A New Sixth Grader's View on Middle School by Helen W.

My new school, Sanborn, is very flat, compared to Thoreau, where I went to elementary school. I’m used to lots of stairs and elevators, and seeing all the little kids file by and ask their teachers, “How long until I get to be in chorus?” It’s going to be interesting, being the little kid again, and asking, “When do I get to go to DC?” but it’s not like elementary school, where you haven’t been in real school before and you don’t know anyone yet.

There are lots of new people to meet in middle school, and you still have some of your friends from 5^th grade at the same school as you. You also get to take new classes, like World Languages, and band, which I will be taking next year, is more serious than in elementary school. My mom and I just went shopping for binders and such, and it’s kind of disturbing how much stuff you need for middle school! The thing that drives me crazy is that the busses come an hour earlier. Also, in elementary school, I was almost the last stop, but this year, I’m somewhere in the middle and therefore I have to get up earlier.

I didn’t really like the summer reading book for 6^th graders, Journey to Jo’burg. It was very fast-moving, so one chapter the characters are walking on the road to Jo’burg and the next, they’re riding on a bus in the city itself. I think it would have been considerably better if the author had added maybe 100 pages to it or if they gave it some more detail, like having something happen kind of like the orange farm happen before they get picked up by the truck, and then, maybe they could participate in a protest march or something? It would make it a lot more interesting and fun to read! I don’t get why the schools picked this book to be the book that everyone has to read. It’s out of print, and so very hard to get a hold of. I talked to a librarian at the Fowler library when I was trying to get hold of a copy, and she said that all the copies in the Minuteman Library network were all checked out, and since it’s and out of print book you’d probably have more trouble trying to buy it.

All in all, I’m really looking forward to middle school! I can’t wait to go and try everything that you couldn’t do in elementary school!