For me, middle school was not too great. Each year was nasty in its own way. In 6th grade, every single kid I saw had to give me at least 1 negative comment. They hated me just because I was obsessed with cats and numbers. Damn, I was angrier than a charging rhino!
In 7th grade, i thought i had lots of friends, but in 8th grade i realized that they weren't really my friends. Hardly anyone gave a sh*t about me. People still thought I was weird. They were just too mature to shout it out, though.
I loved middle school. It was when I shed the typical, quiet aspie label and started becoming loud. I had a few good aquantinces in 8th grade, but none elsewhere and didn't want them.
The worst things that have happened to me yet happened in 4th-5th grade. I'll try to sumarize, but this may still take a while.
I went to a 48 student charter school in 1st-5th grade. My family was friends with the founder and CEO, who was a wonderful teacher. Unfortunately, she got kicked out at the end of my 4th grade year (supposedly for swearing at a student or some such). I was devastated. But as if that weren't bad enough, they replaced her with a sacarine-sweet woman who was a complete idiot (not to mention mean). She brought in the worst music teacher I've ever even heard of, violated seperation of church and state, and turned art class into "let's all make boring insipid religious crafts that all look exactly the same time", and if yours wasn't the same as the others, you got points removed. Plus, she was supposedly the SPED teacher but knew nothing about it. And a million other things. I hated her with all my heart and soul.
6th grade, I got fed up and left. Mom homeschooled me. At first the schooling was all right, but I cried every day because I missed the old school building. Yeah, the building- not friends, not teachers, the building. ANd the grassy yard and playground with a little patch of woods we used to play in at recess.... I've never been so homesick for someplace in my life.
During my sixth grade year, the problems at the school mostly got sorted out, the mean lady left, and I went back for seventh grade. Unfortunately, I was bored to tears- not only did I know almost everything they were teaching, they had no way to deal with that. ANd for the first time, I noticed how wierd I was around people. I'd always known I was different, but now things I'd never noticed were smacking me in the face. This is when I first discovered AS applied to me, but my parents managed to convince me I'd been wrong.
Halfway through 7th grade, I transfered to the Delta Program Alternative High School, or Delta, which also takes 7th and 8th graders and consists of maybe 100 students altogether. This place is fabulous. I love it. I could go on and on about it, but I'll spare you.
Anyway, that's my middleschool experience. I'm going into 9th grade now...
Middle School was the light at the end of of a dark tunnel, things finally started to turn a round for me. I got over my emotional problems and stopped being bullied, and i was finally getting straight A's.
But it still kinda sucked though, I was getting bullied, but i was incredibley lonely. I had a group of friends which i called the PDD gang, we all had a pdd. Brittany was HFA, Matt was asperger's, Kevin was... Im not really sure, and me...im still a mystery, well you get the point. That was basically my only close friends in middle school.
Elemenatary was my darkest years, k though 2nd grade were ok, but then in third grade i was harassed so much i almost comitted suicide. And 4th and 5th grade i was still an emotional wreck and i sucked in grades and i had no friends, but the bullying sorta layed off.
And then in 9th grade was heaven, the best year of my life. I was popular, i sat with the cool kids at lunch, I had alot of friends. It was sweet. I hope 10th grade is the same.
lets see... grade 1-2 I was just weird, grade 3 I started getting bullied, asked to change schools (parents weren't very aware of bullying, didn't change anything). grade 4, had worse bullying issues but started to accelerate in math class (learned algebra, non-decimal number systems (octal, hexidecimal, etc...). More impressively, it was just me and another smart/possible aspie kid, no teacher, in an otherwise abandoned classroom, and we spent half the time doing nothing). Of course, the bullying was "my fault for being a victim" and, of course, "we're doing all we can to stop it".
Grade 5/6 I was in a different school, though not really happy and academically VERY bored (when the teacher was teaching the rest of the class stuff like least common multiple, I figured out the least common multiple of the numbers 1-10, and was correct when I checked it with a calculator later). sometime around this time, I got a Dx as Aspergers, though the stupid psychologist tried to pin me as ADD).
