harris interactive recently conducted a survey of 1400+ middle school students (grades 7 and 8, in their survey), that’s got some really helpful info for youth workers and parents. it’s very cool that you can dowload a pdf of the summary report in harris’ “trends and tudes” newsletter here.

most interesting to me is that the number one response to the question “what do you think are the biggest problems in your school?” was “bullies or gangs”. also interesting to me was how unprepared most kids felt (and how little help they perceived was available) in choosing the right high school classes that will prepare them to attend college. this was an example of classic middle school thinking to me, especially since the kids being surveyed aren’t in high school. so their response seems, primarily, to be one of perception, not any reality they will or won’t experience in high school.

anyhow… worth printing out and reading. would be good to hand out to parents.

(ht to anastasia at ypulse)