Fixing middle schools?

The New York Times has an in-depth article on what New York State is trying to do with its middle schools.

The ideas are many.

One is to lower student-teacher ratio. Hmm, maybe Texas needs to extend the 22-1 rule higher up the grade ladder.

Another is that laptops are good … to address middle-schoolers’ fidgeting. Well, can’t we find a less expensive way?

Yet another is the “small community” or “classroom within a classroom” system. That’s already being tried locally, in Duncanville. However, results are mixed at best, as one middle school principal in New York City already knows.

At Seth Low — also known as I.S. 96 — in the Bensonhurst neighborhood, Mr. Fein is skeptical of the rush for quick answers.
“Nobody’s ever come down and said, ‘This works,’ ” he said, speaking amid an office cluttered with John Lennon memorabilia, congratulatory plaques and student work like a glittery card reading “Mr. Fine, He So Fine.”

Maybe the middle school problems are due in part to the artificial hormones in our beef and other meats, especially in combination with the hormone mimicking qualities of some plastics that wrap our foods and bottle our drinks.

Is a change in home life also possible?

I have no doubt that the rampant advance of the computer and video game age has something to do with this.

Oh, well, the cynical part of my says that as long as they work well enough to pay my Social Security …