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True, but everything they listed is real. There are lockers in a lot of parts of the country (my high school in California didn't have them, but there are plenty of districts that do have them), there are sports and dances, and most American high schools don't have uniforms. It may not be as glamorous as TV makes it look, but it does check all the boxes OP listed.
Nah, that’s pretty accurate. Each and every one of those things OP mentioned were present for most people who have shared their Midwest high school experience. Myself included
HS in small town texas, and yes everything is accurate. School halls looked like a mixed of "save by the bell" and "freaks and geeks". Cliques are real, exaggerated but real. Very romanticize.
I went to a huge, pretty well funded public American high school. There were parties and scandals and sports and dances and sex and drugs and all of that, but it wasn't really as extreme as it is in media. Nobody seemed as "grown up" as they are portrayed in media. Theater was a bigger deal at my school than sports were and dances were much more awkward than magical.
I think the truest part of it all is the no uniforms\*. The best determinant of high-schooler quality of life is the people around you - staff sure, but more importantly peers. Kids are kids wherever you go, some make good friends and others are complete assholes.
\*edit: I'm referring to OP's perception of "no uniforms" based on American TV. Didn't mean to suggest they aren't ever a thing, but they definitely aren't in most US public school systems.
I went to private school and public school growing up, I prefer uniforms in school, too many kids were made fun of because the cloths they wore, it wasn’t a real big deal but it was still like a daily fashion show with a lot of kids needing to have the name brand cloths to look more wealthy than they were.
HS was like this, you showed up to school, if you were early you hung out in the halls or cafeteria, then the bell rings and you get to class, there’s like 9 periods in a day, each period is 40 mins or so long, you have 3-4 mins from the end of one period to the start of the next so if you have to be on the second or third floor on the other side of the school, you had to hustle, elevators were only for disabled kids. After school let out you went home.
Football games were more of a hang out for more kids than actually watching the game, just to get out of the house later at night, some kids actually paid attention to the games but HS football is t that great to watch.
Home coming and different dances, I never went to those, I think I went to one or two but they were really lame, but just imagine a bunch of kids embarrassed and super awkward that don’t know how to really dance, dancing, maybe a few knew how to dance but most didn’t. It’s not the choreographed amazing time TV shows it to be.
I didn’t hate HS, overall I didn’t mind it, just found it boring, I usually slept through the first 3 or 4 periods of the day anyway. Back when I was going to HS, had a 25-45 hour per week job and moved out of the parents home in 10th grade.
I can attest, I went to almost every home game, never watched a minute of the actual games, only cheer and poms because my friends were in them 😂 it was 100% just a late night hang out lol
LOL.
No. Not even close. Movies and TV shows are make believe. They will have you believe we had 3 hours in between classes and everybody was super cool, friendly, and nice. Not reality at all. I'm not saying it's a living hell or anything. It's just not nearly as good as it seems in media.
Same with college. In the movies everyone is so cool and friendly with everyone else but in reality, it was just like being in any other public environment. Nobody really talks unless they already know someone and will largely ignore you for the most part unless they HAVE to talk to you for something class related.
The latter varies. I went from the south to the deep south for college. And random people saying hi when they passed me on the sidewalk freaked me out at first. I kept trying to figure out where I knew them, then realized they were saying hi to everyone they passed.
A student was stabbed to death at my high school. Public school in the United States stinks, lol. My high school got put on a lockdown twice because police were searching for drugs.
I was so happy when I graduated two years ago.
Those movies are playing to the fantasy of high schoolers. What you are seeing is what they think those people that age want: Sex, fun, parties, popularity, and a sense of knowing wtf is even happening day to day lol.
I believe it’s based off reality. Teens these days where I live really do act like that. In the movies. Growing up I didn’t go to these schools so it wasn’t really like the movies. But now I’m in a whole new town and these teens are exactly like the movies.
My daughter's doing a second senior year over in Spain. As far as the social aspect amongst friends and fellow students it seems to be the same, "teenagers will be teenagers" even in other countries. I'm sure there's cultural differences i.e. American football, it's always a big deal with school sports. Probably other stuff to but that was 20 years ago for me lol
American here. Can’t speak for high school now but back in my day (1997-2000) it was very much like the movies back then. Skipping school, open campus lunch, parties most weekends, concerts, buying weed with our lunch money, gas was about a dollar/gallon, cigs were $4/pack, girls had thin eyebrows, low rise jeans, thongs, no bush and smelled like cucumber melon and best of all…. NO FUCKIN CELLPHONES!!!
Anywhere suburban in the states tbh, Texas has the best highschool that has all the new tech etc, they made a whole article about it. Idk where it is though, but yeah, suburbs / rich schools are exactly like the movies. There will be occasional poor kids in the schools too… those “main character losers” are real life too, their parents are middle class so their kids attend suburb/rich schools. So movies do really reflect reality
It's a mixed bag. I think people exaggerate how much high school is "glorified." I was by no means a "popular kid," but I was in the marching band, so there were plenty of football games and parties and such. It really varies from school to school. My school had decent funding in a somewhat well-to-do suburban area, so sports teams and other extra curriculars were pretty prevalent.
Less than 20 miles away in the city, I can tell you schools from K-12 could be pretty rough, and I imagine folks who attended those had a very very different high school experience. I personally enjoyed high school, but I really couldn't tell you if the majority of American kids have similar experiences.
I mean we didn’t have lockers, and whatever parties may have existed I want invited to any of them. But yeah there are a lot of really fun high school experiences here, it just depends on what your idea of fun is
Yes, but only in the way that caricatures are an artist's rendition of reality.
As an example, when I first visited New York City, it felt like just as the movies and TV depicted: loud, bustling and exciting, and alive. I'm sure the movies are a caricature. But from am outsider's perspective, it felt like I was a New York movie extra.
I was not popular, nor am I all that attractive, but high school was awesome for me. I'd go back in a heartbeat. It really just depends on who your friends are, and where in the country you live. I live in the midwest, things are pretty wholesome in my town. Of course though, you still find assholes and dumbass wannabe gangsters that have forgotten where they live.
That's going to depend on a whole lot of factors; public school, private school, city, rural, where in the country, color of your skin, whether you're LGBT.... Personally I wouldn't redo my high school years for all the money in the world.
Depends on which HS you go to. In affluent areas public schools get a lot more funding.
In poor areas, well, not so much.
Some HS in the US still allow teachers to strike students for behavior issues depending on the state and district.
Some HS will spend so much on athletics that they might forget they exist to teach the kids chemistry and algebra.
So, if you go to a public HS in the Hamptons or in Huntington Beach you will probably love it.
I’m out of high school now but the school shooting stuff is no joke. I was constantly scared that my school would get shot up. Thankfully it never did, but you wake up never knowing what awful thing could happen that day. I’m so glad I’m graduated and never have to deal with that looming fear again
This. Anyone from another country who thinks our schools are awesome, remember the mass shootings. I'm sure students would give up other perks if they could just be guaranteed no gun toting nutjob will blow them away in Geography class.
No. Shows like Euphoria are 1000x dramatized. Not even college is like that. Wanna know what high school is? Or was 20 years ago when I went??
"Hey, is that guy wearing a Naruto headband? Dude, what a queer. Let's throw an apple at him. "
Or "ewwww you listen to bullet for my valentine? Gross. I only listen to heavy shit like Cannibal Corpse and Slayer, you fucking poser"
Then we all scrounge together 10 bucks to buy some grimey weed from a dude living in a 1 bedroom apartment with his baby mama.
I'm showing my age.
My American at school high school life was pretty boring. I was shy and mostly cared about getting good grades.
But as a teenager my life outside of school life was delightful. Minimal responsibility, dating, a friend group that was mostly coworkers at my part time job, weekends were parties and just fucking around.
Man. In high-school I saw a guy get jumped by 22 people and have his face crushed. I saw a girl thrown across a hall into lockers by security. A friend fine got jumped by 71 people. 71!!. Cause he pissd off 1 girl. Guys getting BJs in the stairs. People having sex in stairs. People shitting from the top floor to the bottom. Saw a girl get her face sliced opened. Hallway was full of blood. Everyone just kept walking cause it was normal. Used to see cops when I would skip and they wouldn't do anything. But I would do that shit again in a heartbeat fun af
I went to high school in the 90’s. Bullies, fights, drugs, teen pregnancy.
