Middle School?

I didn't realize middle school started so soon. Last year on the way home from school when I asked John what he did in school, he'd say, "I don't want to talk about it" with a bit of an attitude. That was our earliest taste of the middle school attitude. Recently it's reared it's ugly head again. We've had some discipline problems and I finally figured out the root (I think). Every time I asked John to do something he'd ask in an exasperated tone, "why?" Obviously it's a problem with authority, which we've discussed repeatedly. Some of John's comments recently, though, helped me figure it out on a different level. Lately he's said numerous times, "I know everything about..." or even "I know everything." I thought that stage didn't come until middle school! At any rate, I feel my job is to prove otherwise :) In an effort to do so one day I replied, "You don't really know everything. In fact, you don't even know as much as I do, and I don't know everything." To which he replied, "I know how electricity works and you don't." Well, he was half right, but I was too amused to correct him. I'll continue to try to help him understand that he doesn't know everything, and more importantly, he doesn't need to know or understand everything to obey. I'm afraid it's just one of those lessons we have to keep teaching ourselves even as adults.