Education reformers often invoke the possibility of abandoning the middle-school concept and returning to the K-8 elementary school format. But what might schools, adolescents, and indeed futurists lose?
There are striking similarities between the middle-school model and what futurists have outlined as characteristics necessary for an education that prepares young people for the future. Futurists and middle-school educators share similar worldviews, goals, and ideals, with high regard for the following qualities and values.
• Humanism. A humanistic approach is common to both middle-school educators and futurists. Futurists have a deep-seated positive regard for the nature and potential of humanity. A central premise of the futures movement is the belief that people have the capacity to shape the future.
In a similar fashion, middle-school educators strive to maximize the development of the human potential. Middle-school educators recognize that their student population is emerging and developing in an ever-changing world. The result is a very dynamic, future-looking curriculum model.
Middle-school educators strive to understand the nature, characteristics, and needs of their students. They take the time to get to know their students as individuals as well as clients and demonstrate concern for students’ general well-being by actively encouraging them to develop healthy lifestyles that will have life-long benefits.
• Pragmatism. Middle-school educators and futurists both tend to be forward-looking, dynamic, and pragmatic. All futurists have a serious interest in what will happen in years to come. They view education as a continual, lifelong process.
Middle-school educators also recognize the dynamic nature of society and strive to meet the needs of their ever-changing student population. Middle-school teachers see themselves as facilitators and encourage their students to actively participate in the learning process. The best middle schools have students who are active learners employing higher-order thinking skills to resolve long-term issues.
Futurists and middle-school teachers generally have a pragmatic rather than ideological approach to life. Futurists want to know what will work in terms of improving the human condition over the long term. Middle-school teachers view curriculum development as a dynamic rather than static process. Both futurists and middle-school educators put their faith in strategies that work.
• Comfort with change. Middle-school educators and futurists are also similar in their approach to the change process. As a group, futurists are more willing than most to change their minds and adopt new positions. They are hospitable to social experiments and innovations. Middle-school educators are also comfortable with change.
Middle schools focus on developing a curriculum that meets the needs of the emerging adolescent population, which means recognizing the dynamic nature of society and of adolescence. As futurists know, an essential part of dealing with change is the ability to operate in the realm of the unknown.
• Interest in exploring the unknown. Futurists have long accepted the idea that absolute answers are not available for every question. Success requires a proactive approach, an interest in long-term issues, and the ability to work on problems for which no definitive answers are available.
In similar fashion, the best middle-school programs include a healthy dose of problem solving. Interdisciplinary team activities often include large and small group problem-solving exercises that feature questions for which there are no final or “correct” answers.
• Affinity for interdisciplinary thinking and work. Futurists have long employed a cross-disciplinary model. Middle-school educators have also long recognized the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum. The most effective middle schools acknowledge the relationships between and among the subject areas and favor an interdisciplinary approach to learning.
• Ability to thrive in collaboration. Collaborative interaction in the form of team teaching, team learning, or cooperative learning is very much a part both the middle school and futurist paradigms. As a part of their cross-disciplinary approach, futurists have always operated from a global or universal, rather than local or nationalistic, perspective.
For many of the same reasons, middle-school educators have favored a collaborative approach to problem solving, and they generally work well with others in group situations. Like futurists, middle-school educators favor a holistic approach to the broad-ranging array of issues that face them.
The futurist movement and the middle-school model clearly share numerous similarities in purpose and strategies, and in many ways the middle-school model fills the needs for education that are most often identified by futurists, including:
• Clear thinking, evaluation, and analysis. These skills are not only concerned with the student’s ability to learn cognitive material, but also with the ability to analyze and evaluate information. Middle-school curriculums focus on clear thinking skills that lead to creative solutions to complex problems.
• Understanding the environment. Many excellent interdisciplinary middle-school team projects are centered on science programs that emphasize future ecological needs. Students are actively involved in projects that protect the environment, conserve energy, and recycle resources.
• Accessing information and solving for the unknown. Information access and problem solving have long been a part of the middle-school interdisciplinary curriculum. Through team teaching and cooperative learning activities, middle-school teams have been leaders in the area of creative problem solving. Often these team activities are centered on open-ended questions that do not lend themselves to a single correct answer, but rather have several correct possibilities.
• Personal competence through lifelong learning. Middle schools are unique among educational institutions in that they were created for a specific philosophical purpose, which is to meet the developmental needs of their student population.
A central part of this philosophy is the recognition of the dynamic nature of the educational mission. Not only are middle-school students involved in the developmental transition from childhood to adulthood, but they now are also doing so at a time when the world around them is undergoing the most rapid rate of change in human history. Better than any other current educational model, the middle-school curriculum addresses this essential need.
• Social diversity and global citizenship. The last skill identified by those writing about the curricular needs of the future is the need for understanding the role of the individual and society, the importance of social diversity, and the responsibilities associated with global citizenship.
Here also, the middle-school curriculum strives to address these issues. Students who work closely with each other and with their teachers in team teaching and cooperative learning activities have an opportunity to interact on a level that can greatly enhance their understanding of both social diversity and the relationship between the individual and society. Middle-school activities such as the advisory program provide excellent opportunities for students to discuss and explore diversity and global citizenship issues and determine their related responsibilities in the world of the future.
It is fair to say that the middle school not only goes a long way toward meeting the educational needs outlined by futurists, but also has the potential to continue to meet developing future needs. While futurists may be correct in their concern for the overall educational picture, they should be careful not to overlook the ability of the middle school to address important needs.
Both futurists and middle-school educators are striving to face the challenges of the future in very similar ways. It would be tragic to abandon an educational model that has the greatest chance of succeeding.
John Lundt, EdD, worked for 35 years in the middle-school area as a teacher, principal, and university professor. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Montana. E-mail johninmt@centric.net.