High school is a combat zone. Perhaps incognito, high school is vile in all ways, shapes, and forms. High school is destruction of humanity. From blondes to redheads, and albinos to bronzed beauties, there is no fair play. Manipulation, deceit, lies, and forbidding grades are the fate of these entire helpless quarry. After many devastating centuries, mankind has learned to adapt to this revolution. Fighting for freedom and molding to the staggering state of affairs, students have mastered separation brilliance and competence, creating differences with style, interests, and appetites. One thing that will never change… there is no escaping these dreadful high school cliques!
“Whatever! She only makes an appearance every month because her parents pay her for every C on her report card.” The prosperous, preppy, popular kids that everyone loves to hate, famous for self involvement, shopping sprees, and cruel intentions. Armani blazers, Dior flats, Kenneth Cole aviators and jewelry from Tiffanys define this clique, along with their pompous arrogance. The survival of the preps would be slim to none without their faithful limousine chauffeurs, personal fashion coordinators, gourmet chefs and faithful butlers. This group is complete with haughty drama queens and wealthy heirs. Useless without their army of followers, these pitiful spectators have watched the high school incessant battles from afar, sipping champagne, and eating caviar.
Dim-witted jocks that have yet to comprehend the overexposure of the lettermen’s jacket stand alone in the food chain. Pumping iron, chugging protein shakes, and buns of steel are the athlete’s top priorities. Fear of academic probation limits their success. Constantly being tackled, foul...
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...ticular population lies the future Bill Gates!
Last, and usually not even present, are the high school burnouts. Seeing them make it halfway through a year without dropping out is like witnessing a miracle. Sleeping in class, lighting smoke bombs in the hallways, bringing drugs and weapons to school, and getting sent to the principal’s office are the rebel’s means of survival. Ordering pizza and guzzling soda is more appetizing to the burnouts than attending class. Rumor has it that even teachers go out of their way to avoid these radicals.
So gather up your grenades and stock up on artillery. Find a secluded location and assemble a trench. Begin dodging the deception and malice of the preps, the jocks, the hicks, the goths, the nerds, and the drug addicts. These are the dire high school cliques that have furthered the destruction of humanity.
In Swallowing Stones, the Fourth of July is a magical holiday all over our country, and a lot of people love to shoot off their guns to celebrate. Michael Mackenzie shoots off his new rifle into the air thinking nothing of it; Suddenly, four blocks away, Charlie Ward looks down at his daughter then collapses. However, In The Wave, Gordon High School has a teacher who takes his authority way too far in an experiment with his students that turns the whole school. This now gives Laurie Saunders a choice, stay true to herself, or do what everyone else is doing. However, The Wave doesn’t happen everyday, accidental shootings do. High school is a very tricky time, and students have so much to learn, especially about life. Also, they do not know enough
Leon Botstein, the author of “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” serves as the president of Bard College, as well as a professor of arts and humanities. Botstein wrote this article after the tragic shootings at Columbine high school in 1999. This event triggered something inside Botstein causing him to think negatively about the American high school system. In the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” Botstein explains, in his own words, of the corrupt happenings of present day American high school (368-369). Although Botstein may have high credentials, he provides no evidence to support his negative claims and opinions about teenagers and American high schools.
These days, as both characters ironically prove, it is difficult trying to be different when being different is a category in itself. Dave and Julia, the two protagonists of this book, are both the cool, “hipster” type kids that would burn themselves drinking their coffee because they have to do it before it is cool. Both of them think high school is the biggest cliché imaginable, which – when you think about it- it really is. How many of us fantasized over being prom king or queen? Having someone ask you out to a dance in the most romantic, over used fashion possible? Wanted to run for class president or some other office? These are the sort of things that Dave and Julia vow never to do during their four years of high school, until one day everything changes. As the summary explains, Dave and Julia start a pact (which they write down and title the "Nevers List") right before high school, swearing off participating in any of the "cliché" high school experiences that were just bound to arise. The list goes as
Botstein begins his essay by listing examples to assert that the American high school is obsolete. He describes high school as if to someone who knows nothing about it, so as to better expose the failings of the institution. Current or former high-schoolers remember the team sport culture, but might not realize its harm without Botstein’s detached and somewhat analytical description.
Robbins, Alexandra. The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive after High School. New York: Hyperion, 2011. Print.
American high schools today have lost track of what the purpose of going to school is. The article, “Let’s Really Reform Our Schools,” written by Anita Garland, explains how we can help our schools and make them a better learning place. In order to get high schools to be a better place to learn would be to throw out the “punks”, have the schools get uniforms, change junk foods to healthy foods, and get rid of prom and competitive sports. After all of this, the students who want to learn, can do that without all of the distractions.
