High school

[Samus Aran]

I have to read this book called "Speak" for my Young Adult Fiction class, which is a pretty cool class where we talk about the kind of fiction designated for high school students, sometimes from a reader's perspective and sometimes from a teacher's perspective. It's pretty great so far.

But reading this book makes me think of every story about high school ever. The cliques, the mean teachers, the protagonist is of course a total outcast. There are even some passages that sound like they came right out of a guide on how to write high school literature. Like this passage about cheerleaders being role models yet sleeping with the football team.

The fact that these things are in every high school story ever really confounds me. Is high school really exactly like that for most people? Was my high school really unusual in that there wasn't a big clique system (just a small one), there wasn't a lot of violence, the teachers were all pretty normal, hell everyone was pretty normal, etc.? I'm hard-pressed to imagine a story written about my high school experience to be interesting.

What was high school like for you? Was it something right out of a young adult novel like this, or was it more subdued and (in my opinion) believable, like mine?

[Nyerp]

hey fuck you i liked that book

also no my high school was more like yours

that "big clique" myth is retarded and is only perpetuated by OLD PEOPLE who have a very hazy memory of high skull

[Samus Aran]

Oh I like it well enough. It's not amazing, but it's good. I enjoy young adult fiction now and then.

[Socks]

high school is like ejaculating. there's an infinite amount of abstraction, liable to splatter without notice, causing confusion or even distress. you don't remember the specifics, just the feeling and the sight, because, in the end, it's really only warm and slimy protein. the pleasure having been mine.

[LCK]

There were barely 200 people in my high school, so it was impossible to have the "big cliques". There were some small groups, but in general, every one in the high school kind of co-mingled without discretion.

[YPrrrr]

I  didn't really notice a clique system, but I was in all honors or ap classes with more similar types of people. My brother, who went to the same school would completely disagree with me as he took standard, academic, and some honors, giving him a much more diverse view of the school

[Travis]

i guess mine's fairly normal. there are definitely distinct groups of kids but there's really no such thing as "bullying"

[Kalahari Inkantation]

as far as i can tell there really weren't any cliques in my school and everyone seemed to mingled with everyone else

I've never had a mean teacher either.

and i noticed very few bullies

the only cliche in the story you mention that was true of my school is that it was violent, there were serious fights on many occasions but they were never spontaneous

Maybe I never noticed any of the cliches because I was never very involved with the people in my school, but as far as I could tell, my school was far less hectic than the typical depiction of high school in the media.

[Nyerp]

i like how in movies and tv shows the students have like an hour between each class in which they roam the halls in big groups picking on each other

and how all the students are fashion models in their mid-20s

[Commander Fuckass]

My high school wasn't that bad aside from maybe 3 whores (one that fucked the Assistant soccer coach apparently) and the kids that really didn't care about wanting to be going to school, and all the stoners pillheads.

Aside from that, it was much nicer and cooler than I thought it was going to be when I was a freshman
[spoiler]actually maybe it was kinda bad with the cliques. All the jocks were nice, but the nerds and anime fags where annoying when they would designate a spot in a "pod" to sit and talk to each other every morning[/spoiler]

[Nyerp]

boyah went to my high school

[[REDACTED]]

Class valedictorian was a resourceful cheater

[Dullahan]

High school was very boring for me. Other than grade 10. That was a good year.

[?????]

Class valedictorian was a resourceful cheater

I'm surprised nobody said anything.

[mariofreak]

I live in a very new, rich neighborhood populated by Asians, Indians, and the like. There is little to no poverty, the average at our high school GPA must be in the upper 3's, we have the highest API in the district, and are like the 4th rated HS in California. Our school is NOTHING like anything you see on TV shows or read in books like that. There is literally no social heirarchy, our leadership class is filled with kids from basically every group, nerds, jocks, kids from every sport, special ed (???? why are they here) etc. so basically there is no group that reigns above all others. Every public speaker that comes and talks to us about bullying is yawned at because there might be one instance of bullying a year. Our school is literally breaks every stereotype made about high school there is. Hell, lesbians roam free at my school. And they don't get made fun of, publicly. Outside our little bubble is neighborhoods of whites upon whites upon whites that have been there for hundreds of years where tradition has been growing for decades. At the leadership conference my school hosted last week, the leaderships of each school in the district visited our school for a bunch of sessions to spread ideas (dance ideas, fundraising, general bullshit) and literally all of them were in awe of the lack of a social heirarchy. This lead me to believe that we really are in a world that the high schools are of the kind that show up in tv shows and movies (minus the models and actors) but I just never will get the chance to experience it as I live in little India where having a high GPA is more impressive to most kids than a letterman with 12 patches.