Kurt Johnston - My School

INVERT

MY SCHOOL
Copyright 2007 by Kurt Johnston and Mark Oestreicher

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN:0-310-86317-1

Youth Specialties products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other (except for brief quotations in printed reviews)without the prior permission of the publisher.

Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties. com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and provide replacement URLs if available.

Creative Team: Dave Urbanski, Laura Gross, Mark Novelli, Janie Wilkerson,
and Rich Cairnes
Cover design by Gearbox

07 08 09 10 11 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

DEDICATION

Somehow, we survived middle school, but we know we wouldnt have survived as well if it werent for our church youth leaders who cared for, listened to, believed in, and tolerated us. This book is dedicated to all of them. But particularly...

Marko will never forget that time in seventh grade when Terry Prisk told him hed make a good youth pastor. It was in the hallway just outside the Fellowship Hall at Ward Church, and the exact quote was, Oes-treicher, youd make a great youth pastor someday. And Marko has never been the same since Jerry Smith said he saw leadership abilities in him.

Kurt will always be thankful for John Miller, who patiently and faithfully taught his Sunday school class. John also showed up at Kurts football games, took him dirt bike riding, and modeled a love for Jesus that changed his life.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Marko wants to thank his amazing familyJeannie, Liesl, and Maxfor being so loving and for being patient while I was writing. Thanks to the fine teachers and administrators of Bryant Junior High School in Livonia, Michigan (which is now a field!), for helping me survive my own middle school experience.

Kurt wants to thank Rachel, Kayla, and Cole for constantly allowing me to do the stuff I believe God is asking me to do, like writing this book. Thanks to the wonderful teachers and administrators of Granada Middle School, in La Mirada, California, for making middle school something I actually enjoyed!

CONTENTS

See this really dorky picture right here? Thats me, Marko, when I was in middle school. Nice shirt collar, huh? Can you tell I wasnt the most popular kid in school? Uh, yeah.

How about this groovy picture? Thats me, Kurt, back during my middle school years. That haircut rocked, huh? Sure, whatever.

We wanted you to see those picturesas embarrassing as they arebecause we want you to know that we remember what its like to be a middle school student. Partly, we remember because weve been working with middle schoolers in churches for a long time. We dont work with high school kids or with any other age group. Thats because were both convinced of a few things:

First, middle schoolers are the coolest people in the world. Really! Wed rather hang out with a group of middle school students than any other age group.

Next, God really cares (we mean, REALLY CARES) about middle school studentsabout you. And we believe God is stoked about the possibility of having a close relationship with you.

Finally, the middle school years (from about 11 to 14 years old) are HUGELY important in building a FAITH that will last for your whole life.

This book is the fourth in a new series: The Middle School Survival Series. The first book is all about your faith (thats why its called My Faithduh!). The second book is about your Family (its called, not-so-surprisingly, My Family). The third book is also available nowits called My Friends. And we have two more books planned for the series: My Changes and My Future. We hope youll read them all!

Oh, one more thing: you dont have to read these 75 chapters in any particular order. Its not that kind of book. You can read them in order if you want (if youre one of those people who likes order!); or you can just flip through and read whatever catches your attention.

We believe in you, and well be praying for you (really, we will), that while you read this, youll grow in your understanding of God (just like the Bible says Jesus did when he was your age!), of how much God loves you, and of how God would do anything to let you know him!

Kurt and Marko

SECTION 1
MIDDLE SCHOOL
BASICS

WHOSE IDEA WAS SCHOOL,
ANYWAY?

STUFF YOU MAY NOT HAVE LEARNED IN MIDDLE SCHOOL: EVERY U.S. BILL, REGARDLESS OF DENOMINATION, COSTS JUST FOUR CENTS TO MAKE.

Well, theres no one answer to that one. In some ways, you could say it was Gods idea because God instructed parents to teach and guide their kids. And that process of teaching and guiding shifted over the years.

One of the earliest groups of people to have an educational system (a school system) for all kids (not just the rich ones) was the Jewish people. All Jewish kids (well, all boysonly some of the girls), no matter if they were rich or poor, went to study with a rabbi (say RAB-bye). Rabbis are Jewish leaders, so itd be like if you went to study with the pastor of your church.

And get thisJewish kids memorized the entire Torah (say TOR-ruh)the first five books of our Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Seriously! Can you imagine trying to memorize that much? Grab a Bible, flip through those pages, and check em out.

The kids in the Jewish schools didnt just memorize stuff, though. They also had long conversations about what the stories and teachings meant. By the time they were 12 years old, they could quote the entire Torah and answer all kinds of complicated questions about Jewish beliefs. How does that make you feel about your homework?

Anyhow, except for the Jewish people and a few other exceptions, for thousands of years schools were for rich kids only. But about 100 to 150 years ago, people in many countries of the world decided everyone has the right to an education. Even then, until much more recently, school was offered through only the eighth grade for most kids.