►1: Social Issues in the Middle School Curriculum: Retrospect and Prospect

The year is 1910. The country is struggling with the meaning of democracy. Waves of immigrants are arriving to carry out the labor of emerging industrialism. Literary “muckrakers” scream out at deplorable working conditions. Debate over child labor laws is in full swing. A new class of industrial wealth is rapidly emerging. Urban centers teem with cultural diversity. Cultural bias and racism are widespread. And in Berkeley, California, and in Columbus, Ohio, a new kind of school is established. It is called a junior high school.

The lack of fanfare over these new schools is not surprising though they are the culmination of two decades of debate over the education of young adolescents. Many educators had concluded that the final years of the K–8 elementary schools were inappropriate for these young people who were no longer children. Nearly two-thirds dropped out of school by the end of eighth grade. Meanwhile, leaders in higher education, such as Charles Eliot of Harvard University, were concerned over the “advanced” age (roughly age 18) of those entering college. Moreover, growing enrollment in elementary schools was causing severe overcrowding.