The High School Divide

[Twista]

It recently occurred to me that the amount of social divides are in school is unbelievable. You see it in all the 'teen flicks' - but they seem to be overly exaggerated. But it truth, they really arnt.

I've come to find out that there is a great deal of people in my year at school that I have no idea who they are, and have made no effort to speak to them. And yes, it could be said I am friends with the somewhat cooler group of people within the school, but its just crazy really. I'm a total hypocrite when I say this, but - why do people not make the effort? - and how you become what you are?

There are obvious divides in my school: There’s all the 'Ruggers' (Rugby players for you Americans), and the girls that love them. Along with this comes other major sportsmen/women, football hockey etc. Now if we go by the usual stereotype, all of these people will brainless idiots - actually most of them are very intelligent and achieved excellent grades last year. Me being in that group, however I did not achieve excellent grades... and I don’t excel in any sport... just been friends with that lot forever. The fact that the grades are out of character may be the fact I attend a public school - but lets not make me sound up my self... when a private school atmosphere really isn’t like that.

Then from there comes the various social divide break offs - Goths, geeks, the wana bees, randoms - there’s a thousand and one names these groups seem to get called. And if it not as obvious to see this divide in the social room - you can tell when a party occurs and the invites are 'limited'.

I'm just really interested to know if everyone has/is experienced/experiencing this. Now what kind of "group" you belong/belonged to. It is obvious a big topic with bullying and not what being a big issue with many schools. I just want to get other peoples perspective. I especially interested to know if the American High School life is really like they show in the films...

[Hanza]

its all so true its scary. im in i guess one of the "cool groups" we used to be called the happy group cos we were always ridiculously happy and bouncy int he moringin at the bus park. now weve mellowed downa re and more known as the weird group or the big group lol but as u said u can def see the splits in the common room. everyone knows their place. if u sit int he wrong place. ppl will notice. its...strange really. and i guess it is quite sad really. but if you upset one person ina different group u then get that whole group disliking u and it can make life...intersting lol.

anyway my point if i had one was that i think its weird that we divide but i guess if we didnt we'd all look a bit lost. we all just generally split off into ppl with similiar intersts in etiher sport (ie the ruggesr) or music or fashion sense even. hehe theres one group in our school who have tagged the name the makeup club. provides much amusement to take the piss out of the waythey spend all lunch in the toilets when we go to a girls school.... pointless!!! lol anyway yeh im gonna shut up now as im rambling...

[Gulio, Strength of Many]

I don't know how it is in American public schools, but even in the small Christian school I attend, there are definite "cliques". Most of us have been together since preschool, though, so most of my classmates are like family. I think in my school, the people who would be "cool" in other schools (from what I've seen, anyway) are the ones who form their little groups and look exactly alike and talk about boys. They're a minority, though; most of us are pretty laid-back and friendly.

theres one group in our school who have tagged the name the makeup club. provides much amusement to take the piss out of the waythey spend all lunch in the toilets when we go to a girls school

One of my pet peeves. Of course, all the blame doesn't lay on the girls. We as girls are constantly told that we have to look like Barbies for guys to pay any attention to us (another question - why worry about dating when you're 14?). Of course, looking like a Barbie is impossible (you'd have to be seven feet tall and weigh 53 pounds), so many girls resort to starving themselves or throwing up whatever they eat. All for some stupid boy who doesn't even care.

But I'll stop now, before I begin one of *my* rants.

[Finrod Felagund]

I was a choir kid in high school.

However...my high school boasted an incredible choral program and an abnormal number of male choristers (nice word eh?)

So, while a different sort of cool...I guess I was a cool (ish) kid in high school. If only for my vocal talent...and Smeagol impersonation!

[Draken]

Can I just point out (again for the Americans here!) that the term "rugger" only applies to rugby union and no self-respecting rugby league player would let themselves be called that!

