If one were restricted to a single adjective to attach to middle school and middle schoolers most people would choose the adjective difficult. The reasons for this are manifold, changing focal points in primary relationships from adults to peers, the raw matrix of group dynamics, and developmental surges in both physical and intellectual spheres, to name a few. Linda Perlstein’s new book, not much just chillin’ the hidden lives of middle schoolers, does such a superb job of capturing the poignancy and difficulty of its topic that it is itself difficult to write about.
    Perlstein spent a year essentially hanging out with a number of different middle school groups in a suburban Maryland Middle School. Through exceptional personal management she managed to fade from view as an observer to become an accepted and, I suspect, welcome part of the landscape of her subjects. Sensitivity to sources of irritation is a key component of the difficulty of middle school life, and the success of Perlstein’s study undoubtedly involved the same light, but confident touch evident everywhere in her writing, a steady, penetrating insight unimpeded by intellectual or sentimental preconceptions.
    Perlstein’s account is sustained by a depth and intimacy which, given the nature of her subjects, seems almost impossible. The reader, in accepting the authenticity of the account, cannot help question how such remarkable intimacy was achieved. Patience, that elusive quality, is surely the answer. One assumes the author to be unusually adept at not finishing people’s sentences for them, at not trying to capture a complex web at the sight of its first strand.
    Reading not much just chillin is a bit like trying to hold one’s ground in an active surf zone, as a steady progression of provocative scenes unfold. The battle of content versus nurture in curriculum, the desperation of parents losing the access and intimacy of contact with their children, striking out helplessly for some combination of words and actions which will reopen their password blocked relationships, the crushing group pressures, the ironic benefits of not being popular, these and many more themes work through the text in a truly compelling manner.
    "If Eric were really screwed up-if he were blowing most of his classes instead of a couple, if he weren’t such a ‘good kid’, as everyone calls him, if his mother never showed up at school-maybe there would be a more thorough, more meaningful intervention to keep Eric from crumbling. But this one ends here."
    The notion of being thought provoking is perhaps overrated, in that most thoughts are probably not worth having. Not much just chillin, however, provokes thoughts whose urgency and importance for parents and educators is undeniable. Anyone, however, who has the stomach to revisit their middle school years, will be well rewarded for the effort made to experience Perlstein’s book.