After watching skits performed by 7th and 8th graders, 6th graders at Delavan's Turtle Creek Elementary school got to ask questions about life at Phoenix Middle School.
DELAVAN — Grown-ups tend to make unsympathetic comments such as “I wish the worst thing I had to worry about was remembering my locker combination. Must be nice.”
An adult might laugh at someone who’s under the impression that smart kids get beat up in middle school.
Maybe that’s because they’ve forgotten—possibly by choice—the time in their lives when those fears were real.
A few Phoenix Middle School students still can remember fifth grade and the things that scared them in the months before middle school. To help their younger peers, the 12 members of the Peer Drama wrote, directed, produced and performed skits about some of the “scarier” parts of middle school for fifth-graders in the Delavan-Darien School District.
They also answered questions about middle school posed by their fifth-grade audience.
At Turtle Elementary School on Thursday afternoon, the middle-schoolers joined the adults and chuckled a little at the notion that smart kids get beat up.
But they weren’t laughing unkindly.
“I’ve never gotten beat up,” said a grinning Alondra Castenada, a seventh-grader who admitted she was smart.
The exercise was a good way to spread the word about the good things at Phoenix Middle School, counselor Troy Stelzer said. He and his students are “baffled” by rumors of drug use and other risky behavior at the school, he told the elementary-school audience.
“That’s just not true,” Stelzer said.
The drama group acted out a variety of common assumptions and safety issues relevant to middle school. The actors were willing to be a little silly to open up discussion on some serious issues such as Internet safety, bullying, gossip and drug use.
They told their young peers that teachers are there to help and that “nobody even tries” to bring drugs to school. And they reminded the fifth-graders that they have choices when it comes to using drugs or drinking alcohol.
Some choices could be canoeing, playing volleyball and bowling, and they acted those out.
Seventh- and eighth-grade actors played the parts of the ball and pins. The skit got a good laugh, and, while it wasn’t mentioned, human bowling looked like a fun alternative to drinking.
Here is a sample of the questions and issues they addressed:
Q: Are middle school teachers mean?
A: No, of course not.
“They chose this as a career. Do you really think they’re going to be mean to you?” seventh-grader Rose Wang said.
Q: If someone is bullying you and you tell a teacher or an adult, won’t you get called a snitch?
A: Maybe. But that’s only going to get the bully in bigger trouble, students said. Teachers have a “backup plan” for that kind of thing.
And calling you a name is only a matter of opinion, middle-schoolers assured their young peers.
Q: Are there fights every day in middle school?
A: No. One fight broke out on the playground at Phoenix Middle School this year. It lasted about five seconds before it was broken up, seventh-grader Cody Chelminiak said.
Q: Is the food horrible in the middle school cafeteria?
A: No. It’s the same food you get in elementary school, except you get more choices.
Q: Do smart kids get picked on?
A: No. Smart kids usually get asked to help with group projects.
“I’m smart, and I’m cool,” said eighth-grade peer leader Abe Pacheco.
His peers rolled their eyes at him and giggled.