Classes focus on social graces and self-esteem

Tips for a great "up-do."

The latest fitness trends.

How to write a thank-you note.

Such snippets might be found splashed across a teen magazine cover.

But Granite Park Middle School girls can get the same tips — and more — just by showing up to first period.

These topics are taught in the school's popular "Beauty, Fitness and Fashion" class and its sister course, "Girls' Charm."

The classes are offered as part of the school's popular "flex" class, aimed at interesting kids in education as part of a school reform efforts, principal Robert McDaniel said.

It seems to be working: Kids, who can take just about anything from math tutoring to guitar lessons first thing in the morning, are choosing Granite Park instead of transferring out, McDaniel said. Test scores are up. Discipline problems are down.

Girls flock to the class for the beauty tips —"A lot of girls want to be princesses," McDaniel notes. But what teachers really hope to work on is what girls have on the inside.

"More than fashion and image," said Beauty Fitness and Fashion teacher Zoie Farmer, "we're trying to teach them self-worth."

Middle school can be a tough time. Students are changing physically and emotionally. And they're leaving a one-teacher elementary classroom for a big school where they deal with several teachers, lockers and perhaps hundreds of kids they don't know.

It's an educational turning point for some, experts say.

"We at the middle are our children's last great hope, because if they don't make it here, they too often don't make it to the high school's doors," said Lori Gardner, principal of Hunter Junior High and president of the Utah Middle Level Association.

The beauty and charm classes aim to build girls' interest in education, their courage to speak out and participate and their self-esteem through topics that naturally interest them.

The absence of boys helps, some say.

"I need to not be around boys right now," seventh-grader Tiffanie Mair said. "That just makes me really shy. I'm already shy enough,"