Throughout The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, Alexandra Robbins makes a variety of assertions. Her main claim is that there are many students who feel as if they must fit into certain groups in school to be accepted. To support this claim, Robbins has gathered evidence by interviewing common high schoolers from several different areas. Throughout her interviews, the students tell her about their experience. She observes a common pattern in all of the students, as a result, she has strong proof to support the claims she makes throughout the book. Within this essay, I will explain the specific claim, the evidence, and the form the evidence
Recent studies show that high school students no longer only talk to, and/or become friends with the stereotypical cheerleader, jock, or band geek that they are, but rather look much farther than that. Maybe a quarterback does not understand his algebra class, and his nerd of a classmate wants to learn how to throw a perfect spiral for physics. Tradeoff. The quarterback asks the nerd to help him, and visa-versa. Wait a minute. They actually had fun together, and are now fr...
In “High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies” David Denby criticizes movies portraying high school. He writes “The most commercial and frivolous of genres harbor a grievance against the world” (426). In many movies starting in the early 90’s you began to see an extreme amount of disrespect to adults from teenagers. High school movies are filled with unruly
High School can be directly related to Jamestown. Every year, many freshmen catch themselves doing a complete turn-around soon after the year begins. Freshmen usually split into different cliques soon after High School starts. These cliques are usually groups of people with similar interests, whether it is fashion, sports, or math club. All through Middle School, the children were guided along by the administration. This leads them to believe that High School will be the same way. Once in High School, many feel lost and unprepared. The first day of High School, many freshman get to the lunch room, sit at their tables, and wait to be called up to the lunch lines. They were pampered all through their earlier schooling, so they figured that they would be told when to go eat.
The first student I will talk about is the first one to be seen in the movie. This is Claire Standish. Claire is one of the popular girls in the school. Through her social learning she seems to feel that she is socially above everybody who is not in her group of friends, who I envision as being like the snobbish rich kids who went to my school. Claire comes from a nuclear family. Her parents are clearly the epitome of indulgent parenting. Her father pretty much tells her that it wasn’t that wrong of her to skip school to go shopping and that he will make it up to her. Throughout the movie, Claire seems to have an attitude that shows that she holds herself above the other kids who are serving detention with her. She even goes as far as to ask them “Do you know how popular I am? Everybody loves me so much!” She clearly shows that there are no types of risk taking in her life other than skipping school one time to go shopping. He has never had sex, she shows that she never has drunk alcohol or smoked, and she had never smoked pot. You could tell by her choking when she inhaled the smoke. She follows the leader in her little group she hangs out with at school and tries to constantly fit in. I can imagine that her parents support her in everything that she does and this fits her personality just fine because she strives so hard for people to like her.
Every teenager has the same exact problem: high school. The conflicts, drama, and social assemblage is a part of every high school student experience at his or her different campus. While most students determine that there is no single adult that has any idea of the situations and circumstances that each person faces in their daily life, they are unbelievably mistaken. Novelist and screenwriter, Stephan Chbosky, perfectly captures these issues in a mature, thematic experience that every teen can relate to. And for some odd reason, some individuals feel that this coming-of-age story needs to be banned from public libraries and schools throughout our nation.
8th grade, 8th grade from the opening day to the signing of the yearbooks. This is the year of memories, goodbyes, and regrets. 8th grade and I’m still realizing that there are people in the world that would die to go to a school like this. A school where every body knows everyone’s name, respects everyone, and where violence and fighting are about as common as the Yankees missing the playoffs. When I’m done with my homework and go to bed, as the days of 8th grade wind down, summer will come and go, and I will find myself in one of those giant, scary places called high school.
My eagerness to embrace life in high school squashed when I came face to face with extreme mean behavior at the hands of kids my own age. My grades started falling, from an honors student I had turned into someone who just hated school. From sulking, to rebelling to being remorseful, had become my permanent demeanor.
In former times teenagers find themselves expressing who they truly are by methods society sees as rebellion or protest. The beginning of this new era of rebellion began in the 1920’s with the United States reaching their industrialized peak. This rebellion was most found in the women. Women began to see and explore new fashion and styles rather than sticking to their mother’s old school ways of dressing. Womens hem line in dresses started to become shorter and shorter inventing the modernized skirt. Society found this absurd and schools began to fill with this new idea of fashion. Moving forward into more modern years, fashion was seen everywhere throughout the United States and mainly in public schools. Students began to experiment with their limited choices of appare...