My Middle School Manual

You know them.

We all do.

They are the ones we hear in a much too near booth at the fast food restaurant, talking, laughing, eating so loudly they complicate our digestion.  They are the ones who cause us to hurry to new seats in a movie theater just as the theater goes dark.  They are the ones we brake for as they skateboard past us down a steep hill and through a busy traffic intersection.  They are the ones playing comfortably with toy cars at one moment and dreaming of real ones at the next.  They are the ones most shocking to us as they try out the extremes of fashion.  They are middle schoolers.  

So opens The Middle School Handbook Second Edition by Harry Finks and Mark Stanek - a revision of the original 1990 handbook that guided me in my work as a middle school educator.  It often provided me the much-needed global credibility as I guided, supported, and encouraged middle school students and their parents.  

Here are some of the topics discussed in the book:

• What Grades Belong in Middle School?
  
• Gender Issues
  
• Competition
  
• Middle School Educators' Principles of Good Practice
  
• Middle School Parent
  
• The Digital Age
  
• Transitions To and From Middle School