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

school divisions! what fun, eh?

i started off as i am now, spikes everywhere, all black etc, but in yr 11 (last year of compulsory edu for non-uk) i got fed up with the routine beatings that went with that, and attempted to blend in, not fit in, because i was still me, i just wasn't overtly noticable as goth/rocker, whatever people call it, but the townies/trendies/charvas/chavs whatever they are called where you come from, tend to beat the c*** out of anyone that looks different, and you don't get much different than i was, so now i have left school, and spent two years in the wilderness before going to college, i have decided that it make smuch more sense for me to be me, and we are in the majority at college, especially in the smoking area

[Telcontar_Dunedain]

In my school there isn't so many obvious tagged groups. There are set groups of people who are always in the same place at lunch but they aren't labeled. I don't really belong to any of the set people groups either. Sometimes I sit with one group of friends and toher times I walk around wih others.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

exeter is an unusual place, there are always clearly defined groups, not just in schools/college/uni etc, but all across the city, anyone between 15 and 30 falls into certain groups, rockers (i use this term loosely) are by far the most numerous, due to exeter having a massive punk and metal history, but there are so many subdivisions that townies can pick out certain sections for abuse, and that is totally exarcabated in the education system

[Bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Twista

I especially interested to know if the American High School life is really like they show in the films...

Yes, except for three inaccuracies. 1) We have more fat and ugly people in America than Hollywood tells about. 2) Films never get the local dialect right. 3) They never mention the really wild eccentric people who you would never be able to 'classify' because they're so completely different.

I don't see so many seperate categories of kids in my high school though, but you need certain adjectives to pertain to you in order to be part of a group. I'm almost completely accepted at both the smart table, though they think I'm a slacker, and the ADD table, though they think I'm overly intellectual. If the intelligence levels and attention spans were evened out between all of my friends, they'd have tons of fun together. But nobody makes the effort because they're comfortable in their group and they assume the other group wouldn't make any effort to accept them either. It sucks. I hate it because each group only likes certain things about you, so you can never act completely yourself and expect to have fun if you're too unique.

[HOBBIT]

nah american high school is little like how it is depicted on tv and in movies. Some are more accurate. Usually they are heavy on the Cool = Jocks (usually football) in their varsity jackets and Cheerleaders. And then there are just the outcasts, usually geeks.

That is not a very accurate portrayal.


There are a great many cliques. I wouldn't say that any is anymore "cool" than the rest.

Also, the hallways in movies and tv shows are usually sparse and the main characters always seem to wander into and talk to their friends. Real high schools (at least mine) are a lot more crowded. The hallways are SO crowded that you have to move very slowly (obviously) and you even have to walk outside and around parts of the building to even get to your classes on time.


Like I said - a great many more groups than portrayed by hollywood (some you cant describe) and they aren't as black and white.

I friends (or good aquantances) of people in just about every group. There is no such thing as the "cool" group that every loves or wants to be.

[Nurvingiel]

I agree HOBBIT. In our school, there was definitely a cool and popular group of people. The reason they were popular is they were fun people who were generally nice to everyone.
The social organization of a highschool is not a simple top-down hierarchy like the movies would have you believe.

[ItalianLegolas]

see, in my school it is the complete opposite, it is the snobby, stuck-up jocks/cheerleaders who are popular, and the people who are nice are stuck at the bottom in the muck

[Nurvingiel]

That sucks buddy. But one thing I've always wondered about that, is are the people at the 'top' really popular, or just feared? If a group is mean to everyone else, how would everyone actually like them?

[Bombadillo]

Well it's unfortunate but they're the biggest and most common clique. And everyone in it is only popular amongst themselves.

I'd say that about 40% of my class are "the popular type," and the rest is chopped up into smaller, different cliques, who generally can't stand those people. But they isolate themselves from each other even, so you wind up with clusters of friends with low self-esteem who make up the majority of the school.

That's how it is in my school anyway, and I've actually never seen any bullying there. The divide seems inevitable.

