Eighth-grade priorities have been a major point of discussion at the Kingswood Oxford Middle School since the inception of the school. There is a recurring cycle of power and privilege that each new eighth-grade class can either go along with or make decisions to do something about.
Eighth grade priorities is where eighth-graders use their alleged “superiority” over the seventh and sixth graders. Some examples of actions based on this superiority mindset include cutting in front of the lunch lines and making them carry in the balls after practice.
Eighth-grader Brady Moy dealt with eighth grade priorities last year. “Sometimes people would cut me in line and that would make me kind of sad,” he said.
But with this year’s new COVID-19 protocols, opportunities for eighth-grade priorities have declined drastically. According to sixth-grader Ashton Binalla, “They don’t really play that big of a role,” she said. “Because of covid we don’t eat in the same area anymore, and sports are split up.”
At the beginning of the year, teachers were skeptical about how the eighth graders were going to treat the younger grades. Eighth-grade Form Dean Clay Miles explains how in years past, the eighth-graders went to Camp Winona to overcome these problems. But this year, because of COVID-19, they were not able to do this. However, KO has worked hard to overcome eighth-grade priorities.
KO is a much kinder, gentler and more aware place now,” he said. “That is because we have actively put into place life skills talks, we talk about it in home rooms, and we have done the equity curriculum. It is something we have been working on.”
Despite all this tension coming into the new year, the eighth-grade priorities were not that substantial this year.
A question that remains is was it the COVID-19 protocols that limited the eighth grade priorities or has the culture finally changed for good?
