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Can we change to something else? I am very confused every time I see it, because in the US, middle school is the pre-teen/early teen years (ie, 11-13), grades 6-8 commonly (or 7-9 or 7-8). While I know this is an international site, and perhaps in other places it does refer to these younger children (8-11), I think this probably should be something else given it will be confusing for our US readers.

What, I don't have a good answer for, so please suggest possibilities in the answers.

One possibility is we split up the 'school-based' tags and the 'age-category' tags. IE, is "questions related to students in grades 1-5 (US) or equivalent, commonly ages 6-10", is "questions related to students in grades 6-8 (US) or equivalent, commonly ages 11-13", and for "questions related to students in grades 9-12 (US) or equivalent, commonly ages 14-18", or some more international-compatible concepts. And then, seperately, have for ages 10-12, [tags:teen] for 13-17, and something else for one or more ranges above pre-schooler (5+) and below pre-teen.

Then, encourage people to use school tags for questions where school grade is important (ie, has some relation to the question) and the age tags where the age is important but the question is unrelated to school things (most questions).

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  • You've got a point! I never realized that we inadvertently built school labels into our age tags, and it makes good sense to separate school and age. I'll post an answer if/when I come up with useful suggestions, but for now I'm agreeing with you here.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Jun 19, 2014 at 21:25

2 Answers 2

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I think the simplest, and least disruptive, solution would be to change the tag description to something more focused on the appropriate age range, rather than the education.

The phrase Middle Childhood seems to be fairly common, both in common use and scientific literature, however the definitions seem to vary.

Wikipedia defines Middle Childhood as:

Middle childhood begins at around age seven or eight, approximating primary school age. It ends around puberty, which typically marks the beginning of adolescence.

Other references seem to define it as anywhere from 7 - 11, to 9 - 11, so I think we're in the right ballpark.

I propose we change to be , with an appropriate synonym redirect.

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  • Bump - did we ever do anything about this?
    – Joe
    Jul 18, 2014 at 22:33
  • I was hoping to get more than 2 votes before making a change like this, but it seems that that's all the participation we're likely to get. I'll try to make the change later today, when I'm not stuck using my phone.
    – user420
    Jul 19, 2014 at 14:39
  • Sorry for the late joining, but I disagree with removing a school component from the tagging. School is important and the various levels of school have different challenges. Age, of course, has its own challenges, too. But questions about high school relationships, for example, are uniquely different from middle school relationships.
    – Sylas Seabrook
    Jul 23, 2014 at 14:02
  • @JeremyMiller We actually don't have high-schooler. Instead, we have teen and pre-teen, which, I believes, gives that level of distinction I think you are looking for. middle-schooler is not well defined for an international audience, as Joe indicated.
    – user420
    Jul 23, 2014 at 14:27
  • I agree with the problem of one-word to represent the international community being a challenge. Perhaps going with how you have suggested is the best way for now and we will see how the school-specific tagging component develops as the site develops.
    – Sylas Seabrook
    Jul 23, 2014 at 14:37
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In the US, grades 1-5 are typically considered elementary school; grades 6-8 are typically referred to as Middle School (in some regions, grades 6-8 are referred to as Junior High); grades 9-12 are typically called high school.

Middle School is what it is: grades 6-8.

"Middle-childhood", to me, implies being in the state of adolescence (Middle School kids are usually ages 11 to 14, depending.). The term "Middle-childhood" does not imply what grade level a child is in.

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  • Our tag system is actually focused on age, rather than grade. This is intentional as grade-level doesn't translate well for an international audience (or even here within the U.S., where Junior High Schools fill a similar-yet-different niche as middle schools). primary-schooler and middle-schooler are (were) the only age tags referencing school-related identifiers. Given the international nature of the community (plus homeschoolers, unschoolers, etc., for whom standard grade definitions may not apply), the community decided to define tags by age range, rather than academic level.
    – user420
    Sep 2, 2014 at 17:43
  • Also, welcome to the site :)
    – user420
    Sep 2, 2014 at 17:43
  • Also also... Junior High is sometimes grades 7-9, so doesn't exactly correspond to Middle School.
    – user420
    Sep 2, 2014 at 17:45

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