[emily leonard]

.fdzc

[Adonai Dragonwagon]

I completely disbelieve in school stereotypes. I believe that I can say this with a fair amount of accuracy, simply because I was never part of what was going on in middle school. I'm the dreamer, wandering around with a slightly dazed expression on my face. Everyone liked me, but I had very few friends for the most part; I was an outsider, but part of the teenage group. Thus I believe I had the interesting position of being able to see what was going on from an outside perspective while still being able to connect with them.

What I have discovered is this:
Popularity is a complete and total fallacy. If you take the most "popular" person at your school and ask fifteen people of all different grades if they know that person, I can guarantee you that more than half of those you ask will have no idea who you are talking about.

Cliques are mostly fiction as well. There is no one that is that horrible, that only ever hangs out with the same people. I am almost certain that such a person does not exist. People hang out with their friends when they can, but it's not an exclusive club or something. Perhaps I'm just too out of it to see the social "lines" that divide one person from the next... but I doubt it. I don't see them because I choose not to. People are just people. Anyone who does see the social lines is propagating the ideas of the media.

Granted, I have no cheerleaders or jocks at my current school; we're all musicians and artists. But I've been to "normal" schools before, and popularity is bull. There's no way around it. Try talking to the "popular" people at a school, and you'll probably make friends. Chances are, they don't even realize what kind of aura they give off.

[Adonai Dragonwagon]

Originally Posted by ItalianLegolas

see, in my school it is the complete opposite, it is the snobby, stuck-up jocks/cheerleaders who are popular, and the people who are nice are stuck at the bottom in the muck

And why are they at the top, as someone else said? Who says you have to do what they tell you to? Who says you have to feel bad if they say something mean?

You're just as much at fault as the cheerleaders in this situation, I'm afraid.

[Beor]

My high school expierence was pretty cool. I guess I kinda hung out with everyoine, thought, I did notice the cliques, it diddnt really matter to me, becaues I ddint really fit in with anyone of them, I just did my thing, which i guess was alright witheveryone, as far as I know.

If I could go back, I would. The **** you can get away with in high school is amazing, and If I had only Known the half of it. \

Yee Haw!!!!!!!!!

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by Twista

I'm just really interested to know if everyone has/is experienced/experiencing this. Now what kind of "group" you belong/belonged to. It is obvious a big topic with bullying and not what being a big issue with many schools. I just want to get other peoples perspective. I especially interested to know if the American High School life is really like they show in the films...

Well, its been nearly 30 years since I was in high school, but the social groupings were still there. There were three main groups... the sport/cheerleader types were the 'Jocks', the straight A chess club acedemia folk were the 'Brains', and the partying slackers were called 'Heads' (which implied they all smoked reefer, but was not necerrily the case). of course each group had its sub groups, and it was not uncommon that someone would 'qualify' to be counted in more than one group. One guy played football and track, smoked pot, and got A's and hung out at different times with each group. But mostly folks socialized with their own kind.

[Elenwen06]

You know, I'm in high school now (going into my senior year), but it never really hit me how big cliques were in my school. They didn't really seem to be there, but just a couple of months ago I was walking through the halls and I started thinking and looking around. Yep, there in the corner over there were the potheads. If I were to turn around and go back to my previous class I would be met with all the ROTC kids. Turn the corner and there were the choir group, they always stuck together. Then the drama kids came by. There were the skaters in that corner over there. There were the wannabe gangsters (who knows, maybe some real ones were in there too) in the middle of the hall, harassing anyone who dared to pass by. I turned another corner and there were the band geeks. The greasers stood by the planters next to the restroom. And, just as I was heading to MY spot, I was passed by a group of cheerleaders, all of whom I knew and was on good terms with, none of who stopped to say hello or even nod their head in my direction. And there I was, headed off to my group... the outcasts. Well, not really outcasts, more like the "jack-of-all-trades" group. I was in choir and ROTC. The three or four kids next to me were all in drama. A cheerleader hung out with us sometimes. And then of course there was the science buff. Maybe that's why I never noticed the cliques... because my group is all of the cliques rolled into one.