January 2010 • Volume 41 • Number 3 • Pages 52-53
This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents
John H. Lounsbury
Every day, millions of diverse, rapidly changing 10- to 15-year-olds make critical and complex life choices and form the attitudes, values, and dispositions that will direct their behavior as adults. They deserve an education that will enhance their healthy growth as lifelong learners, ethical and democratic citizens, and increasingly competent, self-sufficient individuals who are optimistic about the future and prepared to succeed in our ever-changing world.
This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents, p. 3
The release of This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents comes at a propitious time. Many major decisions about how public education will be organized and operated will be made in the months and years ahead as misguided "accountability by testing" reforms lose steam. It is critical for those of us committed to the education of young adolescents to embrace the vision of education set forth in This We Believe, fully understand its precepts, and proactively join discussions at the local, state, national, and international levels about the future of public education.
The efforts of National Middle School Association (NMSA) and its membership over the last four decades have been part of a larger, progressive, child-centered educational movement that is nearly a century old. During the first 50 years, this movement focused on the junior high school, while the focus in recent decades has been on creating and supporting more developmentally appropriate middle schools. This movement has been guided by NMSA's position paper, This We Believe.
Since 1982, each version of This We Believe has reflected both the maturation of the middle school concept, as it has been put into practice in thousands of schools, and the growth and development of NMSA. The newest edition is the best, current, and most forward-thinking expression of the enduring, timeless ideals that have been—and must continue to be—the driving force behind all we do to advance the education and well-being of young adolescents. Like those that preceded it, the current edition also communicates the special spirit inherent in our vision, which ignites the passion so evident in our advocacy. The middle school movement has been advanced not so much by the logic of what it advocates (although such logic certainly does exist) or by the findings of research (although research does, indeed, support our advocacy); it has been driven by the moral imperative to do what is best for young adolescents.
The chart on the opposite page provides a quick overview of This We Believe, including the four essential attributes and the 16 defining characteristics of successful middle level schools; but all of us must read, understand, and internalize the entire document. Key components of This We Believe not in the chart include a newly developed list of major goals of middle level education; a section summarizing recent research supporting This We Believe; an authoritative call to action; and, most appropriate, an extensive listing of the characteristics of young adolescents.
This We Believe chart
Middle level educators must be secure in what we believe, but we also must be able to articulate those beliefs to others. We must, then, become thoroughly familiar with this new edition of This We Believe. For some of us, studying it will renew our commitment to the high ideals of the middle school concept; for others, reading and reflecting on it will provide the knowledge and understanding we need to become committed to the cause.
The importance of middle level education can never be overestimated. The future of individuals and, indeed, that of society is largely determined by the nature of the educational experiences of young adolescents during these formative years.
This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents, p. 43
Copyright © 2010 by National Middle School Association