not much just chillin’

In her anthropological study eloquently entitled not much just chillin’ (2003), Perlstein ventures into the lives of middle school students ranging from ages eleven to thirteen. Their secular culture has instilled a drive in them to grow up faster than they should and mirror the behaviors of vied after high school students. She cites, in her opening chapter, a third grader inquiring to his mother: “What if I skip middle school and go straight to high school?” (7); this interaction epitomizes the innate desires of many children his age. Why are middle school children so eager to speed through childhood into their adolescent years, only to slow to a tortoise-like pace, if not an abrupt stop, in this race during their latter stages of adolescence? The fact of the matter is that children are maturing too fast, especially for their parents. By stutter-stepping through adolescence, they can’t possibly prepare themselves for the surreal world of adulthood. Maybe if we as a society took action to prevent this stutter-stepping from occurring amongst youth at a young age, we can facilitate their transition into the adult world.