High school cliques

[Robert DeSoto]

Whenever there's stuff on tv about high school bullies there's always this talk about the rivalry between different cliques, i.e. the jocks vs. the nerds. (And its mostly one way with the jocks beating up the nerds)

Is this how it's like where you went to high school? Cuz my high school didn't have any of that. In fact, we didn't have any jocks at all. We had nerds, but they didn't form any kind of big clique.

The only kind of "clique" rivalry we had was the Black gangs vs. the Brown gangs vs. the Asian gangs. And all the more serious fights and stabbings had nothing to do with the nerds. I mean, the nerds might get called faggot or pussy once in a while, but that's about it. I've never seen a nerd get beat up so badly he has to go to the hospital. I've never seen anyone pull a knife or a gun on a nerd either.

I know people who are good at sports and go to the gym (even I do weightlifting) but there's no clique of stereotypical jocks that go around bullying nerds at random.

And there's these other cliques. Goths? Emos? I don't think we had any of those. We had a few punk rockers, but they didnt even look very "punk". And gangster rap was a lot more popular than rock (so a lot more ppl with the baggy clothes).

That's why when I hear about these cliques on tv, I'm just like really? wtf? This is what other high schools are like? It's so different

 

[TerokNor]

We didn´t have any terms like this. The only clique I can remember in high-school was a small girl-clique (I think they were only about 3 or 4), who beat you up, if you dared as much as to look at them. To be honest they had me pretty scared, though they never beat me up, but they attacked me verbally, when I had to walk pass them (which I tried to avoid whereever possible).
Also my schools were (pittyfully) not very international, so something like an Asian-gang could not form. There were no ones with asian background nor people with dark skin.

TerokNor

 

[T'Girl]

Does science club count as a clique?

 

[Nowhere Man]

We had cliques, but it wasen't so exagerated as it is on TV. and Movies. I was part of the "outsiders" if you will, I don't mean like the book.

 

[ares93]

we have only two gangs in my school. the "swedes" (aka. europeans) and the arabs (syrians, iraqi, pakistani and so on) but there's no real rivalry between the two. basically the two keep to themselves.

in essence we uphold the classic swedish stereotype...

 

[iguana_tonante]

We had "circles" in school, but they were not built around specific "issues" like nerds, jocks, punks, etc. Just friends who used to hang together.

I was part of one of such "circle": we had a jock, a lovable dork, a sleazy prankster, a rich boy. I was the smarty pants. No real surprise here.

 

[Kestra]

There were the brains, the athletes, the basket cases, the princesses, and the criminals.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Both Crips and Bloods. Them and the Latin Kings, the Warriors, Newsies.

Usually the dividing lines were never as well-defined as the stereotypes you see in the movies and TV. You might see a few jocks sitting together, for example, but only because they were already friends, not because it was the designated jock table. Other non-jocks who were friends with them sat there as well, and the jocks were scattered all over the place, as were every other group. So, basically, it was groups of friends of different backgrounds sitting together rather then clearly defined groups of similar people.

 

[SeerSGB]

I remember there being little "niches" in highschool, but no one really stuck to them; there was a lot of "crossover" and 99% of the time people didn't give a shit who they were friends with. The ones they did try form little "gangs" tended to get laughed at and ignored.

 

[iguana_tonante]

There were the brains, the athletes, the basket cases, the princesses, and the criminals.

Funnily enough, I can see you belonging to each and every one.

 

[Warp Coil]

There were circles, but I am not sure that I would define them as cliques. My high school was massive (3,000+ students) and there were a lot of students who were part of the science and tech magnet program (myself included). So there were quite a few nerds, geeks, whatever you want to call them, but there was quite a variety of them. You had the stereotypical nerds - super smart, socially awkward, wore glasses, played RPG games at the lunch table. But there were also the more popular smart kids... they were in the A.P. classes but they were also cheerleaders or athletes or ran for student government or on the yearbook staff. They also came from wealthier families and lived in the nicer neighborhoods. There was a smaller circle of "freaks" - the goth/punk kids. There were also a segregation by race - the asians did tend to hang out together, the african americans tended to hang out together.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

There were circles, but I am not sure that I would define them as cliques. My high school was massive (3,000+ students)...

I wonder if that was the reason my schools avoided cliqueism as well. The two high schools I went to had around 3,000 and 2,500 students respectively. Maybe it was just too crowded to break up into small, well-defined groups.

 

[RoJoHen]

Our jocks and our nerds were one in the same. The majority of the football players were also in Math Club.

 

[sidious618]

There wasn't much in the way of cliques in my high school. At least not that I could tell.

 

[kes7]

Mine (in the mid-1990s) was clique-ish. We had goths, skaters, two different competing groups of jocks (yes, it was even clique-ish by sport), the drama/choir nerds, the band geeks, the brains, the popular/pretty girls (mostly cheerleaders), the thugs, and everyone else. Each group really did kind of keep to itself.

I really hated high school.

 

[Pegaritaville]

There were circles, but I am not sure that I would define them as cliques. My high school was massive (3,000+ students)...

I wonder if that was the reason my schools avoided cliqueism as well. The two high schools I went to had around 3,000 and 2,500 students respectively. Maybe it was just too crowded to break up into small, well-defined groups.

I always figured my school didn't have cliques because it was too small. With only 70 or so students in each class, you didn't have enough people for the typical cliques to form. There was a kind of hierarchy as far as popularity went, but it was fairly fluid.

 

[Joshua Howard]

I never went to high school (homeschool), so I kind of wonder whether I missed out or was really lucky. Teenagers are unstable at best. It seems like a bad idea allowing them to be exposed to more of their kind.

 

[Witterquick]

In our school, the athletes got along pretty well with the "nerds". And the nerds were pretty popular with the girls. Lol.

 

[ares93]

I never went to high school (homeschool), so I kind of wonder whether I missed out or was really lucky. Teenagers are unstable at best. It seems like a bad idea allowing them to be exposed to more of their kind.

you missed out on a lot my friend. crazy teenagers+alcohol= fun times

In our school, the athletes got along pretty well with the "nerds". And the nerds were pretty popular with the girls. Lol.

strangely, its the same thing over here.

Spoiler: spoiler

i guess girls really are attracted to intelligent guys

 

[RoJoHen]

I never went to high school (homeschool), so I kind of wonder whether I missed out or was really lucky. Teenagers are unstable at best. It seems like a bad idea allowing them to be exposed to more of their kind.

you missed out on a lot my friend. crazy teenagers+alcohol= fun times

I never drank in high school, but you definitely miss out on important socialization skills. How does a homeschooler make friends?