In grade 7, I joined a "gifted" program (a lot of ADD students, a couple of aspies, some smart but typical NTs, and a lot of generally overacheiving asians [It may be rascist, in a way, but it is true]) I was very different from most of them, made a few "friends" that later stabbed me in the back, but did about 3 years worth of math. Grade eight was similar, finishing grade ten math, while being somewhat of a loner, before I found a group of other "nerds" and hung out with them. There were a few issues between me and a teacher, and I almost failed her class (it made me wonder about the teacher when I saw a report card of 80-some marks, and a single class at 50%)
Grade nine, I started playing guitar, my hair got long, and I made a few friends, maybe not "good" friends, but at least honest, trustable ones. My teachers were better, and I had very few aspie-style breakdowns at school. The "cool" peer groups accepted me as a person, though still not as one of them (though that wouldn't matter to me much). around christmas, I made plans to build a bass guitar with a friend of mine. Word got out, and a band in need of a bassist contacted me. Of course, I didn't have a bass at that point, so I couldn't really join, but by now I have a long-term borrowed bass, and am joining them. I don't completely fit in, though they seem to accept me (and laugh at my sugar-high antics after several cans of pop). In any case, it's hard to find a good bassist in a high school, so I don't anticipate being kicked out anytime soon.
In summary, middle school/junior high is a time when an aspie can "bloom" (or whatever stupid NT word you perfer) and emulate NT behavior well enough to fit in, while teachers start beleiving that they actually are smarter than others, and may take that into account when they should. However, it can also be an emotionally trying time, and takes getting used to.
After my nightmare experience in elementary school, I ended up part homeschooling in 5th grade. During that time, I applied for the Saint Louis Regional Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students, and, after a long, hard battle, got accepted.
My acceptance was a blessing. I could actually expect to be regularly taught things I didn't already know, and, for the first time, I didn't make straight As (although I suppose that had more to do with adapting to the new environment than with actual challenge). While my elementary school had refused to give me advanced math, my new school was happy to place me in an 8th grade Algebra class.
7th grade was at that point the best year of my life. I became involved in the Chess Team, closing off the year with a 3rd place individual trophy in the Missouri Junior Chess Tournament, and 1st place for the team. I also achieved my 1st Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
As for 8th grade, I never had an 8th grade and never will; middle schools do not have enough classes to spend a full 3 years there.
The staff at my school were actually pretty nice and they all liked me, because I was smart and talented. They did all they could to help me survive teasing. I often hung out with my teachers during lunch break, along with a couple aspie friends plus a few "teacher pet" NTs. It was really just the stupid average NT peers that made school such a sh**hole. I'm glad that at least I had good teachers. I was in advanced math all 3 years, because of my interest in numbers. My math class consisted of the same type of people Nameless_One mentioned. I will also be in advanced science once I get to high school.
6th grade was my worst year ever. My friends dropped me like flies, my best friends parents MADE her drop me, and it was the only year I was beaten up on. I was beaten up on for being anorexic at the time.
7th grade, I was the reserved academic girl.
I moved in the middle of 8th grade, so that was mixed bag.
Middle school was actualy pretty nice for me. I actualy did not know that I had AS until after my 8th grade year. At my school, it was kind of nice that they seperated groups by level, so a lot of times you did not have to do the simpleest work, you got to do things that came close to being chalangeing. Eigth grade was the best because I was in the "modular units" cough trailers cough. It was the best team( group of teachers and students) we were small because we only had two homerooms of eigth grade as opposed to 5 or six. Language arts was two periods long, and I had lunch between the two periods, and my friends and I often stayed in the clasroom and ate lunch.
