449: Middle School
As the new school year begins, we have stories from all over the country about people lurching their way through their middle school years – the years when you're figuring out so much. We go to school dances, classrooms, and down to the Mexican border.
(00:00:00) Prologue: Host Ira Glass interviews a 14-year-old named Annie, who emailed us asking if we would do a show about middle school. She explains why exactly the middle school years can be so daunting. (4 minutes)
(00:05:42) Act One: In an effort to understand the physical and emotional changes middle school kids experience, Ira speaks with reporter Linda Perlstein, who wrote a book called Not Much Just Chillin' about a year she spent following five middle schoolers. Then we hear from producer Alex Blumberg, who was a middle school teacher in Chicago for four years before getting into radio. Alex's takeaway? We shouldn't even try teaching kids at this age. Marion Strok, principal of a successful Chicago school, disagrees. (6 minutes)
(00:11:59) Act Two: We sent correspondents straight to the epicenters of middle school awkwardness: school dances. We spoke with kids across the country during the nervous moments leading up to the dances, and even ventured inside, to the dance itself. (9 minutes)
(00:21:51) Act Three: When Domingo Martinez was growing up in a Mexican-American family in Texas, Domingo's two middle school-aged sisters found a unique way of coping with feelings of inferiority. (11 minutes)
(00:33:40) Act Four: We realized that there are already reporters on the ground, embedded inside middle schools: the kids who report the daily announcements. Producer Jonathan Menjivar wondered what would happen if instead of announcing sports scores and the daily cafeteria menu, the kids reported what's really on their minds. Students at Parkville Middle School outside Baltimore, along with their journalism teacher Ms. Davis, agreed to try out this experiment. (7 minutes)
(00:40:01) Act Five: Producer Sarah Koenig reports on a kid we'll call Leo, whose family moved away from Rochester, NY, leaving behind all of Leo's friends and
stranding him in a new — and in his opinion, much worse — middle school.
(10 minutes)
(00:50:41) Act Six: Ira speaks with Shannon Grande, a teacher at Rise Academy in Newark, about a seventh grader who had all sorts of problems with behavior, hygiene, and schoolwork. To help turn him around, Grande had to harness the power of peer pressure for good. (7 minutes)
- Duration
- 1h 3m
- Broadcast on
- 06 Sep 2026
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
Hey, it's Ira, the quick word before the show starts. So I have this video that I want to show you. Maybe you heard because we did so many promos, actually, that we just did this live show on stage in Los Angeles where I told stories and then Vic McCaleless and these really talented comedians did improvise scenes based on those stories on the spot. And we live streamed video of this show, and I'm just here to say that if you missed the live stream, you can now see the show where you posted the video online, it's a really fun show, and to watch this, for absolutely free, sign up for a free trial this American life partner's subscription. And our hope is, you know, you'll stick around after the trial and you'll love all the bonus episodes and listening ad free and all the other stuff we give you, plus we hope you'll like helping us make the show by sending us this money. But if you don't, if you just want the free trial, watch the video, try it out for a couple of days, quit, no foul, fine with us, and I think you're really going to enjoy watching the show we did. Go to thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners and use the, this is a very original promo code we came up with, video. That's right, the promo code is video, that link is also in the show notes. Okay, here's this week's show. This message comes from IXL, IXL's level up diagnostic gives immediate benchmark results along with personalized action plans that link directly to IXL's skill practice. More at IXL.com/NPR. Hey everybody, Ari Glass here. So we got this email at our radio show near the end of the school year, from a 14 year old. Hello. Hey, is this Annie? Yeah. I caught her up at her house in California and asked her to read it. Because due to this American life, I just escaped the whitewash brick walled iron gated prison that is commonly known as middle school, and I'm finally out for good. But in all the time I've listened to your show, I've never heard an episode devoted to what goes on inside the walls of the middle school. I hope you'll think about it. Anonymous? Yeah, you signed it anonymous, but then you actually, your email was signed with your name. Yeah. Yeah. I had said anonymous because in middle school everybody's so judgmental and I didn't want a kid to judge me or anything if they heard me on the radio. Mainly she says that she wrote to us because she and her friends are talking right after they go after 8th grade about how terrible middle school was. And she wondered, was it just as bad for other people as it was for them? Yeah, you always wonder whether other people are going to the same thing as you. And it'd be cool to hear other people's stories about it and how what they went to. And if you were to explain to somebody like what are the worst things about middle school, can I guess you just walk me through it, like what is so bad about middle school? Kids there are all in kind of socially awkward stages that the drama every day can be frustrating and girl-boy things or if someone likes so-and-so and then no matter who you are or what you
Transcription truncated.
As the new school year begins, we have stories from all over the country about people lurching their way through their middle school years – the years when you're figuring out so much. We go to school dances, classrooms, and down to the Mexican border.
(00:00:00) Prologue: Host Ira Glass interviews a 14-year-old named Annie, who emailed us asking if we would do a show about middle school. She explains why exactly the middle school years can be so daunting. (4 minutes)
(00:05:42) Act One: In an effort to understand the physical and emotional changes middle school kids experience, Ira speaks with reporter Linda Perlstein, who wrote a book called Not Much Just Chillin' about a year she spent following five middle schoolers. Then we hear from producer Alex Blumberg, who was a middle school teacher in Chicago for four years before getting into radio. Alex's takeaway? We shouldn't even try teaching kids at this age. Marion Strok, principal of a successful Chicago school, disagrees. (6 minutes)
(00:11:59) Act Two: We sent correspondents straight to the epicenters of middle school awkwardness: school dances. We spoke with kids across the country during the nervous moments leading up to the dances, and even ventured inside, to the dance itself. (9 minutes)
(00:21:51) Act Three: When Domingo Martinez was growing up in a Mexican-American family in Texas, Domingo's two middle school-aged sisters found a unique way of coping with feelings of inferiority. (11 minutes)
(00:33:40) Act Four: We realized that there are already reporters on the ground, embedded inside middle schools: the kids who report the daily announcements. Producer Jonathan Menjivar wondered what would happen if instead of announcing sports scores and the daily cafeteria menu, the kids reported what's really on their minds. Students at Parkville Middle School outside Baltimore, along with their journalism teacher Ms. Davis, agreed to try out this experiment. (7 minutes)
(00:40:01) Act Five: Producer Sarah Koenig reports on a kid we'll call Leo, whose family moved away from Rochester, NY, leaving behind all of Leo's friends and
stranding him in a new — and in his opinion, much worse — middle school.
(10 minutes)
(00:50:41) Act Six: Ira speaks with Shannon Grande, a teacher at Rise Academy in Newark, about a seventh grader who had all sorts of problems with behavior, hygiene, and schoolwork. To help turn him around, Grande had to harness the power of peer pressure for good. (7 minutes)