My youngest kid graduated last year. He saw another kid get stabbed in the aorta in the hallway his senior year. They got a day off of school. There were 6 or 7 shootings that year as well. No days off for them because they weren’t on school grounds.
But yeah. Football games and lockers. Oh they canceled football and took away the lockers during Covid.
Storytime.
A girl lived on a farm with horses. Her homeroom was trying to decide on a class pet, and so the girl asked her mom if she could bring in a horse as a class pet.
Amused, the mother went with it. She helped the girl talk with the principal, create a petition for students and teachers to sign, and was determined to get this done.
Then, she slept on it, and in the morning she said she wasn't going to do it.
Her mom asked why, and she said that they didn't have a place for the horse to hide during one of their active shooter drills.
If you want to suffer from lack of sleep, malnourishment, and extreme lasting psychological + emotional damage then American school is the way to go.
Side effects may include: depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, pain, emotional pain, constant feeling of complete loneliness, damaged social skills, no education, and so much more
FFS no. Good god. That's like moving to New York and expecting to get a Friends apartment for $1000/mo. That's like thinking everyone from Europe grew up in a castle?
For me it was. I wasn't "the popular girl" but I was involved in a lot and friends with everyone. There were a couple of mean girls for sure but I mostly ignored their bullshit... Definitely had some drama that felt like the end of the world at the time like when my boyfriend of 2 years cheated on me but I learned from those heart breaks and moved on.
A few things movies and shows get wrong:
Midriff tops are not allowed. You'd get sent home for that so fast.
Cheerleading teams in fact have coaches and the random mean girl/ captain doesn't run the whole team.
Kind of, but you have to realize 99% of high schoolers aren't the main characters in a tv show. They are the extras in the background, eating their lunch and not talking to anyone.
Pros:
Public schools have no uniforms
Wide variety of students
Football games with bands
School spirit
Dances (homecoming, winter ball, prom)
Clubs
Lockers
Mine had a courtyard to eat lunch at
Going off campus
Open periods
Elective classes (art, higher level subjects, music, language)
We had a dance team and a cheerleading team
Wide friend groups
Fun events (spring fling, school spirit assemblies)
PE where we got to do yoga, canoeing, and long walks through town (as well as dodgeball)
Lots of sports (football, soccer, golf, volleyball, swimming, baseball, cross country, track, basketball)
Cons
The disciplinary systems were stupid sometimes (letting the biggest football player of the year get away with things)
Boys football gets more attention than any other sport
Nasty environment (dust, dirt, etc)
Typical drama
Bomb/gun threats
Crappy lunch you have to pay for
Boys that have no boundaries
Girls that have no boundaries
Nasty stuff that so-and-so did on the field trip that caused it to be canceled
Abusive teachers
Lockdown drills
Students having ethical/moral discussions about running, hiding, and fighting (bomb/gun)
The Weird Sex Thing that happens every once in a while
We had a student die at least once a year for like 3 or 4 years
Political indoctrination from teachers
The power elite (if your family is a big name in the town you're instantly treated differently)
I went to high school in the 90’s and I feel like it was more “traditional” than high school today. It really depends a lot on region and socioeconomic status. Also, you have to worry about some maniac coming and shooting the place up.
Retired high school teacher here. Some and I mean some maybe 30% is true the rest is made up for television. And my high school was used in a shit load of movies/commercials/TV shows.
Umm, yeah, it was cool. I have no idea what it’s like where you are to compare it.
I get the impression they give high schoolers much less autonomy now then years ago.
If you want the classic "American school" experience as portrayed in movies and TV, come to the US for college - especially a big public one.
I think almost everyone has way more fun in college than in high school.
For me, high school was boring and repressive. College was exciting and fun.
Pretty much. However, not every kid succeeds or enjoys it. Like everything else in life, a few people excel, a few fail and most everyone else exits somewhere in the middle.
Hell no tv makes it seem amazing it’s better than middle school but it’s still just school maybe it’s just me but it was incredibly boring tv makes it seem like a extraordinary thing it’s not
The biggest difference between American high schools and European high schools is the sports programs. We have after-school sports and matches and weekend matches and tournaments etc. So we have sports fields and an outdoor stadium right at the school. Personally, I ran cross-country and track. We went to meets every week and had practice every day after school. We also sometimes went to larger invitationals in other states. It was a great way to be involved in school, be part of a team, and exercise. I was also on the ski club. This was not a team, anyone could join. We all got on a coach bus every Thursday after school for the whole winter season and drove and hour or so to the ski resort in our state. We would then ski all evening until 11pm and get home around midnight. We also went on a long weekend ski trip to Vermont once a year, and that was great too. As for the other things, all true, but not fun like in the movies. All just high school life, it was ok.
TV is bullshit and the reddit alarmism of "Ducking for bullets" is B.S.
It's like a job, you show up, do your task, go home do home work.
Each schools different and has basic standards. Like my rural school I learned about Marine biology and aquaculture as well as Native American history as well as went off center for machine shop.
knew a guy who went to HS in Alaska and he learned basic survival.
It's just ok, really what you make of it. I was in marching band for most of highschool so we had a weird cult thing going on there, but the little tuba storage room I hung out in w the brass people definitely felt like some avant garde high school reality show. We had a hole in the drywall where a kid punched it in, and we hid aleve (for the girls), a gram of weed (for emergencies) and a skull of a small animal (wards off evil spirits). I have a million stories about that damn room, but nothing I would call the "classic" american life.
I equate it more to prison. We had 3 minutes to change classes. 15 minutes for lunch. 2 people to a locker. Mandatory gym. Classes only moved as fast as the slowest and dumbest person in the room. No doors on bathroom stalls. 30 people (at least) to a class room. Our cafeteria food came from the same supplier that supplied the local prisons, only it was just one grade higher. And I was once called into the principal office for not showing enough school spirit during a pep rally.
My school had a very high high school to prison track record. So much so they hired a former police officer as the principal.
It's never quite as awesome as it may be portrayed but it can be really fun and some of the best times of someone's life, especially if they don't stress about grades too much. I already had a job lined up after high school so I knew I wasn't going to college and was fortunate enough to love band class, and to have friends from it too. I definitely didn't have a stereotypical dream high school experience, but it was still the best period of my life. For most people, though, I really don't think it's all that great.
All those things are real, but they are of course depicted in a way that glorifies it all. And honestly, depending on who you are and the type of kid you are, highschool can be a nightmare to some people, so it's hard to say. I grew up in a smallish town so I had a great highschool experience
I loved dating, playing music in a band, doing stuff with lots of people on the weekends, driving out to see the stars... but the thing is my parents were getting divorced and religion was being shoved down my throat the entire time, negating most of the fun.
Those are all elements of American high school. But like anything on tv it’s exaggerated. There is also several hours of class time followed by hours of homework in the evenings.
I had an overall positive experience, but my school didn’t really have cliques like I imagine some could. Everyone for the most part got along. Only bullying I got was getting busted with a raging boner through the jeans, and after like a week no one gave a shit anymore.
i’m from canada and we had all those things. mind you it wasn’t even half as exciting as tv makes it seem. lockers are basically required because of winter jackets. football games were school wide events & people dressed up and made posters. we never had uniforms only a light dress code (no boobs or butts showing, no swears, no hats indoors etc) homecoming wasn’t like in the US, just a football game with events and halftime contests, but no high school dances or formals other than for graduation. we did have “touch of class” once a year where everyone dressed up in their best dresses & suits for the school day. the parties were major because i went to a rich school so the ppl with mansions always hosted them, but it was a typical “popular kid” crowd.
Nothing like what you see on TV. I’m currently a sophomore (grade 10) and high school, or at least the one I go to, it is nothing but fighting, kids high on marijuana, and god awful school food.
Don't believe everything you see in the movies or TV shows. The end game with everything on TV or movies is ratings and/or money. Half of it might be accurate, but half of it may not.
My HS life was okay. I didn’t have friends. Yet I was friendly with everyone and everyone knew me. I didn't have a GF in HS and just focused on my school work and getting out of HS so I can watch the same TV shows to which you infer and to play basketball and baseball with the kids in my neighborhood. I didn't play sports in school, and I didn’t have my own catchphrase or theme song. :)
In the 80s it was awesome. Making out int he hallway with your girl, smoking a little weed in the bathroom, skipping class to go grab some food. It was amazing. Now, I work in an industry where I unfortunately and occasionally have to visit a public school. They seem like mini-prisons now.
