01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 26, 2006

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

David Dennis holds his chin in his hands, staring intently at three adults standing at the front of the auditorium. They are guidance counselors from Middletown High School.

They are here this January morning to lay out the future for David, 13, and 180 other eighth graders at Joseph H. Gaudet Middle School.

"Right now you are the top of the heap. You are the oldest ones in the school," one of the counselors says. "When you go to the high school, you will be starting over again, like when you were fifth graders in this building."

She ticks off the requirements David and his classmates will have to fulfill to receive a high school diploma.

They must complete 110 credits.

"Does that sound like a lot?" she asks.

"Yeah," the students reply in unison.

High school students must also create a portfolio of their work each year, she tells them.

They must develop a senior "capstone" project that integrates specialized knowledge and skills.

And prior to graduation, students must perform 40 hours of community service.

"High school is really not how it used to be," she says with a rueful look.

Neither is middle school.

Eighth grade has taken on heightened importance in recent years, as students, teachers and parents struggle to prepare for the high-pressure high school years. Students have to think about their futures at a younger age than previous generations, says Tracey Whitehead, a middle school specialist at the Rhode Island Department of Education.

"We see in Rhode Island, the old manufacturing jobs people used to get straight out of high school, with good pay and benefits. Those jobs are gone," Whitehead says. "Now all students really need higher levels of education to compete in the global economy."

After the winter break, the focus in Rhode Island's middle schools shifts from the present to the future, as 12,471 eighth graders begin to select their classes for ninth grade.

"Right about now, reality starts to sink in and they get nervous," says Mary Nassaney, who is in charge of Gaudet's two eighth-grade teams.

At the same time, eighth graders have more than academics on their minds. "Socially, they are developing," Nassaney says. "Friends are so important at this age."

Michael Convery, principal of Knotty Oak Middle School, in Coventry, says eighth graders inhabit the space between childhood and adulthood. "Some of them are 19 years old, mentally and physically, and some of them still play with cars and dolls," he says. "The same kid could be both those things on different days. That's the enigma of the middle schooler. They are everywhere."

Nassaney offers another definition of an eighth grader. "It's the child who doesn't know what they want to do, or who they want to be. Yet."

DAVID DENNIS, of Middletown, Jennifer Callaghan, of Coventry, Gigi DeBarros, of Pawtucket, and Adam Littlefield, of South Kingstown, are among those eighth graders beginning to sort through these perplexing issues. Their parents and teachers are encouraging them to think not only about their immediate plans, but also about their long-term futures.

"How many of you know what you want to do, career-wise?" the guidance counselor asks David's class.

About half the students raise their hands, including David.

"Do you want to go to college?" Almost every student raises his or her hand.

"You need to start thinking now about what you are interested in and what you are preparing yourself for," she says.

David thinks he already has a plan.

He wants to combine his aptitude for math with his love of drawing and tinkering with mechanics.

David spends his weekends playing with his younger brother, Daniel, and rebuilding race cars with his father, uncles and grandfather. The men race in a series called "hill climbing" in the mountains of Vermont. David used to be an avid NASCAR fan, but his enthusiasm for the sport has waned recently.

"It's become so commercialized," he says. "It used to be a bunch of guys going down racing, but now it's all about sponsors. It's more for money than enjoyment."

David's parents -- Dave, a subcontractor, and Claudette, an office manager -- didn't go to college. But David's great-grandfather was an engineer who helped design Walt Disney World in Orlando. His grandfather, an uncle and his uncle's wife are also engineers.

David hopes to follow in their footsteps, studying mechanical engineering at Northeastern University, where his grandfather went.

"I know being an engineer is something I would enjoy, and you can get good money for that," David says. "And then you can retire, and build a race car."

IN MID-JANUARY, Jennifer Callaghan, 13, is also facing her future. She sits with her parents as a Coventry High School administrator passes out pamphlets to about 150 eighth graders and parents at Knotty Oak Middle School.

The pamphlets hold the "Program of Studies" at the high school.

Jennifer is disappointed. Her parents, Pam. C. Greshan and Alan Callaghan, have decided they will not allow Jennifer to sign up for ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) when she enters ninth grade. Jenn's parents are divorced and share custody of her and her younger sister, Julianne.

