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Decorah Middle School Cafeteria. Talking to middle school students as they are surrounded by their friends in their free time to socialize at lunch is quite a unique experience. Not only do you get to see the way sets up their lunch program with rules and regulations the students must follow, but also you get to see the social interactions. Here are a few things I found out. Only three students had cell phones (out of probably 30 I talked to ranging from grades five-eight). I think this is a positive. Many students responded that they didn't have one, but would be receiving on when they went to high school. With another question being "how do you communicate with your friends outside of school," most responded that they would either call on land lines or talk over msn or aol(mostly eighth graders). I think this is a positive. I don't believe any middle schooler needs a cell phone. Communication and interaction between parents and students should be quality enough that parents know where students are, what they are doing, and when they need a ride without having to have a cell phone. Second thing I observed and was told, was that students aren't allowed to switch seats after they first sit down. While I realize this was probably a tactic to save time with the limitations of the around 20 minute lunch 'hour,' I had to still laugh. The individual non-movable chairs instead of what I had, benches, in my middle school cafeteria made the choice seem more stressful, permanent, and exclusive to students. Only ten or twelve students could fit at each table. As anyone knows, all the 'clicks' have designated tables in middle school and sometimes high school. So you can see how this only ten spots per table could be quite a situation for the middle school social life. I watched as boys, all on the football team, and 'made up' girls sat down at a table together. I wondered when the girls and boys starting integrating tables, because in the seventh grade lunch this wasn't happening. I thought about the girls or boys who were then left with no seats at 'their' table when the girls or boys came together. Concluding, while the cafeteria seating may seem very minuet in the education of students, socially it can make a huge impact on their life and it is something to think about.