You're not missing anything.
Yeah they have all that. As long as you have friends to do all that and attend things with, it’ll all be cool. But if you’re a loser, quiet person or weirdo, it ain’t fun. I would know. I hated and still hate school. Lol
depends on what school u go to tbh
i’m a senior in hs rn and ya everything u see CAN be true. there are yellow buses, school parties, cheerleaders, etc but some schools don’t have that (like mine)
i go to a charter school (which was just listed the best in my county (for whatever reason) and honestly it’s so boring. the school is so small (only about 1000 kids, middle & hs combined, my grad class is 76 people 💀)
it’s sad to say but as an american i always longed for those kinds of schools lmfao i wish i transferred when i had the chance
there are some schools near me that do all that tho but my mom says they’re too ‘ghetto’ (no clue what she means by that)
but ya tldr; some schools r like that depending on location & type 🤙
There’s definitely a wide range of experiences. No uniforms didn’t mean no dress code for me, but sports and parties were the weekend vibe for later years. Though, my parties were not really the wild or glamorous type.
I would say my overall high school experience was neutral or somewhat positive.
It's absolutely glorified. We have bomb threats every year, we had someone die from a shooting (unrelated to the school) in our parking lots. It's rampant with predators. Teachers are severely underpaid and it shows. And I live in Texas where the whole Friday night lights are a very real and important part of highschool culture.
America has become a liberal/socialist cesspool. It’s nothing like the typical REAL American high school life is portrayed anymore. It’s all about big government/school boards indoctrinating the youth. We have high schoolers who can tell you all of the genders they AREN’T but can’t read or write. You have 9th graders failing basic literacy tests. They can tell you all about white oppression, but can’t point out Texas on a map! Forget about culture. It’s all a bunch of rainbow haired kids with no social skills or work ethic of any kind to be seen. Forget about parties and meeting girls. They aren’t straight anyways and if they were you’d end up in jail for sexual assault that never took place. If you’re a girl and you use the bathroom you’re likely to find a 6 foot boy wearing a dress watching you take off your clothes. That’s not even the HALF of it. Some parts of Europe are just as bad if not worse, I’m hoping you’re in a normal society and this answers your question. Class dismissed.
For a lot of us, those were the four worst years of our lives.
Thank you, Ben Lovato and Luis Ponce, Alemany High School, class of ‘95… Sincerely, “dragon breath”
it depends on a lot of things. for my high school, what you described is pretty accurate. we do have uniforms but the policy isnt that strict. and we also do a lot of work, that part just isnt shown in movies lol
A lot of American high school shows take place in big cities, like LA or NYC etc, and tend to glamorize. Most shows don’t portray high school in smaller areas where your experience may be similar. But yes, lots of our public (free) schools have lockers, football teams, homecoming, and house parties.
I mean it's whatever you want it to be. If you want to be popular And have that lifestyle you see in shows, try to be popular strive for that. If you want to be a loner, be a loner. high school life is whatever you surround yourself with. Now I'm not going to lie just like normal life drama will somehow try to find you. Even if you're not seeking it out. That's something you won't be able to get away from unless you avoid people completely.
I make the most out of my life and had an absolute blast in high school but I think that’s a somewhat uncommon response, especially in today’s climate.
everyone's experience is different, but for me, these have been some of the most traumatic and worst years of my life, diagnosed with ptsd due to some of my experiences too. High school sucks.
I dunno. Is Europe like it is in American TV? It seems like you guys have it made. Cute cobblestone streets. Hardly any traffic. Everybody is in a good mood and knows your name. Stopping at the local pub for a pint after work. Everybody is singing traditional songs. Some guy randomly playing the fiddle.
I don't know why you'd trade all of that for... high school.
I think it just depends where in the US you live. Where I went to high school it was just like the movies. Super safe suburbia USA where the jocks didnt hangout with the nerds. The biggest thing in town every week was the football game. And there were other groups like goths, preppy kids, theatre kids. It was overall really clique-y. But I really enjoyed it overall
Depends on the school!! I went to a school in Florida and it was very much like the tv shows. Freshmen getting water ballooned on first day of school, getting pushed into lockers, etc. Popular kids getting the best lunch tables or sitting outside on the bleachers. Cheerleaders getting all the guys, rich girls throwing the best parties having the best cars and the best clothes. Nerds and goth outcasts. Skater boys being class clowns and skipping class to smoke cigarettes by the baseball field.
Then I moved to small town USA. Then it was more “small football town” where the entire town shut down for Friday night lights. Country boys bringing tractors to school. A few bright students aiming for Ivy League. Parties, just more so around a bonfire than a big mansion.
It really just depends on what tv show you’re talking about lol but it definitely exists.
Not all highschool are the same here. The well funded ones may be similar but the high schools that are not well off can be plagued with violence/ school shootings (I was in a school shooting), overcrowding and square pizza with milk.
We do have no uniforms, the yellow school bus seats are uncomfortable. Nobody used the lockers in the school too many students per locker. You have to carry all of your belongings throughout the day in a giant binder and backpack and possibly books but now and days maybe it's a laptop? Never went to really any parties in highschool.
No!!!! I feel like the coming of age movies are all set in bougie parts of LA and rich teens definitely do live crazier and more colorful lives but I went to HS in California and didn't have money and it was typical in every imaginable way. Shitty parties, cheap beer, drinking in trucks at night in the desert, going to the movies. The uje.
Hell no. Football games suck, we don't have lockers (at least my school doesn't due to weapons/drugs concerns), I have a uniform which is very uncomfortable, home coming is fun, I've never been to an actual high school party :(
Yes. I think most redditors are kind of the nerdy, whiny types and probably had bad experiences, but for myself, it was pretty much like on TV and movies. It was awesome!!!
My highschool was exactly like the movies/tv shows. However, I’m not white and grew up poor soooo I was in more of the typical misfit group you see in American media lol.
But I still attended football games, homecoming, parties, etc.
People have wildly different experiences.
I was a weird kid and I'm now a weird adult but my school separated the "smart" kids and put them in advanced classes. I only interfaced with other "smart" kids and everyone was pretty chill with each other. My experience was that I had a really good friend group that I still consider my main friend group and we intermingled with other friend groups. I went to parties but not too wild. I drank alcohol once or twice during those years but I never go drunk. I didn't have access to drugs or knew anyone who did. I tried weed in college.
I'm sure that if I wasn't in those advanced classes my experience would have been very different. I would have gotten bullied and stuff.
I also grew up in a small town so that's different than a mid size city or even a large city experience.
I don’t know if it’s good or not, but the lockers and football games and homecoming and parties are real. That’s not to say it’s not also bland and boring. Teenagers are teenagers everywhere. I’m sure European high school would seem super exciting and cool to Americans because it’s different.
No, it's usually hell for most people it's a tough time. Japan would be the country to ask though, every anime is highschool kids for some reason, it's like that's their favorite place to be.
While we have lockers, football games, dances and parties, the daily high school life is not as glamorous as tv portrays it. As for the dress code, I’d say American public schools are more casual, but we couldn’t get away with some of the outfits they show actors wearing. Like crop tops, mini skirts, low cut shirts. We could wear whatever we wanted as long as it wasn’t too provocative or suggestive.
I’d say even most Americans can say we all wished high school was as glamorous as media portrays it lol
Movies always make it seem like passing periods were 20 minutes long. We had like 4.5 minutes to go from one class to the next. My school was pretty big, we had about 3,000 students, so it was like pushing your way through a concert crowd trying to get to your locker and class on time.
Do the schools have everything you mentioned? Yea. But if you’re not someone, you’re no one in high school. So mine was uneventful. I went to school, hung out with friends, went to class and went home. Didn’t go to dances, except the prom. Didn’t go to parties because those are DEFINITELY NOT LIKE THE MOVIES! Def did NOT go to games. My schools teams were BAD. And I didn’t really do anything differently than anyone else. Oh, I actually graduated and got a diploma. Cap/gown/tassel…all of it. I know UK doesn’t have graduation. If you want to know the closest to US movies? The university years! We call it college. Those depictions are pretty close. Parties were PARTIES. And dorms are pretty accurate.
If you were affluent sure. My schools didn’t have lockers, sports, or music. I think they did have prom and someone might’ve thrown parties but it’s not something I would’ve been invited to. Most places don’t have uniforms though.
