Did our 8th grade year really prepare us for what high school was going to be like? My 8th grade teachers claimed that what they were teaching and doing was going to pay off in high school. In middle school we were given no homework, which is a lot different than the workload in high school. The grading system was a lot more effortless and it was easier to get by. You didn’t have to worry about getting credits to graduate or getting into a college. There weren’t classes that fueled your passion for what you really want to do in your life. In middle school, your GPA didn’t matter as much as it does now. Take it from me, high school is a lot harder than the middle school teachers are telling you. In high school you have to keep your grades up or you can’t get into college. You’re pressured to take weighted AP classes to get more credits, even when sometimes colleges won’t accept those credits. You have to learn to balance your social life and extra-curriculars with your work. 

I think that middle schools need to do a better job of pushing the students harder so that when they progress into high school, the transition feels a lot easier. I think that the schools should better prepare them for the workload and the grind they will find themselves being in. High school is hard. It can be mentally draining and I realized how I wasn’t prepared enough because I had more things I wasn’t finishing in class that became my homework, my grades would drop a lot faster and were immensely more challenging to get up, I was getting less sleep and was tired all the time. If you’re well prepared, it won’t be as stressful and intense. I know for myself and other freshmen, we have felt high school is a lot different than middle school. 

Yet, I will say that coming into high school there are a lot more freedoms than middle school. You get to start going to football games, dances, fundraisers, plays, tailgates, and so much more. Also at DHS we pride ourselves on being a school that offers a lot of opportunities to explore classes and pathways of things you actually want to pursue like our Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes which are things like culinary, fashion, interior design, graphic design, newspaper and more. So yes, I think that middle school did not prepare us for high school and I think they need to do a lot better at pushing the students further instead of treating them like they’re in elementary because the change will be hard, but becoming a Demon has come with a lot of great opportunities and activities to get to know people and learn new things and I’m glad that I am at this awesome school.