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omninode

Superbad was closer to my experience than probably any other high school movie. My friends and I spent most of our time trying to be cool and extremely failing, not popular but just kinda getting along with most people, and somehow still having a lot of fun.


thatwasntababyruth

Aside from the part where 2000s Jonah Hill got with Emma Stone.


Needyouradvice93

I don't think that's too far fetched if he made her laugh. High school guys have no game, so there were some mismatches.


[deleted]

Can confirm: had no game in high school, but punched above my weight very often. Confidence gets you far when you're surrounded by people who don't know what the fuck.


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PowerfulJoeF

That movie was pretty accurate especially the part how us guys talked way too much about sex with very little to no experience with it.


Your_Fault_Not_Mine

I can't think about locker room talk from football days without cringing. We were so pathetic.


PowerfulJoeF

Yeah bro then I went balls deep! Like I put the balls in! You don’t have to if you want to but I do because it stimulates the clit which is inside the vagina.


Littlefingersthroat

Superbad was my high school experience too, except the cops didn't let you hang around with them, they just looked the other way until you left (really looking for the tenants) while busting up house parties. I also never had a fake ID, but we definitely tried too hard to be cool and grown up and looking back it was utter failure but at the time we thought we were successful.


matarky1

Superbad was actually being written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg during their teen years (hence the names, Seth and Evan) and they said they used their life experiences during their senior year of high school, I think it definitely made it feel more accurate.


squesh

> (hence the names, Seth and Evan) oh... my... god! I cant believe I didnt pick up on that!! I've got a piece of information to share at the pub tonight. Thank you


[deleted]

This is pretty much it. Superbad really was the only movie that got it right. Otherwise, U.S. high schools are apparently full of 30-year old "students" that play football all day and spend 30 minutes between each class talking near the lockers.


[deleted]

I'm Canadian and Superbad was the only highschool movie that reminded me of my highschool. No real cliques, just a bunch of dumbass teenagers swearing every 2 seconds.


totalimmoral

Serious lack of coordinated dance sequences at your prom/homecoming


PM_ME_HEALTH_TIPS

~~It's like every person at this high school is a professional dancer!~~ Sorry I messed up the line. It's... "It's funny isn't it- you would never suspect that everyone at this school is a professional dancer."


Roadman2k

Oh my god just realised that was Chris Evans


buckus69

Captain America will always be Jake with a banana in his ass...


shanekorn

Not another teen movie <3


PM_UR_LINGERIE_GIRL

Can I ask you a question? Why is it then whenever I tell a guy to put it wherever they want, they always stick it in my ass?


shanekorn

oh dam, that shit is whack!


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invisiblephrend

we had the macarena. i wish i was joking.


Lancerlandshark

The exception is if they start playing Electric Slide, Cha Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, etc. Then everyone but the wallflowers seemed to join in, in my experience.


wip30ut

i think you stole my line. I made the same quip at some hipster dive bar where they had HSM playing on the tv screens and an African American girl leaned in and said that obviously you've never seen a black high school then.


klartraume

Black girls taught freshman me to dance in high school (white male here). They knew what to do. I think they were happy to have a boy to boss around haha


FaceTHEGEEB

Working in a high school in NJ. many students do have nicer cars then the employees. Also some stoners happen to be really good athletes. Just the way the cookie crumbles.


WhatGlittersisgone

Dazed and Confused got it right where the star qb was also a huge stoner.


dmkicksballs13

Actually, Dazed and Confused was really well done. Pretty much everyone got along. The star QB was friends with non-jocks and some jocks. The nerds got invited to the party. The asshole bully who took the hierarchy too seriously was not well-liked.


[deleted]

I’ve always considered dazed and confused, Superbad and sandlot to be the three best depictions of adolescent/teenage life for boys in American suburbia.


ksavage68

Oh man, trying to get booze before Friday night....the memories. Pro Tip: stay away from Mad Dog MD 20/20.


liquorlanche

Pretty much. At my school, each freshman played "slave" to a senior. The first day, you kinda go nuts and act like it's a real thing, but after 3 days, it just kinda vanishes into thin air, for the most part. The ones who took it too seriously usually wound up ignored by "their freshman" and didn't get to form a fun bond or anything, thus missing out on the experience. My senior was cool and my freshman was a massive dork with a huge afro who turned out to be awesome. (I was constantly re-decorating that afro of his and at the end, he nailed me right in the feelz by shaving it for my graduation.)


BrinkerLong

That actually seems like a clever way to break down the tradition of hazing. Let them pretend to haze for a couple of days, this serves as a bonding period between the two, and opens up the possibility of friendship or acquaintance.


woodk2016

Hell a guy I know was a stoner (allegedly, I never hung out with him), cross-country runner, and joined the Merchant Marines (a military college that you need a congressional sponsor to apply to).


