Musings from the Middle: A Teacher's Memoir

is a teacher's memoir about the middle school years of fears, tears, peers, and cheers. It shows a diversity of life experiences, viewpoints, and backgrounds and reveals eye-opening anecdotes and escapades of middle school teens. It is timely because it is insightful about the issues today's teens face. Whether walking on eggshells or walking on sunshine, today's teens put us in their shoes and help us see the world from their perspective. In , we feel their angst and their ecstasy as we peer into some poignant moments of their lives. People outside education will learn what really goes on in our middle schools. Today's teens carry a much heavier load than teens from years gone by. We are turning our adolescents away from learning by bombarding them with rote learning and testing that stresses them to the limit. Bullying is on the rise because teens feel the need to lash out. shows teens a path to becoming whole human beings before heading to high school. They proudly celebrate their uniqueness and grasp the importance of humanity as a whole. They understand the world is in their hands and how to work to make it a better place through learning and responsibility.