Everything you need to know about Barstow’s middle school mixer.
Barstow’s first ever middle school mixer was a big success. There were games, music, food, and lots of fun. A lot of people showed up from all different grades.
Mr. Muhammad, the Dean of Students, said, “I think middle school students need a chance to engage with each other socially outside of the school day and have opportunities to unwind.”
This is true especially at the beginning of the school year when you haven’t seen your friends in a while. The middle school mixer was an amazing way to meet new people and to just have a good time with your friends.
Mr. Muhammad said that a mixer is a chance to just have fun and build community, and to forget about school for a little while, “I think that we kind of need to coach kids on how to have fun, because there is so much focus on academics here.”
That can be the case for a lot of kids, which is why having mixers is so good for Barstow or any school. A mixer is a safe space for you to have fun and dance without worrying about “What’s due tomorrow?” and “Oh, there’s a big test on Monday”. Mixers are happy environments where you don’t have to worry about anything.
To plan the mixer, there were a couple steps that needed to be taken. Over the summer, Mr. Muhammad met with the middle school pep club to see what they wanted to do for it. They made a plan and put it into action.
The mixer was originally going to be on the first Friday of the school year, but a wrench was thrown in that plan. With the upper school mixer on the same day, it just became too chaotic. Just another example of how resilient Barstow is.
Ms. Stribling played a big part in making the mixer possible by ordering the pizza and planning where it would be.
Mr. Muhammad also said that the upper school mixers had gone well in the past, and that he hoped that there would be at least 100 people at the mixer. There were at least that many people, maybe even more.
Mr. Muhammad hopes to create a new tradition with the middle school mixer and do it every year.
