Fears of Failure Hit 8th-Graders

Already, the eighth-graders can hear the taunts: Stupid. Dumb. Slow-brain.

Beyond that frightening prospect, there’s the pressure from teachers, principals and, worse, parents reminding them that they are in danger of being held back a grade.

As if life weren’t tough enough for angst-ridden middle-schoolers.

With Los Angeles Unified School District cracking down on social promotion--the long-held practice of advancing students to the next grade even when they are not academically ready--eighth-graders with lousy grades in English are feeling the heat.

“I worry about it a lot,” said Gerardo Barrera, an eighth-grader at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood. “I don’t even play my video games as much as I did. I don’t want to fail.”

Eighth- and second-graders will be in the first wave of this sweeping reform, one of many efforts designed to ensure that high school graduates in California have the right stuff for jobs and college.

In the Los Angeles school district, notices are being sent home this month informing parents of students who are failing English that their children still can advance with their classmates by passing a writing test this spring, raising their English grades to Ds by July or graduating from special summer classes. The district estimates that 4,000 eighth-graders, or about one-tenth of the students enrolled in those classes, are in danger of retention.

Many eighth-graders acknowledge that the fear of flunking is making them study harder, but they question whether adults realize how difficult it is to focus and succeed on an important test after a teacher’s stern warning that it can make or break a student.

They wonder whether adults realize all the other responsibilities they have after school, such as cooking dinner, helping younger siblings with homework, cleaning and working odd jobs at night to help support the family.

But what worries students most is the unforgiving ridicule that would inevitably follow retained students, according to interviews with dozens of eighth-graders of all social and ethnic backgrounds.

“The gifted kids already say I’m a slow-brain,” said Vanessa Reyes, 13, who attends Sutter Middle School in Winnetka.

“I’ve told my mom that I don’t want to go to school because I don’t want to fail. I don’t want to be stupid. I cry thinking about it.”

Although Vanessa earns passing grades in English, she struggles in math and believes that a failing grade in that subject will eventually hold her back in high school.

“I told my mom I was seriously thinking about not going to high school but she told me about the consequences, so I told her I would try it,” Vanessa said. “But what if I feel less-than because everyone calls me dumb?”

Eighth-graders of all academic levels agreed that students will be hard on those retained. The number of children held back will grow in coming years as Los Angeles Unified gradually expands its program to include more grades and subjects other than English, and as districts statewide implement their own policies starting next year.

“Everyone’s gonna be laughing at the kids who are kept back,” said George Eritsyan, 13, of Walter Reed Middle School. “They’ll say stuff like, ‘You’re stupid, you’re dumb, you didn’t pass.’ ”

George admitted he would probably make fun of them.

“Who wouldn’t?” he asked.

For eighth-graders, the pressure and fear of being scoffed at couldn’t come at a worse time. Insecurity, embarrassment, depression, moodiness and loneliness consume many self-conscious 13- and 14-year-olds as they grapple with the changes in their bodies, establishing an identity and making the transition into adulthood, psychologists said.

“They’re at a very sensitive time in their lives, perhaps the most delicate,” said Michael Gerson, a clinical psychologist in Westlake Village who specializes in children and adolescents. “A mark of failure could make a severe impact. It’s pretty fair to say it would not be a positive impact.”

Of course, Gerson and others agree that promoting failing students can inflict its own kind of damage. Often, those students never catch up and academic failure takes its toll on a child’s self-esteem.

Consider Gisela Rodriguez, a shy 13-year-old at Portola Middle School in Tarzana who attends after-school classes designed to bring up her math and English grades.

She dreads going to school, she said, because she just can’t seem to get it. “I don’t like studying much,” she said. “I don’t understand. I feel bad.”

Van Nguyen, 13, of Sepulveda Middle School, says the district is being generous. Most students who fail deserve it, he said, because they don’t try. He said teachers give extra attention to struggling students.

“A lot of kids fail because they just don’t care,” he said. “They’re getting a lot of chances to pass but they don’t even try. It’s hard to fail a class if you try.”

But Julie Lindeen, 13, a top student in the highly gifted magnet program at Portola Middle School, disagreed. She tutors peers after school and sees students struggle to understand reading and math.

“A lot of them try very hard,” she said. “I don’t think [the end of social promotion] is fair because some students come from bad elementary schools. They’ve had bad training and now they’re going to be punished?”

At Maclay Middle School in Pacoima, a 13-year-old boy hit another obstacle in his struggle to learn how to read. A few weeks ago, he lost his glasses.

“Reading is hard,” the boy said. “But it’s harder now because I can’t see that well. We haven’t been able to get me new glasses” because his parents cannot afford a new pair.

David Bar, 14, acknowledged that he has no excuse for slacking off in his classes at Portola. “I’m just lazy sometimes,” he said. “The work is boring. I have never liked school.”

His disdain is motivating him to try harder. He would hate to delay graduation.

“I just want to get school over with,” said David, who stays an hour after school on Mondays to attend an intervention class. “I don’t want to be in eighth grade again.”

Sandra Rodriguez, 14, of Sutter Middle School, has explained to her mother that to pass all her classes, sometimes she must only concentrate only on studying, such as on the night before a big test.

“My mom will tell me to do my chores,” she said, “and I’ll have to ask her: Do you want me to do my chores or pass?”

But no matter how hard she prepares or how much she understands the material, Sandra said, her mind often goes blank when she’s taking a test.

“I keep thinking, ‘What if I fail? What if I don’t make it to high school?’ ” she said. “It would be so embarrassing.”

When she’s alone and thinking about it, Sandra said, “I sometimes get mad and break down and cry.”