American High Schools?
 

My only knowledge of high schools is what i've learnt from the movies. There are the different groups of kids (jocks, geeks, goths, outcasts, the popular ones, etc) and the head cheerleader always goes out with the quarterback.

Is true in 'the real world' or is it just a stereotype thats been blown way out of proportion??
I'm just curious

there are "circles" in high school and you will most likely find a group of friends "in your circle".

that said, the lines are not drawn in stone.

looking back from college, the circles are looking pretty stupid now.

I went to high school in the states, and where I came from that circles most definitely existed. They weren't exactly the same (we didn't have a football team, as we were a small town), but the soccer jocks always dated the popular girls, etc...

That being said, a lot of it has to do with perception, too. I was the "lonely outcast" type in my high school, but I never felt like that. I was just interested in different things than most people, and as such I was labelled as weird. I didn't mind too much.

Like The_Dude said, the lines aren't drawn in stone, though the basic ideas are similar in most places.

:) looks like you are growing up :)


having lived in Singapore and my friends went to Singapore American School, they had similar cliques.

Even the kids that went to the British schools had similar cliques as well.

You gravitate towards your own level of comfort. Younger kids/adolescents are just more overt about singling out and excluding those who are not similar to themselves. Just what I've observed.

haha i think the head cheerleader and quarterback goin out rarely happens

From my experience, it's more the latter. Yes, of course, cliques exist. They exist in some form or another everywhere in life. Yes, the more "popular" people tend to hang out with other more "popular" people. But, no, in my experience the cliques are most certainly not mutually exclusive. If I would have been labeled as anything I would have been the "music geek" but I had friends that were "computer geeks" and I had friends that were "theatre geeks" and I had friends that were "jocks" and so on - and I had friends that were big into cheerleading while at the same time being one of the top music performers in the school as well. What you see in popular media is basically the result of taking the extremes of every "class" of person (i.e. the jock with the biggest ego that thinks everyone who's smart and wears glasses is a "nerd" and the geek who's in the chess club and talks funny and wears taped glasses) and using them as the norm. They are not the norm. At all. They are the exception.

It depends on the school, socio-economic factors, racial/ethnic distribution, local social values and norms, geographic location and the population of the community (among other things).

Middle schoolers are likely to have a limited scope of groups by 8th grade, and they're likely to carry over into freshman and sophomore years a bit... but chances are good that they will diminish greatly into the later years of high school no matter where you go. The severity of the divisiveness of the groups will reflect a lot of factors happening outside of the school. I've seen schools that have very little in the way of exclusive cliques, and I've seen schools on the other end of the spectrum. People with like interests are going to hang out with each other; high schoolers tend to meet their friends in the classes or other groups they're in. A degree of this is going to happen no matter what, extreme cases tend to show deficiencies within the community to create a network allowing for different types of people interact in a positive atmosphere.

To answer your question: I think, sadly, the stereotypical view is more common than I'd wish it to be.

In my class* (Sweden though) we had two groups. The nerds and the popular ones.

I was, of course, a nerd. Since I didn't smoke, drink or sleep around (like the popular people did) I got put with the nerds. I didn't mind though. I like talking about computers.

Question: Do people really do other peoples homework? That "culture" is virtually non-existant here. I've never seen it.


(*) Class, because people didn't associate with people from other classes.

I mean, yeah there are groups and stuff..but movies have blown it out of proportion.

There is, but we dont really recognize it until we look at it real close where I went to high school. Even then, people in one circle would hang with people in another circle so its hard to tell.


I did, this cheap fucker only give me 3 dollars for an A' quality paper. I was expecting at least 5, fuck! I should have just rip the paper up so he could get an F'.
Damn I miss those precious moments....

We had the groups in highschool. Being from a rural highschool we also had what was the 'coon hunters'. which was comprised mostly of country boys who wore greasy hats and clothes.. Our school was so white trash that we had a Tractor Day where said kids could show off their tractors.
Looking back, I'm so proud of my high school. :rolleyes:

hehehe...we didn't have Tractor Day, but there was always a "Hee-Haw Day" or something similar during Spirit Week...and at least one person drove their tractor to school every year.

I've noticed that with smaller schools, the cliques tend to fade over the last year or two, which is nice.

When I was in high school, there were certainly cliques like that, but nothing nearly as overt as is shown in movies. I had friends in all different groups.. I like cars so I got along well with the rednecks, computers so I had a lot of geek friends, and I had a few jock friends too which meant I never really got picked on.

Doing other peoples' homework isn't extremely common. A friend and I would usually do half of the assignments and then copy each others' stuff (we'd alternate halves since the first problems were generally a lot easier too), but we were more clever than average. ;)

I've actually gotten far more discriminating in who I associate myself with since high school. I used to try and make everybody happy so I had a wide circle of acquaintances. I'm much happier with being myself even though most people think I'm an asshole, and having a couple close friends.

Thanks for your input guys, my question was based solely on watching The Breakfast Club the other night!

Yes, it is just like it is in movies.

The head cheerleader dates the football quaterback. The nerds all wear glasses and for some reason can't find pants that are long enough. The loser/outkast kids all smoke and do drugs and must own a leather jacket and are flat out stupid. Teachers are all old and unattractive and are never nice to their studants...