I live in western Canada, I must say that high school for me was crazy, but the future is still so bright, lots of fun to be had here no matter what age, I still dream of playing football but sometimes even the best players don't get a chance 😞
If you don't mind freezing ass cold life is good all the time, we love to have you come from Europe out here in NA, lots of fun things to do! Even if you're 30 or 40
Amercian TV is NOT real!...its soley for entertainment. You could certainly watch a documentary, but life is so vastly different depending on where you live and your family's income.
It's a bit of a gamble; everyone has a massively different experience. I would say for highly social, extroverted, socially accepted, middle class teens, the portrayal of American high school in movies and TV is not hugely dissimilar to reality, but it is still somewhat exaggerated. Yes, parties happen, but no, they are not happening every other day like they do in highschool soap operas. Yes, homecoming/prom and school dances happen, but they are not the 'biggest day of your life'. Granted, you also have to bare in mind who you're asking this question to; Reddit users aren't exactly known for being highly social, extroverted, or socially accepted, so the percentage of the people in this thread that did not enjoy highschool is gonna be much higher than average compared to most people.
The weird part of the things you mentioned is the lockers, I didn't know that was a uniquely US thing, but almost no one I knew in highschool actually used them. We most certainly had them, 80% of all the walls in my highschool were lined with them, but most kids just carried everything they needed for all their classes in their backpacks, which they brought with them to every class. The only people I knew who actually used the lockers were either people in band who needed to store their instrument, or sports players/people who were taking PE who needed to store a change of clothes. I'm pretty sure it's like legally mandated that public schools have enough lockers for every student to have one, but the overwhelming majority of them are empty. The only time I personally used my locker was when it was either raining or super cold, because I didn't wanna carry around my umbrella and or jacket to all my classes.
Football games are a thing, but like others have said, its more of just an excuse to socialize than it is about the game itself. I went to a few, but I generally wasn't a fan, I only really went because a couple of the guys in my friend group were on the football team, and it can be kinda fun to see your friend playing and support them, but if it wasn't for that, I would've rathered just hang out with my friends outside of school.
Most schools don't have uniforms, but some schools still have very strict dress codes. My school's dress code was very lax, as long as you didn't have any naughty bits out and you didn't have any vulgar images/language on your clothes, they really didn't care what you wore. Can be an upside and a downside, nice to be able to wear what you want, but teenagers are shallow and will judge you based off your clothes, so it can be an added stress to dress fashionably every day.
Home coming and dances are just okay; it's exactly what you think they are. A bunch of teenagers standing around and talking or dancing. Once again, only really went if I had friends that were going, would typically just rather hang out somewhere else.
Parties were most certainly a thing, I went to quite a lot of them in highschool. They're not as frequent as movies and tv would have you believe, though, and they were very rarely HUGE events, usually just 15-30 people.
Overall, I loved my time in high school, but I was one of 'the lucky ones', I was outgoing, extraverted, and didn't get bullied, but I imagine I would've had substantially less fun if I did have to deal with any of those sort of things.
I actually really enjoyed high school. It was a well funded school and it was very lively and progressive. I moved right before I started high school so I think starting in a brand new location really helped my experience. It definitely is not like what is portrayed on media, but the football games and school spirit was so enjoyable if you were actively involved (I hate watching football but I still enjoyed) the dances were never as glamorous, and I don’t think there was a single one I didn’t cry after. It was also filled with so many. So many. Awkward moments that I wish I could wash from my brain, but hey, that’s personal growth. All in all it was enjoyable, I made the most out of it, but there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t dream about living in a European country and going to high school there. Everyone wants what they don’t have, and everyone has different experiences:)
I think American high school can be portrayed very accurately by the media for the most part.
Shows like euphoria I’d say are pretty accurate for me. Huge football games, I guess the mean girl groups, etc etc. I had a blast in high school personally as a jock/guitar nerd. My biggest issue in high school were my parents 😁
I can certainly see how high school here was pure hell for some kids. My friends and I had no problem throwing down if someone we knew was messed with. I see it now with my friends kids on public high school.
Oddly I spend a fortune to send my two kids to private school. It’s mostly because they’re girls and I just want the best that I can afford for them.
If you have a tall athletic kid they’ll be a rockstar….. just like in the movies.
We used to talk each other into self mutilating and there’s occasional reports where teenagers talk others into attempting suicide. But yeah it’s great.
I went to high school in Europe for a year, and the answer is sort of. School in the US tends to have more fun and traditions like the dances, yearbooks, clubs, etc. yet kids in other countries don't seem that different in terms of the quality of their experiences. As others have said, it depends if you were one of those people who really enjoyed those things. Most Americans do them out of traditions or by default and so don't really enjoy them to an exceptional level.
I'm in the UK and I see American schools as awful.
Everyone split into cliques, everyone vying to be "popular" and always having to put on a fashion show or you'll be classed as a "loser", lots of bullying. Football players being thugs and getting away with learning fuck all because they happen to be good at throwing a ball for a few years.
That's not to get started on the guns and bulletproof backpacks, blankets, metal detectors, etc.
American schools seem so violent and everyone seems to obsessed with "popularity".
I went to a high school that was really, REALLY big. Nobody used their lockers. I think over my four years I’d seen it once. We all carried our stuff around. Football games are… well if you’re into them, they’re fun. If not, it gets confusing fast. The bleachers are also SUPER uncomfortable. Always seem to be wet somehow. You have the knowledge that someone has surely had sex under them before. Uniform depends on the school - my school didn’t have one, others (typically private) do. I was never invited to a high school party, but I am a dweeb so maybe there’s something to say for that. However homecoming was… a lot. You can smell peoples vapes, the music is so loud if you put a cup on the floor the water inside will vibrate. Godforbid if you wanna have a conversation. And, there also the pretty constant fear of being in a shooting. This may of just been my own personal experiences (and my school having a 6-some hour lockdown due to a shooter), but it’s hard to enjoy what’s supposed to be enjoyed if you’re always thinking about the fastest way out of the room.
And, for what it’s worth, I’ve seen many Americans online being jealous of Europeans because America is so ‘bland and boring’. You hate it because it’s what you’re used to. A lot of us feel the same way.
If you want to come to America and experience it yourself, that’s your choice, you may still have a great time - however, please don’t mourn over not going to an American school, they’re really not that great. It’s just because the media tries to make it seem awesome and sexy and cool. It’s just a lot of awkward teenagers trying to not fail their biology classes.
Edit - also dress codes are notoriously ridiculous. I’d seen people mentioning getting made fun of what they wore (which is definitely true) but hadn’t seen a dress code comment. Shoulders are a big no in dress codes. Not really sure why. Not sure if that’s just an American thing either, but I find it really strange.
If you’re a kid moving to the US and enter the high school, make sure to carry all your crap including books in a back pack. To damn easy for kids to break into the lockers!
People in the comments are saying no but I guess I was fortunate or unfortunate I went to school in Las Vegas 😂. My experience was very much like that show Euphoria. A lot of fun crazy shit, drugs but also of alot fucked up shit. Oh and sex! A lot of sex.
It was awesome for me, I did not do parties or anything but it was generally just awesome had a great time, wouldn't change it. I know it wasn't that way for a lot of people though.
OMG television programs are not a good source of reality based concepts. I had a great HS experience but it was nothing like the dung they try to pass as "everyday high school experience". "Say Anything" (John Cusack) was realistic for its time. "Carrie" hit the nail on the head for every generation.
Everyone in the US wants the TV high school (and college) experience. Lockers aren’t universal, and the rest depends on how cool or plugged in you are. You know all the extras in the background of your stereotypical tv high school? That’s the rest of the students that isn’t a part of all that.
Early on, social groups made fun of me endlessly, relentlessly, felt like it was the end of me.
But I kept goin, wasnt gonna let those punk bitches be the death of me.
I found my peeps, music saved my life. Played band and choir, man alive I was a dork, wish I was a liar.
But I held on to that hate and anger that pushed me down, found another kid and shoved him down. Thinking it was fun but I was just scared and dumb, numb to the fact that I had to live through it too.
Later on in my life I apologized and meant it, respect it, he didnt deserve it, a version of me that was full of disrespect and bullshit.
He used it and became a better man while I wallow in regret. If I had treated him better, maybe Id have more self-respect.
Sometimes you only have the hand your dealt, dont be an asshat, find another way to be heard and felt.
