By Maitri Dalal ’16

Among the many buildings on Williston Campus, the Whitaker Bement Center, or the Williston Middle School, is one of the most important ones. It is where at least 70 of the students have most of their classes. Those students are the middle schoolers who have the privilege of their own building.

There are many benefits to being a middle schooler. We don’t have to constantly switch buildings for classes or walk across campus as much. middle schoolers do. We  not have to wake up early every other Saturday to attend classes. The seventh graders are not required to take a sport, which gives us more time for homework. And the Upper School has a lot more stress and exams. The Middle School is a slightly laidback and an easier version of the Upper School.

However, there are some setbacks to the Middle School. Unlike the upper schoolers, the middle schoolers don’t have a free period to do their homework or to relax.  Neither do we get to choose our advisors each year. middle schoolers can not board at Williston, which can be tough for students who live far away from school. Another disadvantage is, that because the middle schoolers have their own building, we have not necessarily seen all of campus, whereas the upper schoolers spend part of their day traveling to different buildings across campus. The upper schoolers are more likely to know the campus better than the middle schoolers.

The Middle School and Upper School are considered different groups at Williston because of the fact that they have different schedules and events. Except for special all-school assemblies, assemblies for both are held in different buildings for the same reasons. At lunch the middle schoolers usually eat in the Cox Room while the rest of the school eats in the main room. The schedules are different for both groups so it is rare that both Upper and Middle School will hold an event together. However, the Upper and Middle School do get to interact and work with each other for projects, clubs and this newspaper, which really shows that Williston is a united community.