Wait... no it's not. American high schoold studants now are too busy trying to get laid and fix up their Hondas to form cliques. Everyone does drugs and smokes. No one is really cool and the head cheerleader already has two fuckin' kids... from some stoner guy that raped her at a party. It's even more fucked up than it is in movies. I want to see a movie that protrays it as it is. Kids drinking in class, fuckin' in thier cars between classes. Half the time no one is even in the school because they are all driving around getting high.

I hate teenagers. Even when I was one.

Well, I've been out of high school for 3 years now and the whole circle concept is absolutely true. But depending on where you live in United States or Canada (I included Canada since I live in Canada and Canada is practially the 51st state), my HS was in a country bordering on a major city. The whole thing about cheerleader and varsity football was kinda bullcrap, everybody in my high school knew that.

My group was one of those "nerdy" kinds and didn't have anything better to do other than have little private war with the "cowboy" group and check out the hot chick in the "hot chick" group. But 3 years later, the hot chicks weren't really that hot at all, I ran into one of them the other day and I was shocked to realized at that moment that she was ugly as fuck.

High school always have circle and will always do, it'll evolve into "program" circle depending on what college/university you go to.

all stereotypes.

at my high school (and i graduated from there a few years back), we had the drunks and the non-drunks. in the non-drunks/drinkers/partiers/whatever, you would find people grouped more.

but for us drinkers, we'd love ya, as long as you'd buy the beer sometimes

I think every school has the groupies. Mine sure did. They all pretty much dissolved when I entered post secondary though

This is definitly true, I'm a senior this year and the cliques have mellowed. I think we are finnaly realizing that we are all people and have quit judging each other by clothes or some other stupid stuff. During my frosh and sophmore year there was a big seperation between cliques but we are all seniors now and all of us want to enjoy our last year at high school.

Re: American High Schools?
 

don't watch american teen-aimed movies, please.

Re: Re: American High Schools?
 

You suckas just got served.

Re: Re: Re: American High Schools?
 

Don't make me injure you.

From the high school I went to, it seems the movies exaggerate the high school experience.

Basically my high school fit the stereotype mold. Except it wasn't the QB it was the tight-end or something, sports players got treated like gods and got away with everything. Actually if you saw "Varsity Blues" it was loosely based on my high school. If that gives you an idea of where I went.

I had a pretty strong disdain for the social circles in high school.

I still do. So almost all of my friends are from college these days.

Re: Re: Re: American High Schools?
 

hahahaha

Well, my alma mater is about to become famous. For some reason, Sports Illustrated / MTV came together and had a writer write a book about my high school's prom. Seems like we were one of the best in the nation or something (hardly remember my prom...too many drinks/years ago). Anyway, the book is entitled "Wonderland" (yes, after the John Mayer song) and will come out in May. Plus, they're going to make a movie out of it. Amazing.

Watch the movie "American Graffitti" and you will see my high school exactly. Midcentral US high school in the Early-Mid 60's.
The cars, the Drive-in restaurant, the drive-in movies, the girls, and the stupid stunt's we all did.

in high schools, you'll get the extremes of every group then you get a big group of people that don't fit into to any group. Then you get the people that go between groups and it begins to sound confusing. The best way to think of it is that you got preps, punks, goths, skaters/surfers, the feses (Foreign Exchange Student), the ghetto people and then there are the stoners that hover in the ghetto to surfer/skater area. but it's just best not to worry 'bout it.

my highschool had the generic cliques and everything, but everyone was nice to everyone (for the most part). if you wanted to be friends or talk to someone who was "cooler" than you, you just did it. all the cool kids usually had all the cool parties and stuff though. but I didn't really give a rat's ass.

Oh boy, have I got the movie for you!

It's called KIDS and was written and directed by Larry Clark.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113540/

And as far as suburban white Midatlantia goes (Carroll County represent. Unh.) - Yeah. It really is bad - the cliques in Westminster High (biggest school in county) were disgusting. When you walk down the hallways, and half the people are talking about the giant drinking party last night, and having sex with random people, it really starts to grind on your nerves.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one with any grasp on reality whatsoever. But then I look around, at my clique, with your dorks, dweebs, musicians, punks...the smart ones, that is...and I feel a lot better.

KIDS interesting movie. I worked with Lauren Zalaznick the co producer for a number of years when she worked here at VH1.

it's definitely an interesting movie and worth at least one sit through.

Its not completely separate groups, they can mesh, but movies have got only part of the picture right.

I agree Kids is a definate moving movie, I really liked it. even though it does get dismall at the end. But it does seem like an accurate portrayal

Our Homecoming King and Queen were two of the smartest kids in school. She wasn't a cheerleader, he wasn't a football player. She was student council and field hockey and soccer, he was in band, orchestra, drama and the diving team.

Stereotypes are just that, stereotypes and no stereotype holds completely true. And I agree with the whoever said it, don't watch american teen based movies without knowing that hollywood is just a big joke.

There are those groups of course.. But i dont think its quite to the extreme of the head chearleader and starting quarterback thing. Although ironically thats a relation ship goin on in my school now.. heh o well ... reminds me of the movie just another teenage movie