When was middle school invented? When I went to school, elementary was grade 1-6

[raccoon]

(this was so long ago we didn't have kindergarten), then junior high (gr. 7-8), then high school (gr. 9-12).

[Iggo]

1. Middle School is Junior High.

I don't remember ever hearing "Middle School" when I was growing up, though (SoCal, 60's and 70's).

I just assumed it was a regional thing, like Soda/Pop; Freeway/Expressway; Bruce_Springsteen_Is_Lame/ The_Boss_Rules.

[mycatfred]

2. The school in my town

Has an elementary (K-6) and a high school (7-12) currently. Probably because the grand total or both schools put together is just over two hundred.
The town I lived in before had a primary (Pre K-3) an elementary (4-5) a middle school (6-8) and high school (9-12)
I could go on and on because every town I've ever lived in has a different school set up. I think it depends on the student population and funds for schools.

[Bossy Monkey]

3. When the baby boom busted, 7th & 8th grade no longer filled the building

so they moved 6th over and consolidated elementary schools. '72-'73 academic year in Columbia; I was one of the first 6th graders at Hand Middle School, formerly Hand Junior High. I'm still amused by the fact that we had no school song, though even 10-year-old me could figure out that the two names have the same number of syllables, so a simple substitution would make the old song a new song. Well, I thought it was funny.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. yeah, and your parents remember when junior high was invented and JH was usually grades 7-9

It used to be grammar school through grade 8, then four years of high school.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. We had such small schools that elementary was grades 1-8 and

high school was grades 9-12. There was no kindergarten unless your parents could afford to pay for a private one.

[Arugula Latte]

6. That's how it was when I was in junior high (late 70s)

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. I went to Catholic school...

.
...and the "industry" standard for them was Grades 1-8 --
no junior high as such.
.
.
.
Of course, that was back when history books just said,
"God created your mom and dad, but they had to go and
eat that apple. didn't they?"
.

[Kali]

8. my elementary was K-8th

later they turned the whole school into a middle school - 6th thru 8th, I think, or maybe it was just 7th and 8th

[SoxFan]

9. We had it 1978-1981

Sanborn Regional Middle School in beautiful downtown Newton Junction, NH

The nearby town where we lived previously (Wilmington, Mass) had k-6 elementary schools and a pair of "intermediate" schools for 7th and 8th grade before heading to Wilmington High or Shawsheen Tech for high school.

[tonysam]

10. Middle school is the same thing as junior high but the term is far more common now

The term "middle school" originated in 1950, while the term "junior high" goes back to 1909, according to Wikipedia.

[fizzgig]

11. my district had jr high (7-9) until the most recent schhol year

i was shocked at the uproar it caused when the district started talking about doing k-5 at elementaries, 6-8 at middle schools and 9-12 at high schools and the absurd hand wringing when they implemented it. the way some of the parents talked, you would have thought the district was going to make the sixth graders have sex and do drugs by putting them in the same building as 8th graders.

[Drunken Irishman]

12. I think middle school and junior high are the same thing.

Elementary for me was K-6, then middle school for 7-8 and high school from 9-12.

Some districts here, however, have three-year middle schools (7-9).

[nickinSTL]

13. we had a middle school

when I was in 7th & 8th grade, elementary was K-5, middle school was 6-8 and high school was 9-12.

Then I moved and we had elementary K-6, junior high 7-8 and high school 9-12. The junior high shared a building with the high school.

Where I live now, there are elementary schools (pre-K-4), an intermediate school (5-6), a middle school (7-8) and a high school (9-12).

[Arugula Latte]

29. Whoa. Never heard of that last system you described.

Interesting. That's a lot of schools for kids to get used to.

[sakabatou]

14. I would guess around the 50s or 60s.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Middle school and junior high are NOT the same thing

When I was a young baby boomer, there were three patterns:

1. K-8 in one school ("grade school") and 9-12 in another ("high school"). This was the oldest form, and Catholic schools have mostly continued to operate this way.