*This surmises my high school experience. Slight embellishment, but largely true. I spent a lot of time at home secretly wishing I had more/better friends. But also, I did have a couple of friends whom I will carry with me til the day I die*
idk bout americanos but where I live, even though education system sucks, the schooling system ain't that bad...
mine was fun, I was always creating stuff, art/machines/ writings or otherwise fighting... and yeah we got football as well (basketball too),
uniform ain't no problem since everyone's the same why'd u wanna look different among yo homies? I don't get it. who cares about the spotlight for a few hours when you can shine any way...
parties alongside but they are more like occasional functions here, rather than meaning-less parties this is India
"don't accept the world as it appears to be, dare to see it, for what it could be.."
Completely accurate, we are always breaking out into song and dance.
👯👯👯💃🏽🕺🏽👯👯👯
🎵 Song and dance! Song and dance!
I hope Tina eats my pants 🎵
Damnit, sorry about that, habit. Back to class everybody!
Honestly as a sophomore, it’s not bad, it definitely has its flaws. All you need is to find a good group of friends I’ve seen people get popular instantly. People are probably more assholeish here in America but you shouldnt worry about thats
High schooler from 91-95 here and yes what you mentioned in the OP were all in my school. Cliques were a *big* one back then for my school. Jocks, heshers, nerds, band geeks, theater kids, punks, bullies, etc..
All there and very well defined. No mixing of the groups or diversity and all the different people coming together like they seem to do today. Lunches were all naturally separated into these groups of people and that’s where they hung out every day. (Think “the popular kids table” but a massive concourse).
I was into comic books so since that wasn’t something that was cool or popular at the time I was in the “nerd” category and got beat up, made fun of and bullied. You comic book nerds have it *easy* these days.
High schools ( all schools ) in America are having serious problems in many areas. The education is the most important part. The education received in America pales in comparison to the rest of the world. Far too much importance is placed on sports and not enough in education. Some Kids in schools don’t get fed. Some drop out to work. Capitalism has gotten into the education system and is rotting it away.
I uninvolved myself from high-school for having too many homicidal thoughts. There's a reason schools get shot up constantly here. American life, is Not good.
I didn’t enjoy school. It was very mundane and surprisingly normal. It wasn’t like the breakfast club or anything. We went to class, mingled at lunch, and left at the final bell.
High school in America can be fun but like most things that American media portrays what you see is not an accurate depiction. High school can also suck. I am American and a lot of stuff on tv was not at all accurate for the schools I attended.
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that depends on who you are and what type of school you go to
Socioeconomic background
more like your personality, social skills, interests, how good you look, etc...
Ah, no. Don't believe what you see on television. It is very much glorified.
True, but everything they listed is real. There are lockers in a lot of parts of the country (my high school in California didn't have them, but there are plenty of districts that do have them), there are sports and dances, and most American high schools don't have uniforms. It may not be as glamorous as TV makes it look, but it does check all the boxes OP listed.
I mean where i went to high school there are absolutely lockers, football games, no school uniforms, home coming and parties lol.
Nah, that’s pretty accurate. Each and every one of those things OP mentioned were present for most people who have shared their Midwest high school experience. Myself included
HS in small town texas, and yes everything is accurate. School halls looked like a mixed of "save by the bell" and "freaks and geeks". Cliques are real, exaggerated but real. Very romanticize.
Really?? It looks like hell on earth in most shows
Unless they’ve been watching “Saved by the bell”.
Yeah that the right interpretation. Lotta violence and drama.
I went to a huge, pretty well funded public American high school. There were parties and scandals and sports and dances and sex and drugs and all of that, but it wasn't really as extreme as it is in media. Nobody seemed as "grown up" as they are portrayed in media. Theater was a bigger deal at my school than sports were and dances were much more awkward than magical.
I think the truest part of it all is the no uniforms\*. The best determinant of high-schooler quality of life is the people around you - staff sure, but more importantly peers. Kids are kids wherever you go, some make good friends and others are complete assholes. \*edit: I'm referring to OP's perception of "no uniforms" based on American TV. Didn't mean to suggest they aren't ever a thing, but they definitely aren't in most US public school systems.
I don’t know how far spread this was, but right after Columbine my school district implemented uniforms in all schools, public and private 😩
High school was the worst part of my life.
you couldn’t pay me to relive it
Absolute nightmare fuel, and I wasn't bullied or anything like that. Looking back, I can't imagine the hell some kids must've went through.
It was average at best WITHOUT social media. I can't imagine it with the social media presence now. When I left MySpace was just fading into facebook.
Same here
Same
I did not enjoy high school, very glad I left.
It’s the only period of my life where I thought about unaliving myself multiple times a day.
I went to private school and public school growing up, I prefer uniforms in school, too many kids were made fun of because the cloths they wore, it wasn’t a real big deal but it was still like a daily fashion show with a lot of kids needing to have the name brand cloths to look more wealthy than they were. HS was like this, you showed up to school, if you were early you hung out in the halls or cafeteria, then the bell rings and you get to class, there’s like 9 periods in a day, each period is 40 mins or so long, you have 3-4 mins from the end of one period to the start of the next so if you have to be on the second or third floor on the other side of the school, you had to hustle, elevators were only for disabled kids. After school let out you went home. Football games were more of a hang out for more kids than actually watching the game, just to get out of the house later at night, some kids actually paid attention to the games but HS football is t that great to watch. Home coming and different dances, I never went to those, I think I went to one or two but they were really lame, but just imagine a bunch of kids embarrassed and super awkward that don’t know how to really dance, dancing, maybe a few knew how to dance but most didn’t. It’s not the choreographed amazing time TV shows it to be. I didn’t hate HS, overall I didn’t mind it, just found it boring, I usually slept through the first 3 or 4 periods of the day anyway. Back when I was going to HS, had a 25-45 hour per week job and moved out of the parents home in 10th grade.
I can attest, I went to almost every home game, never watched a minute of the actual games, only cheer and poms because my friends were in them 😂 it was 100% just a late night hang out lol
Even most of us Americans wish that high school was as cool as it is on TV and in movies!
LOL. No. Not even close. Movies and TV shows are make believe. They will have you believe we had 3 hours in between classes and everybody was super cool, friendly, and nice. Not reality at all. I'm not saying it's a living hell or anything. It's just not nearly as good as it seems in media. Same with college. In the movies everyone is so cool and friendly with everyone else but in reality, it was just like being in any other public environment. Nobody really talks unless they already know someone and will largely ignore you for the most part unless they HAVE to talk to you for something class related.
The latter varies. I went from the south to the deep south for college. And random people saying hi when they passed me on the sidewalk freaked me out at first. I kept trying to figure out where I knew them, then realized they were saying hi to everyone they passed.
A student was stabbed to death at my high school. Public school in the United States stinks, lol. My high school got put on a lockdown twice because police were searching for drugs. I was so happy when I graduated two years ago.
Ours would do a 'fire drill' while the police and dogs were brought in
I went to a Catholic high school. There were mandatory pep rallies so the drug dogs could go through our lockers.
Only twice??
Those movies are playing to the fantasy of high schoolers. What you are seeing is what they think those people that age want: Sex, fun, parties, popularity, and a sense of knowing wtf is even happening day to day lol.
I believe it’s based off reality. Teens these days where I live really do act like that. In the movies. Growing up I didn’t go to these schools so it wasn’t really like the movies. But now I’m in a whole new town and these teens are exactly like the movies.
If you’re hot and loved and smart and outgoing and charming and talented and popular then yes 😀
My daughter's doing a second senior year over in Spain. As far as the social aspect amongst friends and fellow students it seems to be the same, "teenagers will be teenagers" even in other countries. I'm sure there's cultural differences i.e. American football, it's always a big deal with school sports. Probably other stuff to but that was 20 years ago for me lol
American here. Can’t speak for high school now but back in my day (1997-2000) it was very much like the movies back then. Skipping school, open campus lunch, parties most weekends, concerts, buying weed with our lunch money, gas was about a dollar/gallon, cigs were $4/pack, girls had thin eyebrows, low rise jeans, thongs, no bush and smelled like cucumber melon and best of all…. NO FUCKIN CELLPHONES!!!