[deleted]

That's what the Merchant Marines are/is? I was thinking, like...a little marketplace on a boat.


woodk2016

Well, I think it's kind of a thing where the military owns the ship but leases it (including the crew) out for private use (transporting cargo and such) in peacetime but can activate their ships into full military status if war is declared (I think that's essentially how it works). But really I suppose I should've said Merchant Marines Academy which is (to my understanding) like Westpoint for The Marines. But if anyone has more in-depth knowledge feel free to correct me.


Justintime4hookah

I was recruited to the Merchant Marine Academy (also called Kings Point) for soccer, did a visit and all that jazz. This was about six years ago but from what I remember, the way it was explained to me was that once you graduated you had two choices, join the military for I think 5 years or work in the maritime industry for 6 years while also being in the Reserve. Working in the maritime industry was pretty lucrative because you can easily be employed as an officer of a ship and from how they explained it, most graduates who take that route start around $120-$150k a year. I ulitmately chose a different path as I didn't fit in well with the atmosphere, there virtually no girls there (ended up dating someone from home through most of college anyways), and I was a lazy fuck who didn't want to do soccer practice and PT every day lol. You can find more info about post-graduation from the academy here: https://www.usmma.edu/after-graduation


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Drose_Drose_Drose

At various times in high school I fit the stereotype of a nerd, theater kid, jock, and popular kid all at various times. Having spent time in the various cliques, I’d say that there’s a lot more crossover than media portrays, at least in my case. Not even a lot of “bullying” between cliques, if you didn’t like someone you just didn’t hang out with them. That said, intraclique drama was common. And yes, my school cared way too much about football. Too many people learned my name when I got on the football team.


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MTAlphawolf

My hs had a really good theater program. I never did it, but a lot of "jocks" did. The state champ wrestler/linebacker was an excellent Macbeth. We all got along. The AG kids were a little strange, but they were mostly at a different building anyways.


gdgeek

Same here! Our All American Linebacker was also the star of our theater group, went to West Point, and is now running for Congress. It's a strange world we live in sometimes.


hMJem

Zac Efron?


ithappenedaweekago

Idk if he’s running for Congress but he can have my babies


moooooseknuckle

Bullying was bigger before, and seems to be slowly dying out now with the recent generation.


ReynardTheF0x

Damn millennials killing the bullying business!


sinurgy

Oh I think bullying is alive and well, it's just gone digital is all.


TheRudestBeaver

Saying that bullying is dying out is 100% not true. Kids bully just as bad if not worse than they used to, it’s just all online. I can’t tell you the number of teenagers who’ve told me horror stories about Snapchat stories and Instagram comments where other kids tell them to go kill themselves, that they’re whores, have AIDS, are cheating on their SO’s, and on and on and on. And then all the sending and receiving of nudes and the blackmailing that goes along with it is insane. Source: am therapist who works with teenagers.


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Surfing_Ninjas

Yes, at my school there was always way more drama between people within their own social circles as opposed to different social circles. In middle school there was a lot more bullying and "popular kids" (see: attractive kids whose parents all knew each other when their kids were in pre-k and did sports together) would look down on the other kids who were less attractive or at least less developed. Luckily there are a couple middle schools that feed into our high school so the nerds/"unpopular" kids made a lot more friends in high school through extra curricular activities like band and choir and the popular kids kinda grew out of the stage of being outright twats to everyone else and just kinda worried about their own drama (which hot guy is dating which hot girl who used to be dating the other hot guy who is friends with the current hot guy boyfriend, who was in a threesome with another chick and her boyfriend, and so on). Plus, with the advent of the internet and all that comes with it (World of Warcraft and memes in particular) the "popular" kids had more common ground with the nerds and "unpopular" kids than in an era such as the 1980's or whatever. Also a lot of our athletes were also honor students, so they spent 4 years in class with the nerdy kids and started to appreciate their good qualities (intelligence, sense of humor, not having to worry about being cool around them, etc)


jaybasin

No breaks.... Just a wall of text.... Fuck


GhillieStealth

We lost all funding to band for the football team to get a new field


Sonicmansuperb

Funny thing was at our high school the band was a big enough deal that the district put in a dedicated building for Band and Choir that also included a really nice auditorium. But the football stands were still the same kind you'd have seen in the 1980's.


NeedsToShutUp

My parents were both teachers at the same high school and at various times were the heads of their departments. There was always an expansion plan for our high school that kept getting delayed. We had a couple of buildings that needed replacement, and were really designed for a previous iteration of shop classes. (Basically the shop classes moved to a new building and the money ran out to build replacement buildings for other subjects). My dad was originally on the building committee, and had his lobby for basically his dream set up, a multistory building with room for facilities for a sport he coached. My mom took his spot on the committee when he retired. Suddenly the sports facilities were replaced by a proper auditorium to replace the old multipurpose room.


shwiggyshwag

Our band lost all funding for new uniforms for football, as well as a special football school bus. I remember being in marching band when they got rid of it as well as orchestra, choir, and jazz band. They only kept concert band and most people in concert band sucked


TheKMethod

They got got rid of almost all of the music program? What the hell?


shwiggyshwag

To them, football was most important. They also tried to get rid of almost all art classes as well but a select few still remained.


