Middle school students, school and free time, Joël Zaffran

What do middle schoolers do outside of school? What are their favorite school and extracurricular activities? What are the connections between the two? Why do they prefer the mall to the recreation center? These are legitimate questions for parents, but also for any adult responsible for adolescents. Based on a survey of young people aged twelve to sixteen, the author examines the different moments in a middle schooler's life: school time, family time, and free time. The results are unexpected: their free time is reduced to a minimum, and the periods spent outside of school - with family, at the sports club, or at the recreation center - are tightly structured and, probably to reassure parents, modeled on the school system. It is therefore not surprising that middle schoolers shun the leisure facilities meant to accommodate them. The quest for free time free from all constraints is necessary, even structuring: time for oneself is time among oneself; there's no escaping it. The author invites us to reflect on this new question: how can we adapt free time to the real needs of adolescents, in order to establish a balance between academic demands and their social and personal needs? This book will be of particular interest to educators and social workers who work for or with young people.