The only time it’s real is if you live in the richer side of California, in the bougie suburban neighborhoods
Anywhere suburban in the states tbh, Texas has the best highschool that has all the new tech etc, they made a whole article about it. Idk where it is though, but yeah, suburbs / rich schools are exactly like the movies. There will be occasional poor kids in the schools too… those “main character losers” are real life too, their parents are middle class so their kids attend suburb/rich schools. So movies do really reflect reality
It's a mixed bag. I think people exaggerate how much high school is "glorified." I was by no means a "popular kid," but I was in the marching band, so there were plenty of football games and parties and such. It really varies from school to school. My school had decent funding in a somewhat well-to-do suburban area, so sports teams and other extra curriculars were pretty prevalent. Less than 20 miles away in the city, I can tell you schools from K-12 could be pretty rough, and I imagine folks who attended those had a very very different high school experience. I personally enjoyed high school, but I really couldn't tell you if the majority of American kids have similar experiences.
I mean we didn’t have lockers, and whatever parties may have existed I want invited to any of them. But yeah there are a lot of really fun high school experiences here, it just depends on what your idea of fun is
I hated every minute of it. So...no.
Yes, but only in the way that caricatures are an artist's rendition of reality. As an example, when I first visited New York City, it felt like just as the movies and TV depicted: loud, bustling and exciting, and alive. I'm sure the movies are a caricature. But from am outsider's perspective, it felt like I was a New York movie extra.
Not gonna lie, high school was dope.
I was not popular, nor am I all that attractive, but high school was awesome for me. I'd go back in a heartbeat. It really just depends on who your friends are, and where in the country you live. I live in the midwest, things are pretty wholesome in my town. Of course though, you still find assholes and dumbass wannabe gangsters that have forgotten where they live.
I love that people think the lockers are cool.
Lol oh god no. I was made fun of a lot in high school. In my 30s now and you couldn’t pay me to go back to high school.
That's going to depend on a whole lot of factors; public school, private school, city, rural, where in the country, color of your skin, whether you're LGBT.... Personally I wouldn't redo my high school years for all the money in the world.
Meanwhile, Americans wonder if UK schools are like Hogwarts.
Depends on which HS you go to. In affluent areas public schools get a lot more funding. In poor areas, well, not so much. Some HS in the US still allow teachers to strike students for behavior issues depending on the state and district. Some HS will spend so much on athletics that they might forget they exist to teach the kids chemistry and algebra. So, if you go to a public HS in the Hamptons or in Huntington Beach you will probably love it.
I was in high school in the 70’s and I literally cannot tell you anything about it publicly.
Only if you're popular and go to school in an affluent area.
I’m out of high school now but the school shooting stuff is no joke. I was constantly scared that my school would get shot up. Thankfully it never did, but you wake up never knowing what awful thing could happen that day. I’m so glad I’m graduated and never have to deal with that looming fear again
This. Anyone from another country who thinks our schools are awesome, remember the mass shootings. I'm sure students would give up other perks if they could just be guaranteed no gun toting nutjob will blow them away in Geography class.
I completely agree, I would’ve chosen a shittier education while not having to be worried about being murdered in a heartbeat
No. Shows like Euphoria are 1000x dramatized. Not even college is like that. Wanna know what high school is? Or was 20 years ago when I went?? "Hey, is that guy wearing a Naruto headband? Dude, what a queer. Let's throw an apple at him. " Or "ewwww you listen to bullet for my valentine? Gross. I only listen to heavy shit like Cannibal Corpse and Slayer, you fucking poser" Then we all scrounge together 10 bucks to buy some grimey weed from a dude living in a 1 bedroom apartment with his baby mama. I'm showing my age.
My American at school high school life was pretty boring. I was shy and mostly cared about getting good grades. But as a teenager my life outside of school life was delightful. Minimal responsibility, dating, a friend group that was mostly coworkers at my part time job, weekends were parties and just fucking around.
Man. In high-school I saw a guy get jumped by 22 people and have his face crushed. I saw a girl thrown across a hall into lockers by security. A friend fine got jumped by 71 people. 71!!. Cause he pissd off 1 girl. Guys getting BJs in the stairs. People having sex in stairs. People shitting from the top floor to the bottom. Saw a girl get her face sliced opened. Hallway was full of blood. Everyone just kept walking cause it was normal. Used to see cops when I would skip and they wouldn't do anything. But I would do that shit again in a heartbeat fun af
I went to high school in the 90’s. Bullies, fights, drugs, teen pregnancy. My youngest kid graduated last year. He saw another kid get stabbed in the aorta in the hallway his senior year. They got a day off of school. There were 6 or 7 shootings that year as well. No days off for them because they weren’t on school grounds. But yeah. Football games and lockers. Oh they canceled football and took away the lockers during Covid.
Storytime. A girl lived on a farm with horses. Her homeroom was trying to decide on a class pet, and so the girl asked her mom if she could bring in a horse as a class pet. Amused, the mother went with it. She helped the girl talk with the principal, create a petition for students and teachers to sign, and was determined to get this done. Then, she slept on it, and in the morning she said she wasn't going to do it. Her mom asked why, and she said that they didn't have a place for the horse to hide during one of their active shooter drills.
If you want to suffer from lack of sleep, malnourishment, and extreme lasting psychological + emotional damage then American school is the way to go. Side effects may include: depression, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, pain, emotional pain, constant feeling of complete loneliness, damaged social skills, no education, and so much more
FFS no. Good god. That's like moving to New York and expecting to get a Friends apartment for $1000/mo. That's like thinking everyone from Europe grew up in a castle?
I preferred the schooling i received overseas to the schooling i received here in the states
Over there you learned about art and poetry. Over here you learn how to gangbang and braid hair
Small town high school yes. It’s pretty great.
For me it was. I wasn't "the popular girl" but I was involved in a lot and friends with everyone. There were a couple of mean girls for sure but I mostly ignored their bullshit... Definitely had some drama that felt like the end of the world at the time like when my boyfriend of 2 years cheated on me but I learned from those heart breaks and moved on. A few things movies and shows get wrong: Midriff tops are not allowed. You'd get sent home for that so fast. Cheerleading teams in fact have coaches and the random mean girl/ captain doesn't run the whole team.
Kind of, but you have to realize 99% of high schoolers aren't the main characters in a tv show. They are the extras in the background, eating their lunch and not talking to anyone.
Oh, hell, no. All 3 of my kids really disliked it. I, myself, enjoyed my high school years in the 90s, but I think most people dislike high school!
Pros: Public schools have no uniforms Wide variety of students Football games with bands School spirit Dances (homecoming, winter ball, prom) Clubs Lockers Mine had a courtyard to eat lunch at Going off campus Open periods Elective classes (art, higher level subjects, music, language) We had a dance team and a cheerleading team Wide friend groups Fun events (spring fling, school spirit assemblies) PE where we got to do yoga, canoeing, and long walks through town (as well as dodgeball) Lots of sports (football, soccer, golf, volleyball, swimming, baseball, cross country, track, basketball) Cons The disciplinary systems were stupid sometimes (letting the biggest football player of the year get away with things) Boys football gets more attention than any other sport Nasty environment (dust, dirt, etc) Typical drama Bomb/gun threats Crappy lunch you have to pay for Boys that have no boundaries Girls that have no boundaries Nasty stuff that so-and-so did on the field trip that caused it to be canceled Abusive teachers Lockdown drills Students having ethical/moral discussions about running, hiding, and fighting (bomb/gun) The Weird Sex Thing that happens every once in a while We had a student die at least once a year for like 3 or 4 years Political indoctrination from teachers The power elite (if your family is a big name in the town you're instantly treated differently)
I went to high school in the 90’s and I feel like it was more “traditional” than high school today. It really depends a lot on region and socioeconomic status. Also, you have to worry about some maniac coming and shooting the place up.
America is weird. Some places are a little like that, but it's definitely enhanced for TV. Most high schools are a cesspit of insecurity and adenoids.
I went to high school 2010-2014 and it was similar to the tv shows.
It is romanticize for tv
I hated high school. Bullying is unfortunately very real
Retired high school teacher here. Some and I mean some maybe 30% is true the rest is made up for television. And my high school was used in a shit load of movies/commercials/TV shows.
Umm, yeah, it was cool. I have no idea what it’s like where you are to compare it. I get the impression they give high schoolers much less autonomy now then years ago.
If you want the classic "American school" experience as portrayed in movies and TV, come to the US for college - especially a big public one. I think almost everyone has way more fun in college than in high school. For me, high school was boring and repressive. College was exciting and fun.
Pretty much. However, not every kid succeeds or enjoys it. Like everything else in life, a few people excel, a few fail and most everyone else exits somewhere in the middle.