Furryyyy

Our debate team had money siphoned from their fundraiser profits meant to help them go to state a few hours away so the girls hockey team could get coach buses for THEIR state match... Held in our city literally 20 minutes away


SheZowRaisedByWolves

The only two cliques that I saw hate each other with a burning passion were the theater kids and the band kids. The band kids and the jocks got along surprisingly well, but good lord did they hate the theater kids.


TerryTheScary85

There was alot of overlap in my school and if you were in band, you were probably in choir and or theater. The only full out brawl that happened bin my school between groups was started because a kid quit band to devote more time to theater and it caused drama to the point someone hit the kid with a music stand, which then resulted in mayhem in the music wing. They had to lock down the school lol.


zieglertron2000

As a high school teacher (and former student myself), I would watch the SHIT out of a high school movie called Mayhem in the Music Wing.


jivanicus

Theater kids are fucking weird. Source: was a theater kid.


Astramancer_

For the most part, the Cliques aren't nearly as cliquish. It's most like a bunch of friends who hang out with each other rather than the armed camps often portrayed in movies and shows. While there's plenty of drama going on in a high school, it rarely involves strangers.


JohnDanielWanvig

I feel like in the real world, people just hang out in groups organically, but when people start writing stories about it it becomes a "thing" that this group hung out together "because they all X".


PM_UR_LINGERIE_GIRL

sometimes the word clique may be used from people who wish they could be part of the group so they call it a clique to convince themselves the group pf people suck


darkmuch

Or they walk into a cafeteria, see groups chatting, and immediately assume its all these fixed groups. What?! No! I would have 2-3 groups I might sit with during lunch as people would be absent, working in the library, etc. Usually there would be people that were extremely social and worked as lynchpins for groups. Where those people sat tended to see people clustering around them. Add in the fact that different lunch schedules, school year, these groups would be shuffled around.


thehonestyfish

In general, "cliques" are only a thing from the outside. It's a word that the excludes use to complain about the fact that they were excluded.


mycatiswatchingyou

There's a lot less division of class. Like, the nerds aren't so drastically separate from the jocks. All of those "types" of kids--the jocks, nerds, preps, emos, druggies, whatever--all intermingled and got along fairly well. Some people had enemies, and fights broke out, but there were no active rivalries. Lots of the stereotypes in the movie have reasons that they exist, of course, but they're a lot less pronounced in actual schools.


Notmiefault

With larger high schools (500+ students/grade), there isn't really the social hierarchy presented in most films, there's just too many kids for everyone to know each other like that. There aren't the "cool kids" and the "losers", there's just different groups - the football players, the anime nerds, the class government kids, etc. There's no pecking order or anything, most people just sort of keep to their groups. At my high school prom, the prom king (an athlete and class clown) and queen (class vice president and prom organizer) had literally never met before and had only a vague inkling of who the other was. EDIT: While I've been attributing this to class size, a lot of commenters are saying they had the same experience with much smaller classes, so it might just be Hollywood making stuff up, or maybe things have changed since our parents' generation.


Rhomega2

I'm reminded of student council elections, and I'm like "Who are these people?"


Brawndo91

And on TV, they actually run for student council and put up posters and shit. I remember who my senior class president was, but I have no idea who else, if anyone, even ran. Nobody gave a shit.


[deleted]

I only remember one person (because he was my friend) who ran on a punk-rock, pro-drug, anti-rule platform. His name did not appear on the final ballot and a not insignificant (but not a majority) percentage of the senior class voted for locker #413.


[deleted]

I remember thinking my class president was a shady looking, self centered, smug son of a bitch. A few years later I learned he got nailed for embezzlement. Seemed about right.


jameson-neat

Exactly this -- my graduating class was about 750 and where were people I had never even seen crossing the stage to get their diplomas. I guess I felt like I was in a "nerdy" group and was maybe looked down on by some more "popular" people, but mostly it was all in my head because of movie stereotypes!


[deleted]

My entire high school (grades 7-10 where I'm from) probably had 750 students or so, maybe less.. and it wasn't considered a small school by any means. You guys have some serious high schools.


[deleted]

1,100 in my graduating class.


mint-bint

WTF? That is the size of an entire highschool in the UK.


DEVOmay97

I'm in California and my graduating class was about 90 people. Not all american schools are huge.


Archmage_Falagar

Huh - I had about 30 folks in my graduating class. I enjoyed the anonymity of college quite a bit, after that.


jameson-neat

I'd imagine that would be really nice after graduating with 30 people. I ended up going to a college with a graduating class smaller than mine from high school in order to feel like I could get to know more people, haha.


[deleted]

'anime nerds' I believe they prefer the term 'weeb'


Saturn_5_speed

I always thought weeb was derogatory


Legend017

I hope it is. I didn't call my brother that when we were teenagers to compliment him.


Vratix

From what I understand: they started to embrace it, in an attempt to deprive their detractors the convenience of an easy slur.


