High School Readiness V. High School Independence

What's the Difference?

BY LAURA SPAULDING Staff Writer / Consultant

It’s common knowledge that middle school is a complicated time in every child’s life- the beginning of their journey from childhood to adulthood. The difference in High School readiness and High School independence is most apparent when considering how we help a child prepare for a family vacation versus assisting them to prepare for a solo travel adventure. While the basics of what needs to be packed in a middle schooler’s “suitcase” are much the same as they were in elementary school, how the suitcases are organized, how directly involved they are in the packing process, and what travel tools and tips they need to independently navigate the road ahead are as varied as each young adolescent traveler. 

Building Independence in Middle School

The goal of middle school should not be to prepare students for departure so they can move on through the system and eventually get a diploma. The goal is to prepare them to independently organize, analyze, think, relate, and problem-solve to navigate the journey ahead. 

Academics represent the basics of what gets packed in all the suitcases. Ensuring a student's knowledge of core subjects, including math, science, history, and language arts, meets or exceeds grade-level expectations is a given. However, it is possible to have mastered all the academic skills necessary for high school without having the executive functioning, social-emotional, or study skills needed for independent success. So, what is different about The Joy School’s model for middle school, and what does it look like to practically change our focus from high school readiness to high school independence? 

1. Independence must be built, and building is a deliberate process that takes time. Sometime between birth and five years old, there is a slow transition away from being utterly dependent on a parent for survival. A similar transition happens between elementary and high school, where students go from being heavily reliant on a teacher and well-defined classroom structure to being able to manage multiple teachers, class expectations, due dates, and social relationships with limited adult supervision and support. Middle school is the magical place where this transition happens. We cannot expect kids to suddenly become independent just because they’ve reached a certain age. As tempting as it is to either do too much or too little for the adolescents in our lives who are reorganizing their suitcases, we must take the extra time, effort, energy, and emotion to provide as much support and space as needed to equip them for independence for the journey ahead.

2. Independence looks different for everyone, especially in adolescence. Not only is every child unique in their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and passions, but growth spurts and puberty hit at different rates and times. As adolescents continue to grow, so does their ability to think more abstractly and analytically. It is essential to meet each child where they are developmentally and to directly teach them to interpret and apply deeper meaning, exploration, and application to academic material. Offering more than good grades, test scores, and high-school “readiness” as motivation for learning, sets up middle schoolers for success far beyond a high school classroom.

3. Independence is heavily reliant on executive functioning skills. All students must be exposed to various study skills and executive functioning strategies to help them succeed in learning and life. These include note-taking, study guides, research skills, and time management. Assistive technologies and other learning tools should be individually matched to each student’s needs, enabling them to grow in self-awareness and self-advocacy skills as they progress toward high school readiness and learning independence.

4. Independence grows in the company of both success and failure. Allowing adolescents permission to be whole people with both strengths and weaknesses helps them to have a healthy view of themselves. Directly teaching them self-awareness and self-advocacy skills enables them to know what they need to be successful and how to ask for it. Offering them opportunities to explore their interests and passions beyond academics and providing leadership and places to belong outside of the classroom allows multiple arenas for them to figure out what lights them up or stresses them out. The final stage of middle school must include more rigor, less guidance, and opportunities to fail to ensure students are ready for high school independence. 

For more information on preparing your middle school child for high school independence, schedule a tour.