Revisiting Don Eichhorn's The Middle School

 Revisiting Don Eichhorn's The Middle School  

by

Robert Ruder

Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio

A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
 

In 1966, the National Association of Secondary Schools published The Middle School, by Donald H. Eichhorn. Within the 105 pages of the book, Eichhorn explained the position the emerging middle school concept would assume within the continuum of contemporary education. Like slugger DiMaggio, Eichhorn was one of the heavy hitters for the middle school movement. So influential were his writings that a second printing took place in 1968 and a special third printing was sponsored by the National Association of Secondary Principals and the National Middle School Association in 1987.

The foreword of the 1987 edition of The Middle School was written by John H. Lounsbury, who at the time was the editor of the Middle School Journal. Lounsbury felt Eichhorn's contributions to middle level education as espoused in The Middle School were significant as indicated in the following, “Combining basic information about early adolescents with a sound philosophical rationale and specific programmatic plans, this book provided the first full articulation of the middle school proposal. It also gave us the words transescence and transescent, which Eichhorn coined to give a specific label to this in-between stage of life and individuals in it.” 

Conrad F. Toepfer, the chairperson of the NASSP's Council on Middle Level Education wrote the introduction for the 1987 edition of The Middle School. Toepfer saw Eichhhorn's work as being, “30 years ahead of it's time.” He further shared his belief that “this book's availability will help us achieve the goals that Donald Eichhorn's significant work established more than two decades ago.”

In addition to Toeper's and Lounsbury's comments, Don Eichhorn also contributed to the third printing of The Middle School  in a three page essay entitled The Middle School:Reflection and Challenge.  Included in Eichhorn's historical overview is the genesis of the middle level concept and his believe that “the middle school concept was initiated in this (1960s) climate of fresh ideas, creative changes, and renewed interest in child -based learning. One of the few innovations that has survived the test of time is the distinctive middle level school.”

Dr. Eichhorn further shares the four reasons that he believed the middle school movement began. They are:

l  A recognition and reaffirmation of the belief that youngsters aged 10-14 are in a unique stage of development in which they share similar physical, mental, social and emotional characteristics.

l  New medical evidence that suggests that youngsters attain puberty at an earlier age than before.

l  Forces such as the new technology, racial integration, and the knowledge explosion that are affecting society.

l  The junior high school organization was perceived as and in many instances had become an institution patterned after the senior high school.  

In addition, Eichhorn notes two concepts that he felt were fundamental to planning, developing and operating a middle school. The first being a direct model relationship between the learners' characteristics and the school program. The second was transescence which he defined as “the stage of development which begins prior to the onset of puberty and and extends through the early stages of adolescence.”

As Eichhorn acknowledged the accomplishments realized in middle level education since the first printing of The Middle School in 1966 until 1987, he ponders the challenges that he felt remain to be addressed. He is adamant about the need for educators to consider the middle level a unique stage of human development and the need for them to focus their attention on the basic idea that middle level students differ significantly from those at the elementary and high school levels. He is concerned about the shortage of educators willing to work with middle level students as well as the need to continuously develop curriculum and instructional models that that enhance student acquisition of basic skills, processes and content knowledge.

Also clearly stated by Eichhorn is the need for “the development of support programs for teachers and administrators from state departments of education, higher education institutions and professional associations” to further the concept of middle level education. Lastly, Dr. Eichhorn points to the need for undergraduate programs that are designed for training middle school teachers along with the need to realize middle level state certification for educators. 

The visionary Dr. Eichhorn concludes his commentary with the following thought: “Children born in the 1980s will be practitioners of middle level education in the twenty-first century. It will be an exciting era and I hope that the re-publishing of The Middle School may make some contribution to its success.” 

Twenty-three years after the third printing of The Middle School children born in the 1980s are the educational leaders of the nation's schools serving as building principals, supervisors of curriculum and instruction and superintendents.  Despite the passing of time, the many thoughts of Don Eichhorn related to middle level education still ring true. But perhaps the thoughts of Eichhorn, Toeper and Lounsbury have gone the way of Jotlin' Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson. Practitioners might ask, does the philosophy embraced by Eichhorn have a place in contemporary middle level education?

The answer to this question is school or school district specific. Certainly there are some  components of Eichhorn's middle level theory that are integrated seamlessly into today's middle school. While modified to serve the needs of a school's students some stands of Dr. Eichhorn's thinking are applicable in the twenty-first century.

As progressive middle schools continue to reinvent who they are and determine if what they are doing is best for students, The Middle School may be used as the basis to spawn creative thinking and staff development activities. Despite the forty-four year lapse since Eichhorn espoused his beliefs related to middle level education, remnants of his thinking may be as relevant today as they were in 1966.  

Author's Note:

In honor of Dr. Eichhorn, the Don Eichhorn Award was presented to Pennsylvania middle schools that successfully implemented middle level practices and embraced middle level philosophy from 1992 to 2006. In 2008 the Pennsylvania Don Eichhorn Schools: Schools to Watch program was created. An outgrowth of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, the Schools to Watch initiative was established in 1997. The Schools to Watch program identified middle level schools that demonstrated outstanding performance in  academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity and organizational structures and processes.

The Don Eichhorn Schools: Schools to Watch program is a collaborative venture of the Pennsylvania Association for Middle Level Education, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Duquesne University, Shippensburg University, Edinboro University and Horace Mann Corporation.

Additional information regarding the Don Eichhorn Schools: Schools to Watch program is available at <www.pamle.org>.