The High School Experience

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The High School Experience The high school experience is something that will forever dominate the psyche of most American adults. It was an unforgettable time of fun, rebel-rousing, summer loves and parties. It was a time of warm summer days at the pool and chilly autumn nights, watching the football team and wondering were the party was going to be that night. School dances and hotel parties. Seems like all I can remember are the good times. High School is a very emotional time for many teens and everything matters. The insidious problems that I had to face are but a smudge on my memory, things like too much homework, zits, mean people, gossip, and algebra. The social atmosphere that permeated every aspect of high school could make or break your popularity. In the movie, “The Breakfast Club”, five young adults are portrayed to a tee, representing a cross cultural view of the teens attending high school in suburban Chicago in 1985. The year in which the movie is set is immaterial, because the game is the same, whether it is 1955 or 1995. The opening scene of this “classic” movie shows the five students arriving to school at approximately seven thirty in the morning, Saturday, to serve their punishment, the dreaded Saturday detention that many of us had to submit to. This grievous application of student torture was utilized by school administrators to punish, reform and deter schoolboys and schoolgirls from breaking any rules and regulations. The scene is narrated by the brain of the group, the know it all, dorky, goofy, nerd whose idea of fun was to grow fungus and compete in the academic decathlon. In a dry and sardonic voice he leads you into the movie and their day in Saturday d-hall. Stereo-types abound ... ... middle of paper ... ...vie scenes in cinematic history take place in the high school’s library. This movie came out before I attended high school, yet I envisioned my experience to be similar. Now, I watch the movie and I get that nostalgic feeling and realize that high school was exactly that way. In today’s world the names and faces may have changed, but all in all kids stay the same. The rules and parameters of this game called, high school, may have changed in order to stay current with the nineties, teenagers coming of age in society have stayed practically the same. You hear a lot of teachers say that the kids are different and that “things just aren’t the same”, it is the teacher who has failed to adapt and modify themselves. High School is a paradox. A beautiful and painful experience that will stay with someone for the rest of their life, whether enjoyed it or hated it.

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