The brain of an eighth grader

The term "eighth-grade disease" was coined in a nightly radio program in Japan in 1999. The word got popular after the program host Hikaru Ijwin said, “I still suffer from eighth-grade disease.” The affliction can be characterized by lack of common sense and bluffing. Writing on ancient Egyptian papyrus say the young generation is rude but today’s middle school students are even worse. One joke even says North Korea cannot attack South Korea because the former is scared of the latter`s middle schoolers.

Violence at middle schools (5,376 cases) accounted for 68.7 percent of the combined 7,823 cases of school violence in Korea last year. The state-run School Violence Prevention Center found that middle school students took up 49.9 percent of student counseling on school violence last year. A police station in Seoul arrested three middle school students who roughed up their friend and locked him up in an underground apartment parking lot. They videotaped their action with their mobile phones and sent the video clip to their girlfriends.

The government is seeking to prevent school violence. A good solution can be devised only after understanding the brain of a middle school student. The human brain has three parts – the brain stem or a reptile’s brain that controls breathing and body temperature; the limbic system or a mammal’s brain that governs emotions, memories, sexual desire and appetite; and the frontal lobe or a primate’s brain that governs reason and curbs impulses. A mammal’s brain is most developed and the frontal lobe is immature in a middle schooler. The frontal lobe matures at age 30 for men and 24 for women.

Young people get sleepy when they sit at a desk to study. This is because of how a reptile’s brain works. They do not answer to their mothers but get into the rhythm because of a mammal’s brain responses. When adults loudly scold them, they get overwhelmed by a flood of emotions due to excessive adrenaline and their brain shifts to reptile mode. Just like snakes or alligators attacking or running away from other animals, children show similar responses. Since their frontal lobe is immature, they neither feel guilty about bad behavior nor empathize with other people’s pain. A middle school student’s brain is unpredictable but at the same time has large potential since it has room for development. Only education and guidance can set them on the right way.

Editorial Writer Chung Sung-hee (shchung@donga.com)