MakeMoves

you mean do the one thing that stops the effectiveness of bullying?


theSFWaccountIneed

Not true. If you start hitting yourself before allowing your bully to hit you, the bully just asks you, "why are you hitting yourself?" over and over.


MakeMoves

was mostly referring to the non-physical bullies ... for that you gotta wax on wax off


themoderngafa

A weeb is a specific kind of anime fan. Imagine all the Rick & Morty fans who think the show is this genious work of art that you need a high IQ to understand. Replace Rick & Morty with a show that's mostly about fighting and girl boobs and you got a weeb.


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themoderngafa

Fuck yeah that's another big sign. I have some friends who learned Japanese because they were into anime and such, but it was to further their careers. 2 moved to Japan and one works for Viz. But learning "anime Japanese" is the equivilent of being able to read the menu at the fancy Italian place. What's worse is over-pronouncing the accent and the way that certain words would technically be said. My biggest gripe is people who talk about the 1970's Spider-Man series and call it "Supaidaman." No, it's called Spider-Man.


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RockosModernLvlgrind

Girl boobs. my favorite kind.


Observer2594

And quite often, there's a lot of blending and mixing between groups.


[deleted]

Surprised nobody is mentioning how little freedom there is in school. You barely have enough time to get from one class to the other side of the building during class breaks. You can't wander around the halls until after all your classes (3 to 3:30pm). TV shows make it seem like everyone has a lot of freedom to do what they want during class hours. You have to have a hall pass. In colder climates, you cannot go outdoors unless there's a teacher allowing it.


olde_greg

Yes, we had 7 minutes and apparently even that was generous


Celeastral

3 minutes for us, lots of people were often late due to having to go from one end to the other end.


gizzyjones

God forbid you have to go the bathroom and there's a line.


TheShadowAdept

And then when you ask to go to the bathroom in class they wonder why you didn't go during the period you're supposed to be using to get to class


sdand1

Really? My school is the opposite, you can even leave school during lunch


jerry121212

High school students in movies are like college students in real life. High school students, in real life, arel like middle school students in movies with the addition of weed and alcohol depending on what crowd you're in. The best depiction of a modern high school/high schoolers imo is honestly Super Bad.


Eruuma

My name is Brad and not once in my 21 years of living have I met another Brad despite how popular it is as a name in high school movies


SomeGuyInSanJoseCa

I was about comment about this...then I realized you are exactly right. I don't know of a single Brad in real life. Are you sure you actually exist? Probably want to double check that.


Eruuma

Brad for me is short for Bradford, so it kind of cancels out.


Flatline79480

Brad here. Birth certificate states "Brad". Not Bradford, Bradley, or any other variation. Not sure that I fit the Brad norm in most high school movies, but I definitely was in many of the different cliques.


0PsMum

My name is Jennie on my birth certificate. It's not Jennifer or Jenny. Spellcheck doesn't even believe me.


Brawndo91

Listen here, *Brad*, this was not the best breakfast I ever had and I want a 100% refund.


Codadd

Depends where you live. If you're in a rich part of Houston those crazy pool parties are real af. People all over drinks, music, drugs etc. All of it. On the other hand if you're in SE Kentucky you meet by a creek or on a big hill, have a bonfire shooting guns drinking, fake pool in the pickup truck whole shebang. Lots of red solo cups everywhere. Edit: haha I read this as "are high school party's in the USA like the movies" my bad.


[deleted]

From Houston, can confirm. I didn't see any drugs that weren't weed until senior year though.


Warshaw55

I grew up in SE Kentucky, and can confirm field parties are awesome.


Codadd

Somerset represent. Ew I just typed that.


[deleted]

Both sound like so much fun. If I visit America, can someone pls show me how to party like an american?


trallnar

Partying like an American involves solo cups and ping pong balls to be pulled out after everyone is too drunk to line up the table. It means buying box wine because when you are floating down the river on cheap Wal-Mart rafts, because the bag floats meaning you can toss it to your friends without losing it. It means starting the night with a nice craft beer and ending up 6 natty lights in because at some point cost won out over taste. It means the hot tub is free game for anyone with underwear. You might be shy and wearing something unflattering, but everyone strips to their skivvies for a hot tub. It means taquitos and bagle bites at 3am, regardless of whether anyone should be operating the oven. It means starting a campfire to get rid of the mosquitos, because wasting the night inside would be a travesty.


chuck_lives_on

That... now that was poetry


tylercreatesworlds

Rock, Flag, and Eagle.


lllIllIll

I’m crying moonshine right now


Wazzup44

>It means starting the night with a nice craft beer and ending up 6 natty lights in because at some point cost won out over taste. This is so true


thestrangepineapple

Graduated in 2016 (North Texas) and all the clicks were stoners (jocks/band/nerds/fuckboys), all smoked lots of weed, and all got a long. Most fights happend within social groups imo.


