It was fairly similar to that where I went to school. Small town, everyone knew everyone from 1st grade to 12th, and there were cliques and social rules and many people fell over themselves to fit in one way or the other. Many people seemed to lack the understanding that high school is not forever- but some people never grow out of that and are 'stuck' in some kind of social sphere forever.

It coincides with adolescent development schemata, too - narcisstic, rebelling, etc.

Was it not anything like that in the UK?

Yeah. Not AS dramatic as the movies make it, but there is a lot of fighting, a lot of cliques, and a lot of discrimination among those cliques. If you're not cool, you're outcast.

I would like to see it. Would be...interesting.

It's not so much like that here, you still get the popular people who had loads of friends and people had their own groups, but they didn't have names or anything and you could sort of flit between them. And we had to wear uniforms (skirts for the girls, specifically...even in winter) so there was no fashion competition or anything like that. You were all sort of the same, save for a few. It wasn't like 'if you're in the band you're a loser' or anything but there were some select people i couldn't stand because they were up themselves so much.

Yeah, most American schools don't have much in the way of a dress code period, much less actual uniforms.

I hated our uniforms. Skirts all year round, how silly. Just cause it's a catholic school, but I never understood why that justified the skirt thing. Oh, grey skirts as well, with white shirts, green ties and a black blazer.

And the funny thing is, we had non-uniform days maybe twice every year or so, and you had to pay £1 for the privilege of wearing your own clothes

Well I went to a really big school (about 4000 kids) and it wasn't really like that. There were cliques, but they weren't really defined, and if you weren't part of one, it wasn't a huge deal.

That was my experience.

Oh, and no uniforms, and not much of a dress code either, too many pre-teen girls with skirts that were FAR too short!!

Hey Georgia, sometimes I wonder if at the smaller schools the cliques are more defined. Our class graduated 160. Generally they were defined by what you did (activities) since those people tended to hang out together all the time anyways. No uniforms, but you could sure tell who did what by the way they dressed, y'know?

I graduated with a class of about 56 just this last year (2007)
our school was terrible
cliques were really bad
there were the "cheerleaders"
the "jocks"
the "girls who slept around"
the "band nerds"
and "quiet people who do nothing"

yeah..
so my school was just like Mean Girls
well
that was a little exaggerated..

Yeah, it may be due to school size... Mine was small too, graduating class of around 200, a little less I think.

Which were you?

I managed to be well balanced with this, though; I was involved in several different crowds.

What's funny is now I look back on all that and realize that I totally was naive about the "stoners" clique...I mean, these two guys dressed as Cheech and Chong for Halloween. I was such a dumbnard.

hahaha
well
at the private school i went to (21 in the graduating class)
I was in the cheerleader clique..
but at the public school i went to
i was between the "popular girls" and the "girls that don't quite fit anywhere"
lol

in my school things are not like that at all.
There are some groups that hang around on the corner of the playgroud.
Some boy groups who love to play tennis and that is it.
Everyone fits into the school even if you have no mates.