Middle School – Safety Goggles Advised: Exploring the WEIRD Stuff from Gossip to Grades, Cliques to Crushes and Popularity to Peer Pressure
by Jessica Speer (Goodreads Author)

2 out of 5 stars

This book gives advice about how to navigate the difficulties of middle school. There are chapters about not judging others, bullying, friendships and cliques, trying to be popular, having a crush on someone, gossip, social media, and peer pressure.

My main problem with this book was that it didn’t really go into WHY young people should avoid bad decisions and toxic behaviors. It didn’t talk about honor or morality or modesty. It didn’t talk about honesty or virtue. It just says lots of nice things about being kind to others, but the whole philosophy is very casual and lackadaisical. It even says at one point that “There are no correct responses.” You can do whatever and make whatever choices and nothing is right or wrong. The entire attitude is very amoral and toxic.

There is one little paragraph about sexting that says that it is not a good idea to send nude photos to anyone because those photos might not end up being private. They could be shared or posted online, so it’s a bad idea to sext anyone because you need to protect your privacy. But nothing is said about respecting yourself, respecting your body, having modesty, or reporting the person who asked you for nude photos or sent you nude photos. There are a myriad of reasons why sexting is a bad idea, but only one reason was mentioned. Nothing about how it is immoral and abnormal and should be reported.

Same thing with bullying, and peer pressure, and a lot of other serious topics.
The chapter on peer pressure just talks about not allowing yourself to be pressured into doing something that you don’t want to do. It doesn’t even go into why vaping, alcohol, and drugs are destructive and illegal in the first place. This book doesn’t go enough into depth. It just scrapes the surface, but doesn’t explain the full issues with these topics.

There is a lot of nice advice in this book, and the design is really attractive and fun. But I just couldn’t get past the nonchalant morality and purposeless philosophy. It’s like you are equipping children with tools to navigate serious issues in life, and when they get out there they realize that the tools you gave them are made of sand, and your philosophy crumbles into dust because it is not built on anything real or lasting.

I wish there were a book like this with strong morals, and real advice about right and wrong, and real solutions to ethical problems. I wish there were a book like this that championed truth and goodness and virtue, because those are the only tools that will actually help you in life.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.