2. K-6 in one school ("elementary"), 7-9 in another ("junior high") and 10-12 ("senior high") in another. This was by far the most common pattern in the mid-twentieth century. (My mother, who graduated from high school in 1938, went through this kind of system.)

3. K-6 in one school and 7-12 in another. This was mostly in small towns.

"Middle school" started to come along in the late 1970s, early 1980s. At the time, the idea made sense. I recall being in junior high and seeing the seventh grade children and the ninth grade teenagers in the same school. The amount of physical and mental growth between ages 12 and 14 is huge for most kids, so putting 6th-8th graders in the same school and moving the 9th graders to high school made a lot of sense developmentally.

A difference middle school and junior high school is that junior high school students have a different teacher for every subject, while middle schools are often "semi-departmentalized," with say one teacher for math and science, another for English and social studies, two teachers instead of four.

[ElboRuum]

24. Don't think so...

...mine was called middle school, but we had a different teacher for everything.

I think it's mostly an either or.

[Blue Diadem]

16. We had a Jr. high here(7th & 8th grade) until sometime in the mid-late-90's.

They moved the 6th graders to the building and made it a middle school.

We're a rural community and smaller school. We lived in the city at the beginning of my kids Jr. high years and moved here during that time frame. City school had two grades, 7th & 8th grade, 1,000 students vs Jr High here, 7th & 8th grades, with maybe 275 kids.

[MrSlayer]

17. When I went it was K-8, then high school

There was no middle school or junior high. Of course I was stuck in catholic school hell.

[ChazII]

20. No Catholic schooling for me

but my public school was a k-8 system and then we went to high school.
edited to add: This was the 60's and early 70's.

[tigereye]

18. hmm, I went to Catholic school 1-6, Junior high 7-9

and then Senior High 10-12. That was in the 60s-70s.

Never really thought about the developmental differences at the time, but the idea of breaking schools up into more developmentally similar groupings like 4-6,7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 makes sense to me now.

Nevertheless, my son attends a small private 1-8(which in a smaller school builds a nice caring environment from the older kids to the younger kids), and will attend high school 9-12.

[Richardo]

19. That was my path too - exactly

Catholic school 1-6, Jr High 7-9, High School 10-12. :hi: tigereye!

[Lindsey]

22. When I was growing up, it was Elementary school 1-6, Jr. High

was 7-9 and High School was 10-12.

[tigereye]

27. hey how are you?

:hi: What's new?

[Kat45]

21. I went to junior high in the early seventies.

It was grammar school, K-6; junior high, 7-9; high school 10-12. The Catholic school kids had elementary school through grade 8 and high school of 9-12. Now, the same town has the middle school, 6-8 setup.

[Archae]

23. Same here.

Small town in Sheboygan county.

[carlyhippy]

25. 1-6 primary (elementary) school, 7-9th JR HIGH, 10-12 high school

when I was growing up. It wasn't called middle school back then, Jr hi. Someone must have decided that JR HI was too condenscending towards the tween/teen aged demo, so middle school was created to soothe the masses.

Now it's k-4 is elementary, 5-8 "middle school", 9-12 "senior high"

[femmocrat]

26. Middle school and junior high are not the same.

Junior high is usually 7-9. Middle school is 6-8 (sometimes 5-8). The concept of middle school is totally different from junior high, although a lot of districts have middle schools "in name only".

Middle schools have "teams" of teachers and cross-curricular subjects or units. For example, a unit on the middle ages would cross into all subject areas. There are usually several teams per grade.

I have taught in both. A true middle school is a really nice concept. There is a lot of emphasis on the child's development and individual learning styles. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to run because of the low student:teacher ratio, so many districts have dropped the philosophy and just kept the name on the building.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

28. Did they have history classes back then?

*runs*

[Blue-Jay]

30. For me, Junior High was grades 7-9.

When the school district moved the 9th graders to the high school, "junior high" became "middle school".

One of our local districts has 7-8 as "middle school", another has 6-8. It's all arbitrary. Personally, I think 6-8 is better.