When I was 14....

[3113]

Some of her friends have boyfriends, some haven't. Some relationships are at the holding hands stage, others are far more advanced. Then there's the girls who wish they had a boyfriend, but get all giggly and embarrassed at the very thought.

It's nice to know things haven't changed that much...even with mobile phones.

 

[3113]

It is definitely no fun being a 16-year-old college freshman, let me tell you . . . .

I would have frickin' killed to have gone to college at 16. I was *SO* ready to leave High School by then and my senior year was a complete waste of time.

 

[3113]

in a school district that had a Middle School, 13 was the last year of middle school (8th grade) and 14 was the first year of high school (9th grade).

Ah, see, my Jr. High had 7th, 8th and 9th grade. You went to High School when you hit 10th grade (age 15). So the only difference between 8th and 9th grade was the 9th graders were the "seniors" of the jr. high...and in jr. high that didn't make much difference at all--not like High School where seniors were bound for adulthood and college and all that.

 

[Handprints]

Ouch! Just remembering is mostly unpleasant...

My birthday comes right at the end of the year so, in addition to being the shortest and smallest boy in most of my classes (we had a couple of seriously underfed kids from Vietnam and Bangladesh show up when I was 13), I was the last to go through puberty. I was a 5'0" shortstop who looked about 10, standing next to a 6'3" second baseman who looked about 19, especially when he smoked.

I had desperate crushes on perky cheerleader types, none reciprocated. This probably explains why I went through dozens of them at university, then abandoned them for good.

I had the additional handicap of being "the brainy one," which meant only the geeky or outcast-artsy-type girls would admit to liking me. It took me about 15 years before I realised they were the ones I liked best and married one...

The only fond memories I have of girls at that age are the first one I kissed and the first one I did things with (we were both 14) of which, I believe, discussion is barred, given our ages. To any 14 year old boys reading this, I highly recommend girls with four older brothers, each of whom has an extensive porn collection. It gives them ideas...

 

[angela146]

Ah, see, my Jr. High had 7th, 8th and 9th grade. You went to High School when you hit 10th grade (age 15). So the only difference between 8th and 9th grade was the 9th graders were the "seniors" of the jr. high...and in jr. high that didn't make much difference at all--not like High School where seniors were bound for adulthood and college and all that.

It's interesting to see the differences in generations (I'm assuming that you are somewhat older than I am, please forgive if I'm incorrect).

I read somewhere that the age of puberty has been going down by about 6 months per decade for the past hundred years or so (on average). In the Edwardian era (a hundred years ago), a "normal" girl would start to develop breasts at about age 14.

Today, it's "normal" at about age 9 or so - but in my generation (I was 9-years-old 23 years ago), I was an "early bloomer".

So, if you are about 20 years older than I am, it would make sense for your highschool to start at grade 10.

That's the problem with talking about what things were like at a particular age or year in school. You have to consider what decade you are talking about.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

3113, I'm way too old to remember what life was like when I was that age though odds are it was dull and meaningless. However, it's been my esperience that there is no precise age formula. All else being equal, those who have made it past puberty will have different experiences from those who have not. For that age group, it's the great divide.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Vermilion]

I dunno Angela, 3113, I went to an English senior school, ages from 11 to 18 so 13 and 14 were not that different in many things, but there was a definite difference for me in how I felt and behaved... 13 I was only just getting used to puberty, but 14 I had kinda figured it out a bit, had dared to ask for some 'pretty' underwear for Christmas (ie- not white and cotton) and was allowed out on my own a bit more (hey, I grew up in London, my mum would have been nuts to let me out alone too young, though she was, I think, a little more protective than some...)

I dunno... 13 was the end of childhood, 14 was the start of teenagedom... for me, at any rate.

x
V

 

[cloudy]

It's interesting to see the differences in generations (I'm assuming that you are somewhat older than I am, please forgive if I'm incorrect).

I read somewhere that the age of puberty has been going down by about 6 months per decade for the past hundred years or so (on average). In the Edwardian era (a hundred years ago), a "normal" girl would start to develop breasts at about age 14.

Today, it's "normal" at about age 9 or so - but in my generation (I was 9-years-old 23 years ago), I was an "early bloomer".

So, if you are about 20 years older than I am, it would make sense for your highschool to start at grade 10.

That's the problem with talking about what things were like at a particular age or year in school. You have to consider what decade you are talking about.

I don't think it's really the decade as much as it is the area you went to school in.

Where I live now, "middle school" goes through 8th grade, and high school starts in 9th. I grew up in California, though, and they don't have "middle schools" there, they have "junior highs" which go through 9th grade. The difference still exists, so its not the decade, but the area you went to school in.

 

[3113]

Where I live now, "middle school" goes through 8th grade, and high school starts in 9th. I grew up in California, though, and they don't have "middle schools" there, they have "junior highs" which go through 9th grade. The difference still exists, so its not the decade, but the area you went to school in.

Cloudy's correct. It also depends on *where* in CA you live. Some "Middle schools" are just 7th and 8th (12-13) others are 7th-9th (12-14). I also know quite a few private school kids who never had the middle school experienced. There's elementary up to age 11, and high school from age 12.

If you're right about age of physical maturation, then I'd assume there'd be even less difference between 13-14. A girl who got her period at 9-10 would have been going through puberty for at least two years and have even less adjustments to make. Mind you, when I think of 13-14 differences as being slight I'm talking girls. I got my "adult" look at age 13 (breasts, shape, height, etc.). There was a huge difference between 12-13 for that reason, infusion of hormones included, but not much between 13-14 outside of gaining more comfort/confidence with my "adult" body. Boys...well, all bets are off with boys and their unpredictable growth spurts, cracking voices and dropping testicles

 

[buxxxom]

Where I live, middle schools in the county are just "new-fangled" and the school board doesn't like them. The city schools in my county have always, at least in my lifetime, fed into a middle school. There is much debate, still.