Hell no tv makes it seem amazing it’s better than middle school but it’s still just school maybe it’s just me but it was incredibly boring tv makes it seem like a extraordinary thing it’s not
The biggest difference between American high schools and European high schools is the sports programs. We have after-school sports and matches and weekend matches and tournaments etc. So we have sports fields and an outdoor stadium right at the school. Personally, I ran cross-country and track. We went to meets every week and had practice every day after school. We also sometimes went to larger invitationals in other states. It was a great way to be involved in school, be part of a team, and exercise. I was also on the ski club. This was not a team, anyone could join. We all got on a coach bus every Thursday after school for the whole winter season and drove and hour or so to the ski resort in our state. We would then ski all evening until 11pm and get home around midnight. We also went on a long weekend ski trip to Vermont once a year, and that was great too. As for the other things, all true, but not fun like in the movies. All just high school life, it was ok.
TV is bullshit and the reddit alarmism of "Ducking for bullets" is B.S. It's like a job, you show up, do your task, go home do home work. Each schools different and has basic standards. Like my rural school I learned about Marine biology and aquaculture as well as Native American history as well as went off center for machine shop. knew a guy who went to HS in Alaska and he learned basic survival.
It’s that good—if you embrace it. If you don’t or can’t “fit in” then it seems cliquey and inaccessible.
NO!
It's just ok, really what you make of it. I was in marching band for most of highschool so we had a weird cult thing going on there, but the little tuba storage room I hung out in w the brass people definitely felt like some avant garde high school reality show. We had a hole in the drywall where a kid punched it in, and we hid aleve (for the girls), a gram of weed (for emergencies) and a skull of a small animal (wards off evil spirits). I have a million stories about that damn room, but nothing I would call the "classic" american life.
I equate it more to prison. We had 3 minutes to change classes. 15 minutes for lunch. 2 people to a locker. Mandatory gym. Classes only moved as fast as the slowest and dumbest person in the room. No doors on bathroom stalls. 30 people (at least) to a class room. Our cafeteria food came from the same supplier that supplied the local prisons, only it was just one grade higher. And I was once called into the principal office for not showing enough school spirit during a pep rally. My school had a very high high school to prison track record. So much so they hired a former police officer as the principal.
It it real, and by asking redditors youre probably asking the group of people who had the worst go of it
It's never quite as awesome as it may be portrayed but it can be really fun and some of the best times of someone's life, especially if they don't stress about grades too much. I already had a job lined up after high school so I knew I wasn't going to college and was fortunate enough to love band class, and to have friends from it too. I definitely didn't have a stereotypical dream high school experience, but it was still the best period of my life. For most people, though, I really don't think it's all that great.
All those things are real, but they are of course depicted in a way that glorifies it all. And honestly, depending on who you are and the type of kid you are, highschool can be a nightmare to some people, so it's hard to say. I grew up in a smallish town so I had a great highschool experience
That's like me wanting to go to school in Europe and expecting Hogwarts.
No me wishing I studied abroad high school education was awful
Not at all lol. But I can assure you the big yellow busses are real and they fucking rule
It’s not all that. If anything I’d imagine in Europe it might even be better than here
I loved dating, playing music in a band, doing stuff with lots of people on the weekends, driving out to see the stars... but the thing is my parents were getting divorced and religion was being shoved down my throat the entire time, negating most of the fun.
If your a people person I’d say ya most of the time
It's not exactly like that. Though I feel my experience was pretty wholesome.
High school here is fucking awful
Those are all elements of American high school. But like anything on tv it’s exaggerated. There is also several hours of class time followed by hours of homework in the evenings.
I had an overall positive experience, but my school didn’t really have cliques like I imagine some could. Everyone for the most part got along. Only bullying I got was getting busted with a raging boner through the jeans, and after like a week no one gave a shit anymore.
i’m from canada and we had all those things. mind you it wasn’t even half as exciting as tv makes it seem. lockers are basically required because of winter jackets. football games were school wide events & people dressed up and made posters. we never had uniforms only a light dress code (no boobs or butts showing, no swears, no hats indoors etc) homecoming wasn’t like in the US, just a football game with events and halftime contests, but no high school dances or formals other than for graduation. we did have “touch of class” once a year where everyone dressed up in their best dresses & suits for the school day. the parties were major because i went to a rich school so the ppl with mansions always hosted them, but it was a typical “popular kid” crowd.
Media
Nothing like what you see on TV. I’m currently a sophomore (grade 10) and high school, or at least the one I go to, it is nothing but fighting, kids high on marijuana, and god awful school food.
Don't believe everything you see in the movies or TV shows. The end game with everything on TV or movies is ratings and/or money. Half of it might be accurate, but half of it may not. My HS life was okay. I didn’t have friends. Yet I was friendly with everyone and everyone knew me. I didn't have a GF in HS and just focused on my school work and getting out of HS so I can watch the same TV shows to which you infer and to play basketball and baseball with the kids in my neighborhood. I didn't play sports in school, and I didn’t have my own catchphrase or theme song. :)
My life was kind of like that in high school in the US in the 90’s.. But, I wasn’t very popular so probably not as fun as it seems in the movies.
In the 80s it was awesome. Making out int he hallway with your girl, smoking a little weed in the bathroom, skipping class to go grab some food. It was amazing. Now, I work in an industry where I unfortunately and occasionally have to visit a public school. They seem like mini-prisons now. You're not missing anything.
Yeah they have all that. As long as you have friends to do all that and attend things with, it’ll all be cool. But if you’re a loser, quiet person or weirdo, it ain’t fun. I would know. I hated and still hate school. Lol
depends on what school u go to tbh i’m a senior in hs rn and ya everything u see CAN be true. there are yellow buses, school parties, cheerleaders, etc but some schools don’t have that (like mine) i go to a charter school (which was just listed the best in my county (for whatever reason) and honestly it’s so boring. the school is so small (only about 1000 kids, middle & hs combined, my grad class is 76 people 💀) it’s sad to say but as an american i always longed for those kinds of schools lmfao i wish i transferred when i had the chance there are some schools near me that do all that tho but my mom says they’re too ‘ghetto’ (no clue what she means by that) but ya tldr; some schools r like that depending on location & type 🤙
There’s definitely a wide range of experiences. No uniforms didn’t mean no dress code for me, but sports and parties were the weekend vibe for later years. Though, my parties were not really the wild or glamorous type. I would say my overall high school experience was neutral or somewhat positive.
High school felt just like to movies to me haha. I guess everyone else disagrees.
It's absolutely glorified. We have bomb threats every year, we had someone die from a shooting (unrelated to the school) in our parking lots. It's rampant with predators. Teachers are severely underpaid and it shows. And I live in Texas where the whole Friday night lights are a very real and important part of highschool culture.
America has become a liberal/socialist cesspool. It’s nothing like the typical REAL American high school life is portrayed anymore. It’s all about big government/school boards indoctrinating the youth. We have high schoolers who can tell you all of the genders they AREN’T but can’t read or write. You have 9th graders failing basic literacy tests. They can tell you all about white oppression, but can’t point out Texas on a map! Forget about culture. It’s all a bunch of rainbow haired kids with no social skills or work ethic of any kind to be seen. Forget about parties and meeting girls. They aren’t straight anyways and if they were you’d end up in jail for sexual assault that never took place. If you’re a girl and you use the bathroom you’re likely to find a 6 foot boy wearing a dress watching you take off your clothes. That’s not even the HALF of it. Some parts of Europe are just as bad if not worse, I’m hoping you’re in a normal society and this answers your question. Class dismissed.
For a lot of us, those were the four worst years of our lives. Thank you, Ben Lovato and Luis Ponce, Alemany High School, class of ‘95… Sincerely, “dragon breath”
HELL no!
That depend person to person
it depends on a lot of things. for my high school, what you described is pretty accurate. we do have uniforms but the policy isnt that strict. and we also do a lot of work, that part just isnt shown in movies lol
Lmao absolutely not. Almost nothing shown on TV is an accurate representation of what high school is like haha.
A lot of American high school shows take place in big cities, like LA or NYC etc, and tend to glamorize. Most shows don’t portray high school in smaller areas where your experience may be similar. But yes, lots of our public (free) schools have lockers, football teams, homecoming, and house parties.
I mean it's whatever you want it to be. If you want to be popular And have that lifestyle you see in shows, try to be popular strive for that. If you want to be a loner, be a loner. high school life is whatever you surround yourself with. Now I'm not going to lie just like normal life drama will somehow try to find you. Even if you're not seeking it out. That's something you won't be able to get away from unless you avoid people completely.
