The, Freaks, And The Non Elites Essay

When watching a movie about high schoolers, there are usually many different groups of students who all conform to one social group only. Take the movie High School Musical for example. There is specifically one scene devoted to a song about fitting in with the “status quo”. There are stereotypical groups such as jocks, nerds, theater geeks, skater kids, and the popular kids in this movie and in other movies like it. Each of these groups can be broken down and explained more in depth.

Between grades one through six, which is approximately 6 years of age to eleven years of age, children place priority and importance of popularity, which increases over the elementary school years, this reaches its peak in late middle school and in the early high school years. Studies show that children in grades one through four consider popularity more important than friendship. It was also found that early and middle adolescents generally place more emphasis on conforming and being part of a popular group than younger or older children do. The low-status group, which hope for acceptance into the high-status groups may get some attention, however, rarely do they obtain full acceptance. Erikson, Piaget, Vygotsky, Bandura, and Kohlberg all have theories that address the

High school cliques are typical during teenage years, giving members a feeling of acceptance and belonging. But I believe that cliques conversely damage a teen’s self esteem. The high school should get involved in helping all students feel more “socially included”. How can a student feel like they socially fit in? It is the responsibility of the high school to create an atmosphere for the student body which promotes acceptance and inclusion of other kids, allowing kids to feel like they belong.

In high school, social hierarchy is typically determined by perceived popularity. Adolescents experience many emotional, biological and cognitive changes during this time. Teenagers struggle with their identity as social acceptance becomes an increasingly important factor in their lives. Cliques are formed in high school as a representation of a small group of people with common interests. Cliques are joined mostly by girls because it gives them a sense of security and confidence they may otherwise lack, but boys are known to join cliques as well. Cliques provide adolescents with a strong sense of self worth and can in fact help one grow as an individual, sharing common interests and values. Adolescents who appear with high social power tend to have similar qualities and group together. Those who are less popular tend to isolate themselves more while befriending others with a similarly low social status. Often times, those who are socially dominant are generally “more influential, daring, physically attractive and socially appropriate.” (Closson 3) Cliques can foster community in a group of close-knit individuals. Different types of cliques provide adolescents with an opportunity to group together with those with similar interests. They allow teenagers to satisfy their psychological needs such as gaining a sense of belongingness and security. Although there are positive aspects of cliques, there is a correlation

Media has influenced a lot of today’s trends and ideologies. Adolescents, being on the psychological level of self-identification, bring this deceptive notion of fashion and social classes to school. The problem comes when this trend affects the performance of students and their personal lives. We all remember our days back when the talk was “Who are the jocks, the cheerleaders, the rick kids, the geeks, the losers, etcetera?” Believe it or not, the status quo in schools is always composed of them. These cliques have identities exclusive for each. Students who do not look, act, or dress the same as one group are, more often than not, left out. They could be hurt physically and or psychologically with cruel teasing and rumors. Bullying and

Let me start off by saying this reading really opened up my eyes. It’s crazy that there is so much that comes into consideration when being apart of a society. High school is a big part of many people’s lives, they need to make it out big in the hallways. This means that people will do anything in their power just to fit in with the “cool kids”. In reality there is such a thing of a higher status and a lower status, but the fact that in high schools it’s a huge problem is sad. When I was in high schools, which wasn’t that long ago, this was a big problem. People needed to have the hottest clothes, shoes, phones, and music, in order to just be recognized. The funny thing is was that, the “nerds” were very high in demand as well. The cool kids wanted to be on their side as

Next to the parents, a child’s friends can be the biggest influence in a child’s life, and the need to fit in can be very hard for a child. The idea of being cool or giving into peer pressure can cause a child’s idea of what’s right and what’s wrong to become misconstrued. Causing a child to fall into a bad crowd of delinquent peers causing them to get into trouble with the law.

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.

Students who read this novel will receive the impression that dropping out of high school, underage drinking, smoking, and even prostitution is ordinary. As premature adults, high schoolers feel this impulsing urge to conform to the standards of their peers, allowing them to be easily influenced into falsely discerning right from wrong. The social environment an individual is surrounded by has much to do with “who [they] are and how [they] act” (Bond, Michael). Approximately 50% of teens by the age of 15 have been pressured into consuming at least one alcohol beverage, while over 70% have been influenced by their peers to take up the life altering habit of smoking (Peer Pressure Statistics). Teenagers feel weak and belittled if they do not comply to the inadmissible standards of their peers.

Undefinable, they are the faces you see in the hallway during the course of four years that you will never be able to learn to specifically recognize. The names you don't know and the people you will one day never remember. Labeled as underachievers, their potential is, for the most part, limited by their situation. Their lack of motivation and difficult personalities cast them into slow-moving classes where they form connections with those individuals on their level. They all have their reasons for being there. Reasons why their hair is uncombed and their clothes go unwashed. Reasons why they are so easily angered angered with paranoia and so simply satisfied with promises of friendship. Reasons why any thought of a future for themselves seems so impossibly out of reach. If only there was a proper term to identify this abstract grouping of teens, that there was some gathering place for the subculture we are trying to describe. They take whatever name we see fit to give them. Every high school has them, yet they are rarely analyzed. The remaining questions we hope to answer, Who exactly are these kids? How did they come to be this way?

The article “Cool at 13, Adrift at 23” by Jan Hoffman is about how some middle school students perform illegal acts and are popular and how once they get older they leave a bad footprint on their lives from trying to stay popular in an unsatisfactory way. In a study made by Dr. Joseph P. Allen, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, shows that a boy who was popular at age 14 by doing things that were “cool” has shown that by age 22 he is a high school dropout capable of minor thefts and vandalism with drugs and drinking problems. This shows that as people get older they tend to keep on thinking that if they get themselves into trouble, they will still be popular, and as they grow older they start to become socially incompetent.

These children will often act out through pseudomature behaviors in order to fit in. In the article, “cool at 13, adrift at 23,” the author Jan Hoffman writes about three pseudomature behaviors in which most cool kids participate, in order to fit in and how they can affect these children later on in life. According to Hoffman the three characteristics of pseudomature behavior displayed by the “cool kids” that often predict troubles in the future were that they sought out physically attractive friends, had numerous romantic experiences and committed crime and wrongdoing. While most children may participate in some of these behaviors at some point in their lives most will stop after they become more mature. However, most of the popular kids will never reach this maturity and will continue acting out in order to be popular throughout their adult lives, in order to preserve their feelings of

In a world with different opinions and views comes conflict. Some people bully those who don’t act and don’t look like them. In the world this leads to harsh judgment and nasty comments. In high school, this separation leads to cliques in schools and people feeling lonely. The cliques typically have members who are “popular.” Popular is defined as being well liked and desired among others. I expect the “popular” kids to be well liked because they are compassionate to others, however, that isn’t usually the case. Usually kids

All of this pressure about belonging to the popular group is put on children in grade school, but studies show that even in preschool, cliques are forming too. Michael Thompson’s newest book entitled Best Friends, Worst Enemies, Understanding the Social Lives of Children, tells how children begin to group themselves exclusively as early as preschool and kindergarten. At recess, a few decide they are a club and only certain kids can join. At this stage of development, though, they can’t sustain clique-like behavior; tomorrow, some kids will have forgotten about

The desire to fit in with peers can be a very strong influence on teens.