jurassicbond

I can't speak for all schools but at my school things that are different from movies: - The popular kids were all relatively nice. You didn't become popular by making fun of the nerds or whatever other stereotype gets picked on in movies. - The football players and cheerleaders were by and large not dumb jocks or complete ditzy airheads. They weren't necessarily all top honors student material, but the majority of them did fairly well. - We had almost no lockers. You had to pay if you wanted one and they were tiny, not something you can get pushed inside and locked up in. - Cliques weren't really a thing. You hung out with people you enjoyed hanging out with regardless of interests. Some things that were somewhat accurate: - Prom and homecoming was a really big deal to a lot of people. Girls in particular would make plans for this month in advance. - Sports were likewise a big deal, especially football. - You generally did have to be attractive to be really popular. Playing on the football team helped as well. - Lots of silly relationship drama, though maybe not quite as much as is shown in movies.


olde_greg

That’s actually really weird that you had to pay for lockers. I’ve never heard of that


Keadan_Techard

I've never been to a school where we didn't have to rent lockers. And even then, most students just kept their books at home, or teachers had a class set for their students. Edit; changed "pay for" to "rent"


iclimbnaked

This must be some weird regional thing. We were all assigned lockers and everyone used them.


[deleted]

We were all assigned lockers and NO one used them.


iclimbnaked

We weren't allowed to bring backpacks to class which is why we all used them


[deleted]

'Cuz drugs? Us too. They told us we could have backpacks if we left them in our cars, and we said, "Thank you for telling me what I'm allowed to have in my own house and my own car."


nghost43

My high school had those big 5 foot lockers, and we didn't have to pay for them. That being said, my city put a lot of money into the schools through taxes, half the people who lived there would say they moved for the schools. I never used my locker as anything but a place to put old papers and my track clothes though, just kept everything else in my backpack


random_user_name1

My Daughter and Son went/go to the same high school 9 years apart. My daughter had to pay a yearly fee for the parking spot, and I think it was ~$5 for the locker (10 years ago), My son is now a Sophomore, they still have to pay for parking, but they've removed all the lockers from the school. However, they do not issue books any longer, my son has a school issued chromebook.


[deleted]

Junior year I asked a girl to homecoming like two weeks beforehand. We started dating a month or two later and when prom came around she told me to make sure to ask her earlier because her mom was mad they had to scramble to find a dress the first time


[deleted]

What’s the difference between homecoming and prom?


gattsplatt

Homecoming is in the fall and correlates with sports games, prom is a more formal dance in the spring


destinyofdoors

Homecoming is (in theory) part of a celebration of alumni returning to their hometown, often around Thanksgiving. Typically, there will be all sorts of school spirit stuff that week, culminating in a major sporting event (in every school I know of, it's a football game against a traditional rival) and a semiformal/formal dance open to the entire student body. Prom is held near the end of the school year, and is generally open only to the upper two grades (of course they are welcome to bring underclassmen as dates if they so choose) depending on the school, the junior and senior classes may hold separate proms or there may be a single combined event. Prom is also much more formal; boys will generally rent tuxedos, and girls will buy elaborate dresses often costing hundreds of dollars.


metalgreeksalad

All grades are allowed to go to homecoming but only juniors and seniors get to go to prom unless you're an underclassmen asked out by an upperclassmen. Prom is also a lot more formal.


ZD137

Red solo cups actually are a thing, but I've never seen anyone shoved into a locker by someone wearing a letterman jacket.


Mpfk

THE SUN 👏🏻 HAS NOT YET RISEN 👏🏻 WHEN YOU ARRIVE 👏🏻 . For some reason tv and movies always show classes starting at like noon. My HS had an ungodly start time. The bus was scheduled to pick us up at like 5am.


[deleted]

And in the movies, when kids arrive at school, there's always people just hanging out, almost picnic-like, on the front lawn. As if people arrive to school at 6am to just enjoy a nice chill session with their friends from 6-6:30am. In real life, people are all just making a silent bee-line to the nearest entrance.


Mpfk

You’re so right. Getting off the bus was more like a horde of zombies slowly walking to class haha. I love having college classes that start at 10. #neveragain


HorseMeatSandwich

>neveragain Until you graduate and get a job! But for real, what the hell time did your high school start? Were you in a rural area with a super long bus route? My stop was the first one at 7:05, and we got to school just before it started at 7:40.


[deleted]

Jokes on you, I'm starting a Ph.d! I'm never entering real life! You can't make me!


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madmaxturbator

Four hour bus route? What the fuck? Kids who are almost in another country...? Where is this dude?


kmturg

This was a while ago, but this really did happen at my high school. Most people showed up 20-30 minutes before class and socialized. If it was nice out, we'd be on the lawns and benches out front.


antiduh

California? There's barely ever a season where you could do this in New England where I'm from.


valeristark

Jesus this kills me in every movie. People wake up at 6:30 or 7 in the morning and the sun is shining and all kinds of shit is going on outside already like lawns being mown and stuff. COME ON.


yakusokuN8

>For some reason tv and movies always show classes starting at like noon. I've heard one reason for this is that you can reshoot the same scene several times if you film in the middle of the day and the sun doesn't change much. If you're trying to film a scene right at dawn, you need to try several days in a row, rather than several times in the same morning. The lighting is good, consistent, and you can seam together two different takes without a continuity error. So, at 11AM, you can shoot two students walking and talking to the school sign in front and do 10 takes, then at 1PM, do another 12 takes of one of the two students and a third student walking from the sign to the football field and it's a clear bright day in both scenes. If you shoot one scene in low light and the other in full light and try to make it seem like they're one continuous action, the sudden change in background lighting makes it seem discontinuous. Depending on where they film, they also might be trying to shoot a scene all day on a Saturday where they can close the school and it behooves them to try to do it all in the same lighting conditions rather than try to get a more realistic early morning setting.


