A Word for the Fear of School

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sloan from Omaha, Nebraska.

Hi, Sloan. Welcome to the show.

What can we do for you, Sloan?

Well, I’m going into middle school next year,

And one day while I was wondering how in the world I’m going to survive,

I was thinking and wondering if there’s a word for the fear of middle school.

One single word for the fear of middle school.

You have a fear of middle school?

Kind of. I’m mostly excited, but I’m a little nervous.

-huh. And what are you nervous about?

Mostly not knowing very many people.

Mm—

And also, like, just most of it, I guess.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, those are perfectly legitimate fears, and we can tell you, Sloan, you’re not alone.

I mean, that’s a really big step going from elementary to middle school.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What years is your middle school there?

How many years does it cover?

Two years. We start in seventh grade.

Oh, seventh grade.

So it’s what I called junior high growing up.

Yeah, yeah, that’s what I called junior high as well.

So you’re probably 12?

Yes.

Okay.

I’m turning 12 today.

Oh, happy birthday.

Happy birthday, Sloan.

There are a couple of fancy words for fear of school in general.

I don’t know about middle school specifically, but they’re so long and fancy,

And it doesn’t really sound like what you’re describing.

I mean, if you want to know these words, one of them is scolionophobia.

It looks like scolionophobia, but it’s just one O there before the L.

Scolionophobia.

And that one comes from Latin words.

And then there’s another one, didascolinophobia.

I don’t think I can say that.

It’s hard for me to say, Sloan.

But those are pretty fancy terms that refer to a really extreme version of being afraid to go to school.

I’m thinking that maybe if it’s just a matter of not knowing folks there for the most part,

It’s sort of like what we adults have when we go to a party.

Maybe we don’t know people there.

There’s neophobia, which is the fear of new things.

And there’s agnosticophobia, which is the fear of things that you don’t know.

Okay.

Yeah.

So there are lots of different things.

But as far as one single word for fear of middle school, we don’t have one.

But, Sloan, I want to ask you a question.

Are you going to a completely different school system?

Or is there a chance that some of the kids from your elementary school will also be in the seventh grade with you?

I’m going to my district’s middle school.

So there is a chance that I’ll see some kids.

But my school is very small.

Yeah.

And there’s a lot of bigger schools in my district.

So I’ll probably be pretty split up.

Yeah, you’ll be overwhelmed by kids from other schools.

You know, I have a 12-year-old, and he likes middle school partly because he feels like this is the first step towards becoming more independent and getting a little more of that freedom.

And maybe that’s something I could recommend to you where you have a little more control over your schedule, a little more control over your life.

They trust you to do things more.

They don’t treat you as much like a baby or a really small child anymore.

So maybe that will help take some of the sting out of it if you can think about middle school as you growing up and you becoming the great adult that you’re going to be.

Sure. Thank you.

You’re welcome.

You know, Sloan, I would also just say that it’s not every seventh grader-to-be who can call a national radio show and it sounds so good on the air.

Yeah, you have poise and composure.

Yeah.

Congratulations.

Yeah, I bet you’re going to do really well.

Will you be in touch with us later and let us know how it’s going?

Sure, I’ll try.

Okay, great.

Take care.

We appreciate your call, Sloane.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I remember we moved around a lot when I was growing up,

And I remember at first, like the first time we went to a new school,

I was like, you know, second grade, these new people.

And it turned out all the things I liked were still there.

They still had a library.

There was still lunch in the middle of the day.

They still had time to read on the bus.

And so many of the things that I enjoyed about my old school were always found.

And there was always somebody with my sense of humor and somebody else who liked to read the things I like to read.

And it just took a couple of weeks and it all worked out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it’s perfectly natural to be afraid of a transition, whatever it is.

Right.

We welcome your calls.

And no matter your age, no matter your background, no matter what the issue is, as long as it’s about language somehow.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.