LAKELAND, Fla. — Middle-schoolers can be a challenging age group. But not for Tracy Chaves.

“Would you think he would be characterized as a villain or a hero here?” Lake Gibson Middle School history teacher Tracy Chaves asks her students.

Several hands go up in this classroom decorated with historical images.

“He would be characterized as a villain here,” says a dark-haired seventh-grader in the back row. “You can see he is standing on a ripped version of the Constitution that shows he was trying to control the colonist like King George was.” 

Chaves' history students probably know more about Andrew Jackson than most of us. They not only read their textbooks but do a lot of research on their own to bolster their knowledge of American political figures.

“His nickname was 'Old Hickory,' so you can add those things there,” the seventh-grader continues.

“I started out in elementary education and realized very quickly that was not for me," Chaves said. "These kids are just neat. They are growing, they are expanding, they are learning. And this is a great time for them to be able to kind of learn to love education, and I hope to be able to do that for them.” 

For some kids, that love of learning is built in. The trick is getting other students that may not be so motivated to buy in.

Chaves says proudly, “By the end of the year they say, 'Oh, I hated it in the beginning but you actually made it enjoyable.' That’s the kind of compliment every teacher loves to hear.”

There is no lack of words of praise from her middle-schoolers.

Intelligent, considerate, helpful, astonishing are just some of their comments when we asked them to describe her in one word.

“I tell them all the time. I would stick them in my pocket and take them home with me if I could," Chaves said.