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If sixth grade were a part of middle school it would benefit not only the sixth grade students, but also their older and younger counterparts.

Children in the sixth grade are 11 to 12 years old. At that age some boys and girls are beginning to enter puberty and are starting to experience the dramatic physical and emotional changes that come with it. Being the oldest kids in the school forces them to go through these often frightening changes with little more than parents and teachers to guide them, and even then most of the advice is medical, rather than practical, in nature. But by the eighth grade almost all children have begun to develop, and many have begun, however awkwardly, to understand and accept their new teen-aged selves. Being surrounded every day by more mature eighth graders could help de-mystify a lot of what the future holds in store for a confused child in grade six.

Three years of middle school might also make young people see it as more of an event than merely a transition phase to high school. While much of middle school is focused on preparing students for the demands of higher learning it also contains a significant chunk of the knowledge that students will actually need later in life. Middle school mathematics takes the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and combines them with other concepts to teach the type of math that students are likely to need in their day-to-day adult lives. English and Language Arts courses are the last chance a student will have to perfect their spelling, grammar and composition, a point that could be hammered home repeatedly by middle school teachers. In high school these essential skills will be assumed knowledge, and the focus will turn to critical thinking and analysis, rather than construction. Three years of this "sink or swim" approach to learning would greatly improve a student's ability to both learn and function independently in the high school system.

In elementary school the fifth graders would benefit the most from being the eldest class, but the whole school would benefit. Most fifth graders aren't entering puberty, nor do many of them want to yet think and act like teenagers. For the most part, they're still happy just being kids, and without the pressure to act "grown up" that being surrounded by more physically and emotionally mature sixth graders might bring, fifth graders would have more time to establish their own values and individuality.

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