A big part of growing up is having more responsibility. As children, we do not have many responsibilities, most of them revolving around having fun, and focusing on growing and learning. In terms of school, we start out with the responsibilities such as being a good friend, following rules, and learning how to read and write.

Eventually, teachers expect students to take their learning in their own hands by completing homework, making time to study for tests, and they are responsible for handing in assignments. This phenomenon happens most around big transitions (elementary to middle; middle to high school; high school to post-secondary). Upon starting a new school, teachers inform their students that the expectations are different (and not to mention more expectations) from the previous school. For many students this extra work of more responsibility (e.g. more hours of homework, part-time jobs, planning for their futures, study for life-altering final exams) is an extremely difficult task, and academics tend to fall (Anderman, 1997). Students who are considered to be “at-risk” have even more difficulty making a successful transition between elementary and high school (Anderman, 1997).

Finally, parent involvement also decreases during the transition period because parents tend to believe that their children are now responsible enough to take their learning in their own hands, when it is the exact opposite, at least for the transition period between elementary and high school (Mac Iver, 2015). It is an easy assumption to make that because they are older students do not need as much support. This would be the case if we were expecting them to do the same work however; this is not the case, as the expectations only get higher as they move through high school. In the words of Frederick Douglass: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” It will be easier to give students strong foundational skills that they can build on. These skills will not only happen in the classroom of the elementary grades, but during the transition stages between elementary and middle school.

Sources:

Anderman, E. M., & Midgley, C. (1997). Changes in achievement goal orientations, perceived academic competences, and grades across the transition to middle-level schools. Contemporary Educational Psychology , 22, 269-298.

Abele Mac Iver, M., Epstein, J. L., Sheldon, S. B., & Fonseca, E. (2015). Engaging families to support students’ trantion to high school: evidence from the field. The High School Journal , 99 (1), 27-45.