The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [118]
On the first day of biology, Laura, a Californian, made the egregious mistake of sitting next to Brittany, whose best friend, Dana, was the most popular girl in the seventh grade. Brittany and Dana ridiculed Laura, and persuaded other popular kids to join in. They made fun of her red hair, her parents, and her clothes. When she wore a sweater with a fake-fur collar, they called her an animal killer. When she explained the fur was fake, they mocked her for wearing a cheap sweater. They wrote notes with expletives on blackboards and signed Laura’s name. As Laura tried to erase a note, Dana shoved her to the floor. Brittany called her a loser. Laura couldn’t talk to the teacher; Dana was the teacher’s pet.
Dana and her friends continued to torment Laura daily. Laura’s grades dropped and she became depressed. Dana’s boyfriend shot staples into her ear. When Laura stood up, the substitute biology teacher told her she had something on her back. As Laura pulled off the KICK ME HARD sign, the class laughed and pointed. Laura tried not to let them see her cry. The substitute did nothing. Even after Laura talked to administrators and switched to another class, she remained a pariah. Laura’s social life didn’t begin to improve until high school.
Middle school has the potential to shake up a kid’s world, thanks to external and internal factors hurtling toward each other that happen to collide in approximately seventh grade. Externally, the transition from elementary school to middle or junior high school brings many changes, whether it begins in sixth or seventh grade. Elementary school children typically stay in one classroom, or travel the hallways in a teacher-led line. Except for lunch and recess, they regularly interact with the same group of classmates and within the confines of a room under adult supervision. By the end of elementary school, their social circles have been established.
Then middle school splices those circles. Middle schools begin to divide students by academic performance, separating them into tracks in various rooms with various teachers. Students have to be more responsible for themselves. Middle schools might sponsor afterschool social events, such as sports, concerts, and dances, which heighten the emphasis on having something fun to do and someone to do it with.
All of these changes would be scary enough. But perhaps the most powerful adjustment in the middle school setting is the shift from socializing during classes to socializing between them. Students are no longer anchored in one consistent classroom, which may lead them to seek that consistency in a friend group. Because they have to navigate hallways several times a day, many of their most important interactions outside of the cafeteria occur in crowded, unsupervised territories. These are the easiest areas in which students can get away with being cruel; it was in the hallways that students bullied Eli.
The middle school social scene accentuates the insecurity and confusion that students are experiencing internally. As preadolescents are thrown into this larger, complicated social pool, their cognitive abilities haven’t yet caught up to their environment. They react to certain situations with a different part of the brain than do adults, which leads to more frequent emotional gut reactions.
One of the major cognitive changes at this age is that students frequently reflect about themselves and absorb other people’s perspectives. The problem is, they don’t yet have the ability to organize these thoughts properly. At the same time, peer influence peaks from age eleven to thirteen. Middle schoolers are more likely to ask, “Where do I belong?” than “Who am I?” Their identity is so collective that one psychologist called it a “wego” instead of an ego. Students often don’t recognize that in trying to form an identity independent of their families, they end up shaping