Anonymous wrote:Middle school.
That is when major peer pressure first hits and when kids start to veer off track. Parent input matters so much less than peer input at that age, and kids really start to develop their own identities based off peer approval instead of teacher and parent approval.
If the middle school is strong and the kid identifies with a strong peer group, that is more likely to carry over to high school. Even average high schools can have a core group of strong students focused on college and achievement.
The top rich high schools are sometimes too pressure filled, or have large groupd of kids with too permissive parents and access to more ways to get in trouble.
I am in somewhat of agreement with this. Middle school matters the least academically but the most socially. This is when it started becoming apparent what path most of my classmates would follow. A few kids were late bloomers/burnouts in high school, but that was rare.