CAPE SCHOOLS CAN ADJUST TO GROWING PAINS

Cape Girardeau public schools have the opportunity to help a group of students who need special attention: middle schoolers.

The middle-school years are tough at best, disastrous at worst. These students aren't little boys and girls, but they aren't adults either. The opinions of their peers mean more than they will at any other point in their lives. And they're beginning to notice the opposite sex.

Little wonder that education can take a back seat to personal issues at that age, and some students mentally drop out of school, even though they might not physically do so for a few years.

Fortunately for Cape Girardeau's middle schoolers, the district is planning a revamp of its grade structure just as a national report appeared in a respected education journal, Education Week, that calls for more attention to middle-school curriculum.

Cape Girardeau will be creating a fifth-and-sixth-grade center and an eighth-and-ninth-grade center, both to open in the fall of 2002. Granted, the decision was based on space constraints, not education, but there won't be a better time to take into consideration the unique needs of these students and adjust the curriculum accordingly.