As the new school year begins, we have stories today from all over the country about people lurching their way through their middle school years – the years when you're figuring out so, so much. We go to school dances and classrooms, and down to the Mexican border.  Visit thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners to sign up for our premium subscription. (00:00:00) Prologue: Host Ira Glass interviews a 14-year-old named Annie, who emailed us asking if we would do a show about middle school. She explains why exactly the middle school years can be so daunting. (4 minutes) (00:05:42) Act One: In an effort to understand the physical and emotional changes middle school kids experience, Ira speaks with reporter Linda Perlstein, who wrote a book called Not Much Just Chillin' about a year she spent following five middle schoolers. Then we hear from producer Alex Blumberg, who was a middle school teacher in Chicago for four years before getting into radio. Alex's takeaway? We shouldn't even try teaching kids at this age. Marion Strok, principal of a successful Chicago school, disagrees. (6 minutes) (00:11:49) Act Two: We sent correspondents straight to the epicenters of middle school awkwardness: school dances. We spoke with kids across the country during the nervous moments leading up to the dances, and even ventured inside, to the dance itself. (9 minutes) (00:21:51) Act Three: When Domingo Martinez was growing up in a Mexican-American family in Texas, Domingo's two middle school-aged sisters found a unique way of coping with feelings of inferiority. (11 minutes) (00:33:42) Act Four: We realized that there are already reporters on the ground, embedded inside middle schools: the kids who report the daily announcements. Producer Jonathan Menjivar wondered what would happen if instead of announcing sports scores and the daily cafeteria menu, the kids reported what's really on their minds. Students at Parkville Middle School outside Baltimore, along with their journalism teacher Ms. Davis, agreed to try out this experiment. (7 minutes) (00:40:01) Act Five: Producer Sarah Koenig reports on a kid we'll call Leo, whose family moved away from Rochester, NY, leaving behind all of Leo's friends and stranding him in a new — and in his opinion, much worse — middle school. (10 minutes) (00:50:59) Act Six: Ira speaks with Shannon Grande, a teacher at Rise Academy in Newark, about a seventh grader who had all sorts of problems with behavior, hygiene, and schoolwork. To help turn him around, Grande had to harness the power of peer pressure for good. (7 minutes) Transcripts are available at thisamericanlife.org / This American Life privacy policy. / Learn more about sponsor message choices.