The American Middle School Movement: Taking the Long View

Abstract

American middle school movement is an enduring success of progressive education. United States, from its founding, has always been the scene of debate and disagreement about the concerns of a particular era. Now in the early years of the 21st century, we seem to have lost little of our disputative Media pundits remind us that this is true in many areas (e.g., religion, socioeconomic status, race, politics, social issues, foreign policy). In no area do Americans seem more divided, now and in earlier generations, than in the set of fundamental principles of how we view the world and our lives together in society. This apparent cultural chasm separating American citizens has important implications for policies and practices in all areas of social life, including education and, specifically, the middle school movement. As with so many aspects of our culture, we have inherited our divisions from elsewhere. For thousands of years of Western history, two dramatically different worldviews, largely concerned with human and the circumstances that arise as a result of that supposedly inherent nature, have captured the minds and hearts of men and women. These two contrasting ways of seeing the world are related to today's gaping divisions in the areas of politics, religion, government, education, and most particularly for our purposes, middle level education. two worldviews originate largely in two widely disparate, yet crucially important, sets of beliefs about the nature of human nature. Greeks, and all those through the ages who have held largely to one view of human or the other, have nonetheless acknowledged that human has components of both strength and weakness, the best and the worst, even, perhaps, elements of good and evil. Greeks and those who followed their philosophical lead believed, as did the framers of our Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, that human history has always and everywhere been a struggle between two contrasting elements of human Readers may be familiar with the Native American elder's tale that delightfully illustrates this struggle (Salzburg, 2011). In the story, a grandfather is imparting a life lesson to his grandson. He tells his grandson, have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, fearful, angry, greedy, and deceitful. other wolf is loving, compassionate, generous, truthful and trusting. grandson asks Grandfather, which wolf will win the fight? grandfather answers, The one I feed. In the contrasts drawn later in the article, however, it is important to acknowledge that these contrasts are in worldviews, and perhaps not in the actual, complex, of human beings. And, it should be acknowledged, many Americans today would likely be uncomfortable to see themselves characterized by the extreme elements of either perspective. Most may, though, be comfortable with the thesis that both as individuals and as societies, humans are at our best when we struggle to overcome our selfishness, greed, fear, and anger and nourish a spirit of optimism, love, cooperation, and community in our own lives and (in our case) with young adolescents. prevailing worldview Of the two worldviews, one seems to have been more widely promoted throughout the course of Western history, and this prevailing perspective represents the views of many millions of Americans today. For lack of a better term, that perspective will be identified here as the worldview. I believe most adherents of the conservative worldview, as described here, base their perspectives on a basic assertion of economics that many aspects of human life are potentially difficult and dangerous, and that these conditions have persisted throughout human history (Bardham, 2004). History, thus, in this view, is a constant struggle-one group, one tribe, one religion, one nation against another in almost perpetual conflict, struggling to secure the resources required for sustaining life free from want for its members. …