When one group would do harder work, we often were in the hall. It was so much fun out there. Some days we would sit there because we had no work to do. We drove ourselves nuts trying to figure out the name of the fourth Golden Girl, and the name of the show with the dragon and the house on hughe stilts that would not have held up a mouse. Near the end of the year, al the kids on my team from my study hall were in our language arts room instead, so we prety much got to goof of for over two hours straight. Boy I miss those days.
my best friends parents MADE her drop me
oh, poor you. :cry: I absolutely HATE parents who are like that!!!!!! :evil:
Well, middle school wasn't so bad. What came before... Sheer hell.
I couldn't make friends well, I had problems with my eyesight, requiring glasses to fix my vision(one more thing for the bullies to break), and I was one of the very few people who didn't "fit". Simple rural community, simpler rural teachers. "Boys will be boys." "I remember schoolyard tussles back in my day...", etc. A couple of times, I was punished for "Causing trouble." One of these time I "Caused trouble," A group of five bullies spread out to grab me at lunch; they all surrounded me, kicked my legs out from under me, and kicked me while I was lying on the ground. They barely even took me seriously when I said I'd go home and kill myself. They sent a note home with me about it. The administration there was as thick as a brick, and twice as stubborn.
I escaped into books, the librarians and I were on a first name basis. I read nearly every book in that library. I still read a lot; It's an area of interest for me.
I'd come home 3 out of 5 days, bruised, bleeding, or crying, sometimes all three. I was shamed and humiliated... crammed headfirst into a garbage can, left there until a teacher found me, hours later. Held by the hair, facefirst in an ant pile; I was still blowing ants out of my nose when the principal said it was just some cock-and-bull story I made up to avoid trouble for being late. I remember lying on the ground, curled up in a ball as three other bigger, tougher kids kicked me, while a yard of other kids just sat and watched. Just watched "that crazy kid" get the snot beat out of him. Once, I was trapped in a dumpster on collection day. They punched me in the arms first, so I wouldn't be able to lift the lid and get out. A classmate I got along with okay went and stopped the collection truck, got me out of the dumpster. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
Middle school was a walk in the park in comparison, at least, physically. I punched out a bully, gave him a bleeding nose, the beatings were more like twice a month, and with less people, and I snapped, went off my breaking point, and threatened a teacher. If the school counselors weren't so well trained, so kind, I'd probably be on drugs, or a drunk, maybe even in jail. I was suspended to the board, but I got off light. I was only suspended for a while.
But once I got into high school, things have been looking up. I no longer want to kill myself, I no longer feel I have no worth, and I've made friends, good friends, that will stick by me through thick and thin, and have hope for the future, to someday write books that will be read all over the world.
Well, I'm almost home free! Little longer, I'll be out of school, and free to shape my own destiny! And other things of that nature.
Yeah, I'd say I preffered Middle school.
It was shorter. :wink:
Middle School was merely OK for me. Nothing REALLY big happened, but I wasn't heavily bullied. All I have to say is THANK GOD THAT MIDDLE SCHOOL WASN'T THE ABSOLUTE HELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WAS! That was like the ultimate battlegrounds. I had VERY ignorant teachers, including one who had a slight hatred towards the parents of autistic children AND my religion! A double whammy! She was my 4th grade teacher & she could barely STAND me when I 'acted autistic'. How would she like it if I just got onto HER back about every little imperfection she flaunted? onetheless, 1st-4th grades were a path through hell for me. And OMG my Freshman High School year was just plain-old BlEcH! Trust me, once you enter High School, problems REALLY escalate!
Hmm... Sixth grade was okay. No one really bothered me, but no one asked to be my friend either, except for Aryssa. She moved in October though, so I was left alone. I have no idea what I did then to keep from getting bored or depressed, other than draw. I made friends with my math teacher, who was really nice and a good friend. He taught his lessons in a way that they were easy to understand. I kinda wish he taught math this year.
