Middle schoolers live in a world of their own, new book says
Submitted on December 10, 2003 - 1:00am.
Crystal K. Wiebe - Fall 2003
WASHINGTON - For her new book, Washington Post reporter Linda Perlstein went back to a turbulent time many of us block from our memories: middle school.
“Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers” is an anthropologic guide to the some of childhood's most critical years. To research her topic, Perlstein, who wrote a four-part series for the Post on middle school life in 2000, immersed herself in its culture for a year.
She studied her primary subjects, five students at Wilde Lake Middle School in Howard County, Md., while they hit the books – or didn't – and when they rode the bus, hung out with friends, interacted with their parents or practiced athletics. The students' names were changed.
“Not Much Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers” is an anthropologic guide to the some of childhood's most critical years. To research her topic, Perlstein, who wrote a four-part series for the Post on middle school life in 2000, immersed herself in its culture for a year.
She studied her primary subjects, five students at Wilde Lake Middle School in Howard County, Md., while they hit the books – or didn't – and when they rode the bus, hung out with friends, interacted with their parents or practiced athletics. The students' names were changed.
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