1. Theme 1 –The Importance of Belonging in Middle School In many ways, school communities are students’ second home. According to the 2014 OECD Indicators, middle school students in the United States spend an average of 180 days in schools and receive between 900 to 1,000 hours of instructional time per year. Middle School is an educational stage that serves the adolescence student population, most often, in grades six, seven and eight varying from 11 to 14 years of age. From the bus stop, to the science lab or the cafeteria, inner city’s boys and girls share their learning environment with a diverse student population. Across our multicultural urban communities, students represent a unique mosaic of races, languages, nationalities,
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Erik Erikson articulates in his comprehensive psychoanalytic theory, the psychosocial developmental human stages. Adolescents’ psychosocial crisis is characterized by two conflicting forces, identity and confusion. During this stage, adolescents are transitioning from childhood to adulthood and mixed ideas about their new role, or identity, in their environment develops. Likewise, middle schoolers experience confusion about their emerging responsibilities, directions and how they will belong in society (Gross, 1987). In “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation”, professors Roy F. Baumeister and Mark R. Leary explain that “human beings have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships”. Additionally, they share in their study that “Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes”. In contrast, “lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and …show more content…
In 2010, the National Middle School Association emphasized the significance of fostering high quality school-based interpersonal relations for young adolescents (10- to 15-year-olds) as a critical component of a developmentally responsive middle school environment. Students’ sense of school belonging is closely related to the school-based interpersonal relationships, including teacher-student and student-student relationships (Nichols,
Erik Erikson articulates in his comprehensive psychoanalytic theory, the psychosocial developmental human stages. Adolescents’ psychosocial crisis is characterized by two conflicting forces, identity and confusion. During this stage, adolescents are transitioning from childhood to adulthood and mixed ideas about their new role, or identity, in their environment develops. Likewise, middle schoolers experience confusion about their emerging responsibilities, directions and how they will belong in society (Gross, 1987). In “The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation”, professors Roy F. Baumeister and Mark R. Leary explain that “human beings have a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships”. Additionally, they share in their study that “Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes”. In contrast, “lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and …show more content…
In 2010, the National Middle School Association emphasized the significance of fostering high quality school-based interpersonal relations for young adolescents (10- to 15-year-olds) as a critical component of a developmentally responsive middle school environment. Students’ sense of school belonging is closely related to the school-based interpersonal relationships, including teacher-student and student-student relationships (Nichols,