I miss teaching middle schoolers. They arrived with useful future ideas. They also arrived with cliches and an openness to finding a bosom buddy; meanness and unchecked kindness; sloppy habits and meticulous order; cheating and almost severe honesty; and cruel, dismissive name calling. I once walked into class as they were making fun of a special needs boy who had died suddenly.

I sobbed, “He was my student in seventh grade and I never heard him say one mean thing. If you can say that about me when I die, that would be enough.”

The students heard me that day. Most were sorry, ready to move out of the immaturity of the middle school child.

What could I say that would help my amazing country move on from middle school immaturity?

Aurelie Bald
South Portland