You’ve always seen in movies or shows about that typical high school bully or group of popular cheer leaders who bully the not-so-popular girl. Yes those things have happened and still do.
But, I do think middle school is worst. Middle school is where groups of kids that use to be friends in elementary school break a part and out grow each other and form new groups of friends they make.
Kids are absolutely brutal. But high schoolers are more mature than middle schoolers and are more aware of their actions and the consequences. Plus in HS, especially junior / senior year, is when they stop giving a shit and mind their own business.
The things kids can say and do to other kids can be absolutely heartbreaking. Hell, even kids in elementary school can say some pretty hurtful things to other kids. But middle school is where kids really hit puberty and try to find where they fit in, and they’ll do anything it takes to put others down.
I agree with this. High school kids for the most part have already established their clique or decided to stop caring about other people. Middle school kids are doing every single thing they can to fit in somewhere.
Elementary school was great for me. Sure my parents broke up, but it was clean, no huge custody battles or ruining of families, it was fine. My mom later got a new boyfriend with a big house we all loved and it was hunky dory.
Middle school fucking sucked. Mom’s boyfriend turned out a massive asshole who left bruises on me and my little sisters. As punishments for even the smallest of things, or even for no reson whatsoever, he would punish me with exercises. But not like 10 pushups. More like running around a local parking lot nonstop for hours on end, literally kicking my ass if I didn’t keep up speed. Hundreds, nay, thousands of pushups. Having to hold metal bars straight up in front of me for hours. Maybe that’sthe reason I hate exercisein general nowadays???. Lost the big house, so we moved to a tiny house with no ac, heat, and a spider problem at the end of a cul-de-sac. I lost friends and started to develop depression. Grades suffered. Barely made it through Middle school with Cs. My dad tried to fight for more custody, although the only reason his new wife was supportive of this was so that she could extort money out of my mom. Didn’t end up working out.
I went from a kid who loved reading and would be glad to go to school and learn to a 270 lb antisocial hideaway who had trust issues and depression. Tried to kill myself by drinking cleaning products in the 8th grade. Turns out I drank ones without deadly chemicals in them, so I just ended up being sick for a few days. Told mom it was the flu.
We lost the spider house and moved into one of our friend’s guest house. It was tiny and had an ant problem, but at least it had heating and A/C. Not even a damn dishwasher. Mom’s bf is still with her for some godforesaken reason. So he is still on his crusade to make all our lives as difficult as possible.
Mom finally tried to break up with him and he threw her into a wall. We spent the night in the hospital for that. I had made popcorn chicken beforehand and looking back on it, I was extraordinarily calm during the whole thing. Police and paremedics in our house, a hole in our wall, dog’s going crazy, mom’s head is bleeding, and all I could think of was how cool it was to ride in an ambulance. He got arrested, then immediately released somehow. He tries to come back quite a few times, but gets the police called on him every time.
Around the end of middle school, owner of the guest house starys being an asshole. Skyrocketing rent, not fixing shit he agreed to, just generally being a bad person. Shitter’s broken, ants and cockroaches infest the place, so we decide to move. Find a nice place two miles from the beach. No ac, but there’s heating and a dishwasher, so we’re good. Although, mom’s now ex bf comes BACK and plays nice for a month or two, while still trying to make our lives miserable, repeat fucking cycle. More police and shit are involved.
High School is less bad. I still hate it with every bone in my body, but not as much. Home life got significantly better here. Dad and dog died in freshman year. But my mental health is stabilizing, grades getting better, friends are being made, it’s ok. Nowadays, we’re in quarantine, so most of the physical and mental work I’ve done over the months has been deteriorating, but I’m still better off now than I was then.
TL;DR: Middle school sucked with mom’s abusive boyfriend and shitty housing, today isn’t great, but a million times better than before.
I feel like Middle School is more physically awful, whereas high school is awful because of emotions, where you start learning how hard it is to be an adult.
I know someone who originally started as a high school teacher and is currently teaching middle school and she says that middle schoolers are assholes and the worst to teach. Also another person whos my history teacher who began teaching middle school students have said that middle schoolers love to create chaos any time they have and need more of extra attention to see if they dont destroy something while us high schoolers can be left in a room and we wont be yelling or acting stupid.