used in their classrooms must reflect awareness of this need.

Toepfer suggests that the learning difficulties of some middle school students may be caused by the large degree of overchallenge to learners not ready for formal operations thinking. Researchers have shown that 20% of students who functioned at the B level or in grades one through five turn away from academic matters and flounder in grades six, seven, and eight. Of this number, 75% never again achieve at their previous academic level. This phenomenon occurs more frequently in students who are considered to be gifted than in other students.

The increase in emotional illnesses and frustration with academic work in the junior and senior high school age group may be intensified by placing transescent learners in situations requiring advanced thinking skills which they do not have. Toepfer observes that teachers continue to assume that youngsters of normal or superior ability can be manipulated into learning new thinking skills and facts, and he suggests that a focus of middle grade educators must be upon prevention of the "turn-off' that occurs by overchallenge (Toepfer, 1979).

On the other hand, when schools are determined to use only group-paced instruction, there is a likelihood of "teaching to the lowest common denominator." This kind of teaching allows the group to move only at the pace of the slower learners in the group. In some situations the more gifted students may tune out completely rather than having to endure instruction that is inappropriate for them. What is needed is an environment in which academically gifted students may learn to develop their gifts but also may learn to take responsibility for helping those who are not so gifted.

The goals and objectives of the middle school level need to be broader than those of the elementary or the high school. In addition to working toward skill development and continuing the learnings of the basic subject areas, middle school must provide new experiences to help students identify their Interest areas and aptitudes.

Vygotsky viewed intellectual development as an unbroken process of self-activity which moves from stage to stage, always characterized by the appearance of new abilities which were not present at previous levels. This development does not simply happen because of what is going on inside of the child. Rather, it is a result of the child's interactions with other people and events in the environment as he or she moves through the various stages of growth.

Vygotsky identified what he called crisis stages and stable stages and said that movement through these stages can happen sharply and critically or gradually (Zender & Zender, 1974). The crisis period emerges almost unnoticeably, according to Vygotsky, but builds, until there are sharp displacements and confusion marked by changes in the personality of the child exhibited by impetuous, stormy behavior. The crisis stage then flows into a relatively steady and stable period in which the new personality traits, which have been developing, come to light.

Vygotsky noted that an important trait of the crisis periods is that they are often marked by the appearance of problems in school. Students who have followed a normal path in school suddenly seem to show a decrease in academic achievement, a loss of interest in school activities, and conflict with peers.

While it is true that one does not find these patterns in every child because the critical periods unfold in a variety of ways, it is also important that we look carefully at the ages when these crisis stages occur. The crisis between the second and third birthdays is often marked by stubborn, obstinate, capricious, selfish behavior. The crisis of the seven-year-old often is recognized by a display of an imperious will and uncivil mood. And the crisis of the thirteen-year-old, according to Vygotsky, is characterized by a loss of old interests, conflicting personality moods, and a decline in academic achievement.

Some neuroscientists explain the patterns of behavior during the crisis and stable periods by tying them with brain growth spurts. Brain growth spurts are said to occur between the ages of two to four, six to eight, ten to twelve, and fourteen to sixteen. During these periods of growth, axons and dendrites lengthen and branch so that new neural networks increase dramatically. The instructional environment of the individual takes on a new meaning because the individual Is qualitatively more capable of absorbing new kinds of intellectual inputs (Epstein, 1974).

During the period between the peak growths there are troughs or periods of slow brain growth. These slow growth periods occur between the ages of four to six, eight to ten, and twelve to fourteen. Apparently it is during these trough periods that the new competencies have a chance to develop and mature.

Epstein suggests that during the twelve to fourteen age period, instruction should be characterized far more by increments in already initiated skills then in the acquisition of new intellectual skills. This does not mean that the expected achievement levels of students at this age would be lowered. Rather, the curriculum should be altered in keeping with the way students at this age learn which means that we must include a much larger component of experience and practice of skills, relating the practice of these skills to the world around the student.

Knowledge about brain growth development is still in its infancy and it would be unwise to base curriculum changes solely on preliminary conclusions. However, four decades of work by stage theorists have provided us with a wealth of information concerning observable learning changes in middle school children, and if ignore that information in planning curriculum, we do so at the expense of the young people we are trying to educate.

How does faith develop in the transescent? The question is a frightening one, but it is very important for those of us who are in the business of educating for faith development-in the Christian school, or in the church, or at home as parents.

We believe that faith is a gift. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts and makes it possible for us to have faith. In a real sense, faith something we can have, and it must originate with God. But faith also is something we must do. All through Hebrews 11 we read of people who are commended for living their faith. And the book of James is full of the idea that people do things as a result of faith.

Just as other aspects of the human being grow and develop mature, so does faith grow and develop and mature. We need to examine the pattern of faith development if we are to understand how to educate young people in ways that will enhance their spiritual growth.