"I've always been a tomboy, and I'm into the military and machines," Jenn says. "But my parents said, 'No way.' "

Jenn is happier about her electives for next year: technology and computer classes. This year is going well for Jenn. She made honor roll for the first time during the last trimester.

Keeping her grades up won't be easy.

"One of my weaknesses is that I don't always work my hardest on things," she says. "I admit that. Sometimes, I rush through things."

Jenn and one of her closest friends, Tiffany Tarbox, are two of just four girls -- out of 17 students -- in the after-school robotics club at Knotty Oak.

Jenn says she is unafraid of being different.

"Unlike most of the kids in my school, I don't have 8 million friends," she says. "That's OK, because I have quality over quantity."

She eats lunch every day with Tiffany and a few other friends.

"It's crazy, because if you look in our lunchroom, you'll see that me and Tiffany and Dan and Chris sit with two other friends, Ashley and Michelle. And the two tables around us are packed with kids, kids just falling out of their seats, and we're like 'Hey, there's space over here.' "

She shakes her head.

"So that just shows you."

ADAM LITTLEFIELD feels the pressure.

In early February, eighth graders at Curtis Corner Middle School in South Kingstown take tests in reading and writing. They know their math, science and social studies teachers are reviewing their grades. These tests and recommendations determine what classes the students will take at South Kingstown High School in the fall. Will a student take honors English, or an extra literacy class to bring him or her up to a ninth-grade reading level? Will math be honors geometry, regular geometry or another year of algebra?

"I definitely have to get into honors," says Adam, 14. "If I don't, I have to go to [Bishop] Hendricken, and I'm not looking forward to that."

He wants to go to the high school with his friends, some he's known since elementary school.

Adam's parents, Maureen and Robert, who is principal of Portsmouth High School, expect him to do well, Adam says. His older brother Tim, now in 11th grade at the high school, gets good grades. Both play musical instruments; Adam also plays several sports at school and on local teams, including wrestling, swimming and skiing.

"I have to get As," Adam says. "If I don't, that's not good enough for me. I think I could do better."

Eighth grade has proved harder than Adam expected.

"It's hard to keep up with everything that's going on," he says. "You can sit in math class for a whole week thinking 'I could have missed a day and I wouldn't have missed anything.' But then when you are sick for a day, it takes a week to catch up."

Lunch brings levity to the school day. Adam sits every day with seven friends -- three boys and four girls -- at an octagonal table.

"At the beginning, we were the only guy-girl table," says Emily Gruner, 13. "But we've all known each other for a while."

The mixing goes only so far. They don't sit boy-girl. Instead, Adam and the three other boys, Ben Sevy, Dan Murray and Matt Phipps, sit on one side, while Emily, Molly Devine, Mackenzie Cahoone and Breanna Hinson sit on the other.

They talk about a school dance held the previous Friday night.

"It was the best dance ever. It was awesome," Adam says.

"Of course you say that; you danced with, like, five girls," Emily says.

"The dance was so bad," Breanna says.

"The music was really bad," Molly says. "It was all old music."

Adam shakes his head. "The music was awesome," he says.

"He didn't dance with any of us; he ditched us," Emily says.

"Well, he danced once with Mackenzie. But that was it."

WHEN GIOVANNA "Gigi" DeBarros started Slater Junior High School in Pawtucket, most of her teachers seemed to already know her.

"Oh, I had your sister last year," they would say.

"Which one?" Gigi thought.

Gigi, 13, is the fourth of six daughters born to Maria Laura and Aristides. Her sisters are Caroline, 16; Vianis, 15; Andrea, 14; Yadira, 12; and Itati, 9.

"I always wanted a brother, because it gets really annoying with all sisters," Gigi says. "They hog the bathroom."

Gigi's three older sisters attend Shea High School and tell her not to worry about next year.

"My sisters are like, if you study and try hard, you'll do well in high school," she says. "So I'm not very nervous about school."

Gigi's parents emigrated from Cape Verde years before their daughters were born. For almost 29 years, Aristides worked at Providence Metallizing Co., a manufacturer of metal-coating and plating. Laura, as she prefers to be called, worked there for more than 20 years.