Seventh grade was sheer hell. I managed to make two friends, Tiffany and Ashley, who were nice people, even if Ashley was a bit dangerous when it came to private things I told her. Everyone else was really mean, though. I got incredibly annoyed easily, and meltdowns went off often. Actually, somebody once took my drawing notebook and ripped it up into pieces. You can't believe how pissed I was. I was really to rip up the culprit limb from limb, if I knew who it was. I still don't know who the culprit was to this day. One of the security guards at my school took the remains of the notebook. I tried to ask for them back, but he never gave them to me. Close to the end of that year, I developed the crush on Wojciech. I didn't get to talk to him efore the year ended, and I'll stop it at that before this becomes another telling of the Wojciech story. (Now I found another old mental photo I took of Wojciech close to the beginning of the year by accident. It's really hard to visualise, but I like it.)
I'm not sure what I think of 8th grade yet, but the bully count is zero as far as I can tell. No one is picking on me! +D (Might be because they are scared of my uber-gothic chainy jingly big shiny black and red pants) I've actually made some more friends (with some good help from this site!), and entered many friendship circles, quite welcome. The groups are as follows: Sabrina, Sonya, Natasha. Austin, Artur (not Wojciech's friend and not really a friend of mine either), Zack, Joe (a real fatass). Angela, Bryan. Aryssa, Marlena, Sammy. Alexis, Olga whats-her-name, Arnika (a goth!11), Ariel (another goth!!1). Some friends I have made purely by showing drawings. I didn't show them much the previous years, so I'm glad I started doing this.
Right now i am ninth grade and for me middle school was horrible but it was never really fun in terms of friends. In sixth grade I atteneded a horrible catholic school, I had 1 friend out of a class of 48 that I had been with since kindergarten. There was also someone else that hung out with me and my friend, but he never really acted like a friend. I was also getting bullied at that school along with my brother who has ADHD. I really regret not beating some kids up for my and my brother's sake. I switched to a private school at the end of the year. At that school it seemed to start out fine and I was actually getting more advanced classes. I had gotten strait As in 6th grade and wanted more advanced math but they wouldnt let me at the old school. I made a what I considered at the time, 2 friends during the second semester. I also started a relationship with a teacher that I still hold today. In about the middle of the second year there, 8th grade, mayeb even earlier, they kind of stopped being my friends and their whole "gang" started to pick on and the whole bully thing started again. I proceeded to lose all my friends there and most did not really like me but were the kind of nice like if you were to go to another new school just to visit for a day. This time I didnt have my old friend to back me up. Outside of school I also tried to make friends and succeeded but soon those friendships also dried up. I had been hurt so much that I decided that it wasnt worth it. Now I am ninth grade and still dont have any friends at school. I have 2 friends that I play magic the gathering, and 1 friend that I have known for a while but we dont really talk anymore. One thing to note is that I am 15 and the two friends that I play magic with are almost 18, and 21. I have already decided that I am going to switch schools at the end of the year. Even though my current school helped me skip a grade in math, it is not really worth it anymore. I havent decided if I should go to try to make new friends or try for a more seperated status becuase I will be taking AP courses and other advanced courses that other 10th graders wont take until 11th or 12th grade wiht the fact that I have gotten straight As since like 5th grade. The one upside is that My friend from kindergaten will be there. Sorry for the long post.
Though I'm out of Middle School now, I still hate jr. high kids in general. They are so annoying and loud-mouthed. My high school has 7th and 8th graders as well. Sometimes they throw food off the balcony, other times they scream "It's my birthday!" while walking around with over 10 balloons. I never carry balloons on my birthday. All I do is dress flamboyantly.
Also, they make horrible teacher aides. One time, my elective teacher was gone and needed a substitute. She wanted the kids to take charge of the class, and a few 7th and 8th graders volunteered. But they were bossy, yelling at everyone for not following all their standards. My 11 yo friend overreacted to it, sat in a corner and cried. I was upset too, and thought "Come on, if somebody is going to take charge of a mixed grade level class, the oldest students should be up for it. Like who's going to listen to a dominating seventh grader?"