As in other areas of development, at the middle school level faith is strengthened and developed by the active involvement of students in acts of faith. At this level they need more than anything else to feel that they belong to a group of believers and that their active participation can make a contribution to the life of that community of believers. While the teachings of faith are important to the development of a middle level student, their own faith will be strengthened most by activities which are the result of that faith. At school, activities promoting servanthood in the classroom, on the playground, or in the community will provide opportunities for growth. Coming to have deeper, more mature faith in Jesus Christ means involving the whole self in that faith. And that means using more than just the intellect.

Two twelve-year-old boys each spend an hour alone with an examiner taking an intelligence test. They answer many questions (What does "nonsense" mean? How many inches are there in three feet?). They manipulate blocks to form specific shapes. They describe what is funny about pictures. At the end of the hour the examiner spends some time calculating scores and then comes up with a number for each of them. The number is their I.Q.

Howard Gardner (1983) says that such a way of measuring and describing an individual's intelligence is inappropriate. He believes intelligence is quite different from the ability to answer questions correctly on a test. Intelligence, according to Gardner, includes the ability to solve problems or to make products that are important in one or more cultural settings.

Gardner believes there are at least seven different kinds of intelligence. Every normal person possesses varying degrees of each of these intelligences, but they are combined and blended differently in each person. We know of linguistic intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily kinesthetic intelligence, logical -mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal Intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence.

We used to think that adult roles depended largely on the flowering of a single one of these intelligences. It is more likely that competence in the adult world requires a combination of intelligences, although one or two may be stronger than the others. When a person is highly endowed with the abilities and skills of one intelligence we say he or she is "at power" in that area. Others who are more likely to fail tasks involving that intelligence are said to be "at risk" in that area.

If it is true that people have highly individualized combinations of intelligences, then it must also be true that they learn in highly individualized ways. Perhaps what we have come to call "learning styles" has something to do with the blend of intelligences of different students. At the middle school level, traditional classroom procedures rely heavily on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences, and knowledge in all areas is filtered and expressed through these intelligences.

It is important for teachers to keep in mind other types of abilities and talents. Students with high degrees of spatial intelligence will understand history better through art, architecture, and geography. Students with high interpersonal intelligences will understand history better through biographies and dramatic reenactments. When it comes to notetaking, students with high spatial intelligence respond to mapping of the material while students with high logical-mathematical intelligence will respond to the hierarchy of the traditional outline. Gardner has gone on to describe what a school would look like if instruction were carried out in keeping with multiple intelligence theory (Blythe and Gardner, 1990). It may not be necessary or wise for school planners to follow his example. However, what is necessary is that the schools arrange opportunities for middle students to explore many different areas of life in ways that allow them to come to know their own gifts and abilities. Traditional subjects taught in a variety of ways should address the varied intelligences of students and make use of the varied abilities of the teachers. Exploratory courses using many kinds of learning activities should do the same. Assessment should be in a variety of ways and should, as much as possible, take place in the context of a variety of projects.

Transescents are unique in the way they view themselves in world. David Elkind (1978) has described two types of thinking that are part of the unique egocentrism found in the early adolescent. Elkind says that the "imaginary audience" and the "personal fable" always underlie egocentric thought at the emergence of formal operations. The imaginary audience is the belief that others are all paying as much attention to the adolescent's actions as he or she. This imaginary audience may be the reason for attention-getting behavior, so common in early adolescence, or for the conviction on the part of the eighth grader that all eyes in the classroom are riveted on his or her complexion. It is this imaginary audience that makes it so difficult for the student at this age to enter a cafeteria alone or to walk through the library. There is safety in moving in groups because then the imaginary audience will be watching the group instead of the individual.

The "personal fable" refers to the adolescent's sense of personal uniqueness, which suggests to the adolescent that no one, particularly not any parent or teacher, has ever felt quite the way he or she does. Along with that goes the conviction of invincibility, a particularly dangerous attitude in a world of drugs, AIDS, and teenage pregnancies. Elkind does not imply that either of these views must be a part of early adolescent thought. It is, perhaps, possible for students at this age to learn to see the world differently, but we must instruct them in ways that will help them do so.

Berenboim's research (1985) suggests that the personality of the early adolescent seems to consist of several elements that were absent during the early elementary years.

These factors work together to determine personality, and it is because of this new way of thinking that students are learning to be capable of less irrational thought. They need to be instructed in ways that will help them become more critical of the first ideas that occur to them on any topic. Although these complex ways of thinking about self and others do not usually appear until early adolescence, the discerning teacher will recognize that students do not always use their ability to think in these ways. Instruction for these students must be arranged in such a way as to encourage the most advanced thinking of which they are capable in order to move them forward.