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No matter what one wants to believe, people are not all the same, and do fit into distinct categories.  In no place is this more prevalent than in high school.  There are the Jocks, the “popular kids”, the rich kids, the gangsters, the rejects (mockingly called Dirts by other groups), and then there are various other smaller groups that have a lower profile.  Students identify themselves by the groups or cliques that they belong to, and the students use these groups as a base for their beliefs, thoughts, and actions.  Dress, mannerisms, behaviors, and ideals are all derived from the various groups that exist in high school.  In most cases there are rivalries and divides separating the groups or cliques, and serves to only magnify the differences in ideologies between groups. 

  
       The first clique that often comes to mind when thinking of high school is that of the Jock/popular group.  These kids are very often times involved in many school activities or sports, consider themselves to be adored and worshiped by the student body, and often times are the poster children of the school.  This group is characterized by their tendencies towards trendy clothing and music selections, outspokenness, a general sense of superiority and conceitedness, and suspiciously high grade point averages.  Often members of this group single out other students and chastise them for being unlike them, and are the originators of the derogatory term “Dirt” or “Dirty.”  
       On the other end there are the Punks, Goths, and “Dirts” who are on the opposite end of the high school spectrum from the Preps.  They generally like death metal such as Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit, and other such bands.  Non-name brand clothing, often black, and various piercing/hair color variations are the standard uniform for this group.  Where students of the Preppy clique take pride in high academic excellence, and social status through after school activities, the Punks often take pride in low grades, and absolutely no school participation in clubs or sports.  It is a source of identification for these students, and they often get into scrabbles with members of the Preps over their differences.  
       In the middle there are still various other smaller cliques.  There are the rich kids who wear suits or khakis to school, and who have laptop computers, top of the line cell phones, and BMWs.  There are the “hippies” who wear hemp necklaces and Grateful Dead/Phish shirts, which take pride in recounting their weekend pot smoking experiences.  There are the gangsters who like to make a show of their “gangster-ness” by wearing Fubu or other predominately African American gangster clothing lines.  All of these groups are deeply rooted in superficialities, and many of their beliefs are not of their own making, but are the standard issue clichés that are synonymous with their group.  These groupings start in elementary and middle school, but become the most developed in high school, where students are old enough to better live their selected life styles.  
       As a whole, the cliques serve to divide and sub-divide the student body into small groups, which, by their nature, pit themselves against each other.  In some cases the divisions are not very defined, and there is an overall sense of school spirit.  However, there are also instances where the divisions run so deep that school spirit is but held tightly by one or two groups, and the rest are ostracized from the school body as a whole.  In the even worse cases, incidents such as the school shootings at Columbine are a result.  It is at this extreme that the nature of cliques is shown to be a negative one, and one of the reasons that I personally dislike them and try to keep from identifying myself with one certain group.  
       It is through making friends from all over the board, and by sticking to your personal likes and dislikes that the problem of school divisions can be mended.  Individuals making individual efforts brings a sense of unity, for when it is seen that one can be quite happy and well liked without buying into a clique, others will make efforts to do the same.  Outside of high school there are certainly still groups, but they are much bigger in numbers, and are less easily defined and grouped.  High school is like the real world in miniature, and the intricacies of human socialization are viewable on a smaller scale, which makes it easier to see.  
 

 

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