Both were laid off in 2004. Aristides became a truck driver, and Laura finished greeting cards at Paramount Cards in Pawtucket. Laura's job ended after 10 months, however, when the company announced plans to move to Canada. Until she finds a new job, she is at home with the children. The family is active in the local parish, Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Gigi is an altar server at Sunday Mass.

Gigi likes eighth grade far better than seventh. Last year, she says she felt overwhelmed.

"I was sick in the beginning of the school year, and I hated all the work," Gigi says. "But now I am just used to it. I love coming to school, my friends, the teachers."

Gigi's favorite subject is English, "because there are no right or wrong answers." Her most difficult class, she says, is history: "It's hard to remember all those dates."

At lunch, she sits with her closest friends -- all girls.

"We really didn't plan it that way, but you just tend to sit with who you are comfortable with," Gigi says.

She is not ready for a boyfriend. "I'm too young for that," Gigi says.

Maybe when she is 16, she'll feel ready, she says. "But my parents have their own ideas," Gigi says with a laugh. "They think 18 is the perfect age."

DAVID DENNIS and a classmate, Ian Weininger, 14, are the only two boys in Gaudet's after-school art club.

On a recent afternoon, the club members wander down one of the corridors to finish a series of murals they started a few weeks earlier. David wears faded jeans and a T-shirt that reads, "It's funny how you think I'm listening." He pushes a cart full of acrylic paint and buckets of brushes.

A dog gripping a piece of paper in its teeth stands at the center of David's mural. "Where's your homework?" is scrawled above the dog.

"Put a little lime green in that," David advises Ian. Ian starts to paint an alligator eating homework in the left corner of the mural, but neither boy knows what to paint on the other side.

A girl in the club has an idea, and begins painting the right corner dark blue.

"Are you going skating on Friday?" she asks David. The rink at the private St. George's School is popular during the winter. David shrugs. "I don't know," he tells her. "Maybe."

The murals completed, the art club packs up its supplies.

"They know the well-kept secret," art teacher Kathleen Sonier says of David and Ian, as the class walks back to the art room. "Girls are in art club."

IT IS VALENTINE'S DAY, and Jenn Callaghan wishes she could avoid the drama. Students at Knotty Oak can buy carnations for one another, and the first period is spent giving and receiving the pink, red and white flowers.

This year, Jenn is surprised when she receives three -- one from her English teacher, Ms. Dupuis, and two from friends. BFF reads the card on one carnation. Best Friends Forever.

"This year, our teacher gave everybody flowers because last year, a lot of kids were crying because they didn't get anything," Jenn says. "That's why I'm not really crazy about it."

Jenn says she and her friends prefer to celebrate birthdays and holidays such as Christmas and Halloween.

But not Valentine's Day.

"A big thing in my school is going out with someone. We don't do that," Jenn says of her friends. "I mean, we're in middle school. What are you seriously going to do?"

Jenn also avoids going to school dances. "I'm one of the 10 kids in my school that hasn't gone to a single dance. Not one," she says. "It's just not me."

She is reserving judgment about the end-of-the-year dance, known as the Farewell Dance, held in June for the departing eighth graders.

That one she may attend. "It depends," Jenn says.

THE WEEK BEFORE February vacation brims with excitement and anxiety at Curtis Corner.

Valentine's Day is Tuesday, and that means cards, candy and carnations for $1.25 apiece, an annual fundraiser for the student council.

Adam Littlefield receives three flowers.

Tuesday is also the day the eighth grade finds out what classes they have been assigned for ninth grade next fall.

Guidance counselor Loren Hedman passes out the forms during Adam's social studies class. "These recommendations are based on how you are doing today," she tells the class. "That means things could change between now and the end of the year."

Adam scans his form, then clenches his fists.

"Yeah," he says, his braces flashing.

Honors English, Honors Geometry, Earth Science A, Western Civilization A. Adam selects Honors Spanish as his first elective and Band as his second.

He will be going to South Kingstown High with his friends.

At the top of the form, on the line that reads post-secondary plan, Adam writes: college.

jjordan@projo.com / (401) 277-2754

MULTIMEDIA: Students in today's story talk about school and their outside interests, with more photographs by the Journal's Kathy Borchers, at:

http://projo.com/eighthgraders