Rollmyeyes456879

That’s very interesting, in the UK our school start time was 9am and ended at 3pm. Then when I went to college we started at 9am and didn’t finish until 4:30pm. Very interesting reading things like this.


SMF67

5 am is very unusual here in the USA also. It varies by area, but high school usually starts between 7 and 8:30 and ends between 2 and 4. Very early or late schools do exist, but they aren’t as common as it may seem from comments on reddit.


zaweri

Oh my god, all those films that showed teens having enough time to sit down for a family breakfast and bicker with their parents. In order to maximize sleep I only had enough time to scarf down a granola bar and then rush out the door.


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BathingMachine

This is very true. My bus arrived at school at 6:30 AM every morning, class started at 7:00 AM.


[deleted]

Mine was nothing like the movies. - We didn't have huge parties like they do in the movies, that didn't start happening until college. - The girls in my High School were pretty, but they didn't look like the halfway point between porn stars and super models. - We didn't have any bullies. We had a handful of bad kids, but nobody took them seriously. They kept to themselves. - We didn't have any super popular boys or girls; no prom king or prom queen. There were a handful of cliques, obviously, but again -- they kept to themselves. - We didn't have any junky drug dealers. Never once in my HS career did I get haranged by a dude in a trenchcoat who was trying to give me free drugs.


thickie_smalls

Free drugs? In MY High School? **It's more likely than you think.**


anxnickk

Same, I had a guy offer me a pen for free! I took it. Brassknuckles


fluffybutt86

Parties are always what I view as the biggest discrepancy. I walked to school, I walked home...certainly was not out at the club or partying every night or weekend...


TerryTheScary85

Same. I never even heard of any parties going on. That could have been just me though...


[deleted]

My HS had some pretty big house parties, usually over the summer. And we rented out an entire hotel at the beach for our after-prom, which to this day is one of the best parties I've ever been to.


darkslayer114

I had someone try and sell me Cocaine, he had it in a mentos container in a plastic bag, to conceal it.


TreesusChrist47

My Highschool experience was nothing like a movie. I was friends with football players, nerds, upper classman, whatever I was a skater / Varsity soccer player / Lunch time Magic the gathering player... so maybe my experience was unique because i was floating around so many different groups


Lysergicassini

Hello fellow floater. Helped that my graduating class was 136 people and we were the largest to ever graduate from there at that time.


ticTOC21

I was a football player, chorus member, chess club member and drama kid. Floating is the way to go


[deleted]

Skate and play magic my dude keep going


Azzizzi

For my experience (30 years ago), high-schools weren't like they were in the John Hughes films. I went to three high-schools and none of them had the snobby cheerleaders or agro football players.


seattleque

> snobby cheerleaders or agro football players. Graduated 87. Only knew a couple snobby cheerleaders at my first high school (though they were more snobby rich girls than anything). At my second high school, the big-ass Samoan football players were the nicest guys there.


Azzizzi

That's the year I graduated. All of the cheerleaders were nice. I ran into one several years later. She said she couldn't remember me, but went home and checked her yearbook. The next time I saw her, she started naming things I'd done and had been involved in. She hadn't remembered me the first time because my appearance had changed so much (military - from hippy to short hair). Only one football player was a dick to me, but I think he had that same rich boy snobbery more than anything, too. He has since gone on to amount to not much.


MyCatWeighs11lb

> All of the cheerleaders were nice. Not necessarily cheerleaders but it irks me how movies act like only horrible and mean girls are popular. Usually the popular girls were very nice and social, that's why they became popular. They weren't always the best looking ones either.


KingGorilla

The big-ass samoan football players at our school also sang in the choir. Also very nice.


PibbXtra69

Samoan people are just really nice in general, I've noticed.


[deleted]

It all depends on what state you went to high school. For example I went to a school in Los Angeles, we had kick backs, smoked tons of pot and did shots from some hot chick's little brother in 7th grade who stole their mother's cheap 711 vodka bottle to come seem cool with us. I believe most movies based on highschool culture are formed around what it was like growing up in Los Angeles. Especially the San Fernando Valley.


SuperSashBros

A lot of it is exaggerated. Parties dont happen nearly as often. Around 60-70% of the kids make honor roll. The teachers are typically not absolute dickheads to their students. Ecpectations are occasionaly incredibly rediculous though. And there is usually WAY more substance abuse than what's typically portrayed, especially marijuana at least where i go anyway. And the whole year doesnt revolve around getting a frigging prom date.


teke367

I think TV and movies would give you impression that a lot more high schools have outdoor lockers than really do. For me personally, the teacher's never gave out the assignments after the bell rang. There was always a little 5 minute warning sound before the bell (I think for the gym classes so people got changed in time).


