Essay about High School Cliques

“Why fit in when you can stand out?” You have been told this your whole life. But whose responsibility is it to find out where you fit in, yours? Or your peers? Your adolescent years are all about trying to not stand out, and trying just as hard to fit in with the “in crowd.” You use more energy trying to “fit in,” instead of just spending all your energy on being who you really are. A group of friends are suppose to have things in common, but that is hard when everyone is putting up a fake persona. It is the student body’s responsibility to make sure that everyone has a place they can fit in and be themselves. People spend their whole lives trying to “fit in,” while the people who “stand out” are the ones who become something. Think

Middle school was the point in every middle scholar’s life to find a group where they fit in. These groups were called cliques, a group centered around gossiping about others and even gossiping about one another in the group. In middle school this group became your community. The group you do everything with and told everything to. This group is almost like your other family. Sadly, this community, the people you surround yourself with can lead to negative thinking about others. Your community can easily persuade your actions and thoughts because the people you surround yourself with have such a big influence on your life.

The fact that the students in this movie actually become friends at the end shows that when looking at this situation from a sociological view, it can be said that cliques are not always what defines people. Cliques can be a negative and a positive thing. Obviously the negatives to cliques are that people get labeled into stereotypes which can be hurtful to some, and that people isolate themselves from other peers that are not in the clique. Positives of cliques can be that the people in the group have a sense of belonging, support from their friends during tough times, and also have a form of identity.

Every public school lunch room is filled with many tables, every day these tables are the perfect place for a student to find where they “belong”. Like Beverly Daniel Tatum states in “Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”, part of the social groups forming in high schools goes to thank adolescents. Tatum writes, “As children enter adolescence, they begin to explore the question of identity, asking ‘Who am I?’ ‘Who can I be?’”(375). At this point in their life everyone begins to see their own interests and hobbies that makes them a little different than others. Because students are starting to realize their differences, in modern day high schools there are many social groups that students can identify with and feel the most comfortable being themselves.

First, high schools do have cliques that unify students by groups. However, that doesn’t mean students confine in the groups they are “assigned” to, as shown in most movies representing cliques. In the movie The Breakfast Club, the five main characters used to represent the school all come from different crowds, which ultimately results in showing how they can still get along even though they don’t necessarily hang out with the same people. The characters are defined as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” These labels divide the characters into

In the famous movie, “The Breakfast Club, we see how five teenagers, each members of different high school cliques, who spend a Saturday in detention together and come to realize that they are all more than their respective stereotypes. High school cliques determine who, what and where they belong. Most of the high schools have "cliques"; which are groups of students with similar interests that hang out together. When looking at what really goes on in the average high school, and how friendships are formed, it is amazing. When observing the jock, nerd and the popular kids, one must wonder where they fit in.

In the article title “Individuality vs. Conformity: The Healthy Middle?” by an anonymous high school student it says that there are only two thing that a typical high school student wants to typically achieve in their short high school life (par. 1). One of these things is to fit in (par. 2). The second one is to be different (par. 3). How could you do this?. You could choose to be individual or just conform. However I really maintain the idea that what we should really do it's to stay in the middle so we won't forget who we really are and still be liked by different groups of people.

In addition, this only creates patterns of inclusion and exclusion, which demonstrates the creation of peer and social cliques. These types of students avoid others

There are many elements that affect high school, some are even timeless. One of these rare elements are cliques. A clique is defined as a small exclusive group, or associates. The main reason why cliques are so timeless are because they are instinct, people are scared, and they are the social dynamics of high school.

The following paper will discuss the groups or cliques present in environment such as high school. It will also include and a discussion on if the differential association theory can provide and explanation of the behaviors of the high school age group.

This only creates patterns of inclusion and exclusion, which demonstrates the creation of peer or social cliques. These types of students avoid others

Over the four years, I have been at the middle school, I noticed that certain people act differently around another group people. Their behavior can change when they are in that certain assembly, like being respectful of the teacher but then talking crappy behind their back. The same goes for groups too, like they can be quite in class, but one of the loudest tables at lunch.

Cliques and groups are both apart of the norm in elementary and high school. So it’s not unusual that some children may not fall or be accepted into these cliques. Rejection is certain for some children as they enter elementary school and can very well carry on into high school.

Human beings also needs the company of others, but what if a young student is deliberately prevented from forming social connections? Imagine constantly hearing the buzz about a highly anticipated party that everyone is invited to except you. Or on a more basic level, imagine having nowhere to sit and eat your lunch in the cafeteria because every available seat is reserved for someone who is not you. From the beginning of our modern educational careers, we are taught that each of us are uniquely valuable and special, but the high school experience can easily make a lie of that idea. The cliques that form in high school gains status from their exclusivity, their reputations grow as their numbers shrink. This causes an “odd man out” mentality that leave some students isolated and

Hello everyone! I’m Amber and it’s so nice to be in a smaller, more close-knit class. It’s extremely refreshing.