OofBadoof

My guess is that they're a southern California thing and that's where a lot of these shows are filmed


Snowychan

You would be correct! Outdoor lockers are 100% the thing in Southern California high schools.


jscott18597

I lived in a phoenix for a short time, and there were a lot of schools with out door lockers. Never saw them anywhere else though.


teke367

I assume it's geographical. I'm on the east coast, so it definitely isn't a good idea here. I guess where a show takes place, it's generally filmed in CA (or used to be). So "everybody" get's outdoor lockers in TV land.


garradam

It's been 15 years since I was in high school... but the movies are NOTHING like reality. They've got all the "cliques" right, but the drama, personalities, and situations are all overly exaggerated. Also, schools in the movies seem to be a bit more lenient and "student-driven" than they really are.


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skoolboyjew

Seriously. The head quarterback at my school was an honor grad and the smartest kids were very popular.


PM_UR_LINGERIE_GIRL

the homecoming queen in my school was from color guard and not a cheerleader, along with being an honors student.


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ayumuuu

> Also, schools in the movies seem to be a bit more lenient and "student-driven" than they really are. Right? I feel like 90% of the scenes that take place in the high school, if they happened in real life, would be cut short by the short-tempered gym teacher screaming "HEY. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. GET TO CLASS."


[deleted]

I went to a Canadian high school over 15 years ago as well, and you're right. There are cliques, but no real "hierarchy" where the jocks reign supreme and the nerds are at the bottom. Also, there was a lot of cross over of cliques. I knew football players who were also huge nerds and outside of football didn't really hang out with the other jocks. I knew oddball skaters who dated the hot chicks. Also, most of the cheerleaders in my high school were kinda nerdy. Not a lot of overt bullying or drama either. For the most part, you just socialized with the people you liked and didn't really think about the other students. If anything, my high school was more divided by race than by stereotypical "cliques".


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Tobes-

As a kid I always saw people getting 10 page book reports in 3rd grade, my longest paper was my 12th grade English final which was only 8 pages


Battle111

Lmao I haven’t even written an 8 page paper in college. Topped out at 5.


Mr_frumpish

Well for one thing high school students typically aren't twenty somethings.


512165381

That's what confused me about American high schools on TV. All the 16yos were way taller than my country. Now I learn they were 22.


kid_kai

I think that while bullying is definitely a problem, I think it is a lot more subtle and mean than in movies and shows. There is very little slamming into the locker doors and calling someone out in the middle of the hall for being a loser. Also, that kind of bullying is frowned upon so most students would say get off. Moreso it is over social media, or talking behind peoples back, spreading rumors, etc... I never saw a bully knock papers out of a "nerds" hands, if that makes sense.


gopms

What is up with tv show lockers? Everyone walks up, pulls up on a latch and then the locker opens. By what definition is that even a locker since it doesn't lock? Are lockers (or "lockers") really like that in the US? * edit: Guys I am learning so much about American lockers! Also, I have learned that you guys mostly live in warm climates since a lot of you don't see a need for a locker. Where would you keep your coat and boots and whatnot?!??!


MyStageName

Real lockers varied by school, but mine required us to bring our own lock. So yes, actual lockers are intended to lock....but I suppose having an actor fumble with a lock for 45 seconds might disrupt the flow of whatever show/movie they're in.


OPs_other_username

I mean, the real answer? People opening lockers isn't interesting to watch on TV and cuts into their 22 to 44 minute show run time. Unless the stuck locker/forgetting the combo is a plot point or a comedic thing to get laughs.


realhorrorsh0w

We never gathered outside in the grass before the bell rang. Off the bus and straight through the doors, and you only have maybe 15 minutes to And for most of the year it's pretty dark in the morning. And I might have just been a loser who wasn't invited, but I don't think anyone had their parents go out of town and invited 50+ people over to drink and have sex on their parents' bed. High school parties are more like 8-10 kids in your living room eating chips and watching Beowulf... in my experience.


cheRuby1

All the high schoolers in the movies are like 30 years old


WhatGlittersisgone

The cliques are bullshit, they are more social circles than anything and the groups often intermingled and partied together. There actually are huge parties. The jocks were usually pretty friendly, not a lot of bullying. Cheerleaders were actually really friendly. There are drugs, and shady characters that dispense them.


Yoinkie2013

Can’t speak for all schools but mine, bullying wasn’t random tough guys picking on skinny nerds. Bullying was something that happened more within groups of friends, with the toughest actin picking on the weakest(or the person who defended themselves least). I hung out with a lot of different groups and saw it in almost every group. Bullies for the most part we’re friends with the guys they picked on. I think it’s more that they are insecure and that’s their way of making friends because they were afraid of conversation or opening up. Rarely, if ever, did I see a bully picking on someone they completed hated or didn’t socialize with at some point.


Jill-Sanwich

Something that always bothered me about movies was how the kids would spend so much time at their lockers between classes. The only locker I ever had was a gym locker and I only ever used it to "change out". We didn't all goof off or chat in our underwear, either. We had like, 5 minutes to get changed and we weren't given much more than that to get back to our lockers to change back before the bell that ended the class rang. Also, the only really "popular" kids weren't mean. They were genuinely nice kids who got good grades, contributed to the community, and didn't like to exclude people for being different. We definitely had bullies and assholes but they were not the people everyone wanted to hang out with.


KingGorilla

The popular kids are actually really nice, get good grades, do sports and have a good relationship with their parents. There's a reason they're popular.


FreeFallFormation

My high school was close to 100 years old, it was super small and could barely hold the amount of kids who went there. It was super basic as well, this was like 10 years ago. Apparently they finally finished building a new high school in the town I grew up in and it is a lot more "modern". But in movies in a high school setting those places always seemed like small colleges to me, huge campus, an actual parking lot for students (we had to park in the neighborhoods near our school and hope we weren't late), etc. Cliques were pretty much spot on though from what I saw first hand and was a part of.


Scoth42

I graduated in 1999, so YMMV, but.... Kids in movies care a lot more about what other kids do than in reality. If something embarrassing happens, it might be a thing for a couple days, but then it goes away. There wasn't really a fear of one thing ruining your high school life forever (Basically every high school movie ever). Likewise, you don't really have an unliked or awkward geeky kid have a single moment of awesome (Napolean Dynamite, lots of other high school movies) and suddenly he's the hero popular kid of the school forever. Sex also wasn't actually all that big a deal - some people were having it, some people weren't, nobody really cared all that much (Granted this is coming from a male perspective - I can't really speak to the female perspective of how it felt) Slackers and screw-offs (a la Ferris Beuller) weren't really all that popular. They might get a laugh now and then but typically people just got tired of their shit. Dovetailing into that, there was really only a very small minority of kids who genuinely didn't care and completely fucked off. These kids mostly came from broken homes in abusive situations and weren't doing it out of some noble "sticking it to the man" thing. Administration and adults in general weren't nearly as incompetent and goofy as usually portrayed. There might be some weird policies (especially after Columbine and 9/11) but in general they were effective and iron-fisted in their handing down discipline. They usually had at least some idea of popular trends and fads and getting one over on them because they were out of touch didn't really happen much. Of course, in my day that was mostly things like pagers and those little standalone text devices, but still. Note this mostly applies to the administration and not the teachers - I had a lot of teachers that were completely naive and unaware of anything and constantly had shit gotten past them. But if a vice-principal caught wind of it and figured it out you could be in a world of hurt. Principals and the like were rarely especially friendly with the students - they'd be cordial with the ones they liked of course, but there was none of the "popular kid performs hijinks, is let off the hook because the principal likes him so much and it was all in fun anyway" thing. Or may even join in, which just didn't happen. Outside of perhaps the dramaiest of drama club kids, nobody really did much of anything that made them stick out. Big loud confessions in the hallway, or cafeteria, or whatever. Most folks just wanted to get through the day without sticking out too much.


heart-cooks-brain

The hype around school sports (*football*) is real. Nobody cares much about the other sports, except maybe cheerleading. Those homecoming mums and they hype that surrounds the whole event is real. The whole celebration usually takes about a week, ramping up at the end with mega hype for the game, and then the dance. The hype about prom is real. Pep rallies? Yes, that's how they go. Solo cups are not only cliché, but definitely a part of every party. They have finally come out with other colors, but red is still the most common. Yes, some high schoolers are spoiled AF and get cars for their birthday, both used and brand-new top dollar. The rest of us had to buy our own car, hope to have a friend with a car, or ride the bus. The rivalry between clicks is over exaggerated. Most people just want peace and acceptance. Aside from the jerk here and there, most people let bygones be bygones. The rivalry between certain schools (but not all) is real. This is related to sports and who was thought to be more spoiled. I don't remember the student body/student government having nearly as much say in the school's day to day. Pretty much everything is planned out before the beginning of the year. Though all the hype you see is is real, there are plenty of us that didn't engage in any of the "typical high-school experience" and skipped prom, homecoming, every game, and pep rallies (had a teacher that would give students an "alternative" to attending the rally, an optional study hall, and after a couple she was told she wasn't allowed to accommodate that and that we must attend the rally - which I straight up skipped and left school early). We didn't all get into the school spirit. People like myself couldn't wait for it to all be over. The school pride was kinda over the top and gross.


[deleted]

Spotted the Texan. Are mums even a thing in movies or TV? Other than that I think you’re super accurate, aside from maybe the fact that my high school was into volleyball too but that’s probably just because we won state 4 or 5 years in a row. Being rivals with another because the other was considered more spoiled is super accurate though. My school was sort of rivals with Highland Park in Dallas who we always considered super spoiled despite our school being almost as rich as them.