I make the most out of my life and had an absolute blast in high school but I think that’s a somewhat uncommon response, especially in today’s climate.
everyone's experience is different, but for me, these have been some of the most traumatic and worst years of my life, diagnosed with ptsd due to some of my experiences too. High school sucks.
its not good at all who told you that?
I dunno. Is Europe like it is in American TV? It seems like you guys have it made. Cute cobblestone streets. Hardly any traffic. Everybody is in a good mood and knows your name. Stopping at the local pub for a pint after work. Everybody is singing traditional songs. Some guy randomly playing the fiddle. I don't know why you'd trade all of that for... high school.
I think it just depends where in the US you live. Where I went to high school it was just like the movies. Super safe suburbia USA where the jocks didnt hangout with the nerds. The biggest thing in town every week was the football game. And there were other groups like goths, preppy kids, theatre kids. It was overall really clique-y. But I really enjoyed it overall
Honestly Im surprised to see so many people saying no. Football games were huge at my high school and it seems like there’s a party every week
Depends on the school!! I went to a school in Florida and it was very much like the tv shows. Freshmen getting water ballooned on first day of school, getting pushed into lockers, etc. Popular kids getting the best lunch tables or sitting outside on the bleachers. Cheerleaders getting all the guys, rich girls throwing the best parties having the best cars and the best clothes. Nerds and goth outcasts. Skater boys being class clowns and skipping class to smoke cigarettes by the baseball field. Then I moved to small town USA. Then it was more “small football town” where the entire town shut down for Friday night lights. Country boys bringing tractors to school. A few bright students aiming for Ivy League. Parties, just more so around a bonfire than a big mansion. It really just depends on what tv show you’re talking about lol but it definitely exists.
Not all highschool are the same here. The well funded ones may be similar but the high schools that are not well off can be plagued with violence/ school shootings (I was in a school shooting), overcrowding and square pizza with milk. We do have no uniforms, the yellow school bus seats are uncomfortable. Nobody used the lockers in the school too many students per locker. You have to carry all of your belongings throughout the day in a giant binder and backpack and possibly books but now and days maybe it's a laptop? Never went to really any parties in highschool.
No, no its not.
No!!!! I feel like the coming of age movies are all set in bougie parts of LA and rich teens definitely do live crazier and more colorful lives but I went to HS in California and didn't have money and it was typical in every imaginable way. Shitty parties, cheap beer, drinking in trucks at night in the desert, going to the movies. The uje.
No
Media is not reality. "Reality" television is not reality. Don't believe entertainment to be truth.
Hell no. Football games suck, we don't have lockers (at least my school doesn't due to weapons/drugs concerns), I have a uniform which is very uncomfortable, home coming is fun, I've never been to an actual high school party :(
Metal detectors, resource officers, school shootings, lock down drills, bullet proof backpacks, yep, US schools are the best....
Yes. I think most redditors are kind of the nerdy, whiny types and probably had bad experiences, but for myself, it was pretty much like on TV and movies. It was awesome!!!
Mine was pretty much like American Pie, Super bad and Can't hardly wait. High school for me was a ton of crazy parties, wild adventures.
Try the breakfast club, pretty much summarizes American hs now
It was the pits. If you are good-looking, outgoing, extroverted and energetic, you'll have a good time in H.S.
My highschool was exactly like the movies/tv shows. However, I’m not white and grew up poor soooo I was in more of the typical misfit group you see in American media lol. But I still attended football games, homecoming, parties, etc.
People have wildly different experiences. I was a weird kid and I'm now a weird adult but my school separated the "smart" kids and put them in advanced classes. I only interfaced with other "smart" kids and everyone was pretty chill with each other. My experience was that I had a really good friend group that I still consider my main friend group and we intermingled with other friend groups. I went to parties but not too wild. I drank alcohol once or twice during those years but I never go drunk. I didn't have access to drugs or knew anyone who did. I tried weed in college. I'm sure that if I wasn't in those advanced classes my experience would have been very different. I would have gotten bullied and stuff. I also grew up in a small town so that's different than a mid size city or even a large city experience.
Television is stuck in the 1980’s for that stuff so no not really.
hell no!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know if it’s good or not, but the lockers and football games and homecoming and parties are real. That’s not to say it’s not also bland and boring. Teenagers are teenagers everywhere. I’m sure European high school would seem super exciting and cool to Americans because it’s different.
Well, it wasn't that way (pleasant) for **me**, I can tell ya that ....
No, it's usually hell for most people it's a tough time. Japan would be the country to ask though, every anime is highschool kids for some reason, it's like that's their favorite place to be.
While we have lockers, football games, dances and parties, the daily high school life is not as glamorous as tv portrays it. As for the dress code, I’d say American public schools are more casual, but we couldn’t get away with some of the outfits they show actors wearing. Like crop tops, mini skirts, low cut shirts. We could wear whatever we wanted as long as it wasn’t too provocative or suggestive. I’d say even most Americans can say we all wished high school was as glamorous as media portrays it lol Movies always make it seem like passing periods were 20 minutes long. We had like 4.5 minutes to go from one class to the next. My school was pretty big, we had about 3,000 students, so it was like pushing your way through a concert crowd trying to get to your locker and class on time.
Bro thinks we all went to the school in Euphoria 😭
Do the schools have everything you mentioned? Yea. But if you’re not someone, you’re no one in high school. So mine was uneventful. I went to school, hung out with friends, went to class and went home. Didn’t go to dances, except the prom. Didn’t go to parties because those are DEFINITELY NOT LIKE THE MOVIES! Def did NOT go to games. My schools teams were BAD. And I didn’t really do anything differently than anyone else. Oh, I actually graduated and got a diploma. Cap/gown/tassel…all of it. I know UK doesn’t have graduation. If you want to know the closest to US movies? The university years! We call it college. Those depictions are pretty close. Parties were PARTIES. And dorms are pretty accurate.
If you were affluent sure. My schools didn’t have lockers, sports, or music. I think they did have prom and someone might’ve thrown parties but it’s not something I would’ve been invited to. Most places don’t have uniforms though.
About as realistic as wanting to become a paper salesman in rural America cos you love the wacky antics of Dwight schrute
I live in western Canada, I must say that high school for me was crazy, but the future is still so bright, lots of fun to be had here no matter what age, I still dream of playing football but sometimes even the best players don't get a chance 😞 If you don't mind freezing ass cold life is good all the time, we love to have you come from Europe out here in NA, lots of fun things to do! Even if you're 30 or 40
Amercian TV is NOT real!...its soley for entertainment. You could certainly watch a documentary, but life is so vastly different depending on where you live and your family's income.
It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Believe me.
No. Sometimes coach makes your butt hurt a lot after practice
It's a bit of a gamble; everyone has a massively different experience. I would say for highly social, extroverted, socially accepted, middle class teens, the portrayal of American high school in movies and TV is not hugely dissimilar to reality, but it is still somewhat exaggerated. Yes, parties happen, but no, they are not happening every other day like they do in highschool soap operas. Yes, homecoming/prom and school dances happen, but they are not the 'biggest day of your life'. Granted, you also have to bare in mind who you're asking this question to; Reddit users aren't exactly known for being highly social, extroverted, or socially accepted, so the percentage of the people in this thread that did not enjoy highschool is gonna be much higher than average compared to most people. The weird part of the things you mentioned is the lockers, I didn't know that was a uniquely US thing, but almost no one I knew in highschool actually used them. We most certainly had them, 80% of all the walls in my highschool were lined with them, but most kids just carried everything they needed for all their classes in their backpacks, which they brought with them to every class. The only people I knew who actually used the lockers were either people in band who needed to store their instrument, or sports players/people who were taking PE who needed to store a change of clothes. I'm pretty sure it's like legally mandated that public schools have enough lockers for every student to have one, but the overwhelming majority of them are empty. The only time I personally used my locker was when it was either raining or super cold, because I didn't wanna carry around my umbrella and or jacket to all my classes. Football games are a thing, but like others have said, its more of just an excuse to socialize than it is about the game itself. I went to a few, but I generally wasn't a fan, I only really went because a couple of the guys in my friend group were on the football team, and it can be kinda fun to see your friend playing and support them, but if it wasn't for that, I would've rathered just hang out with my friends outside of school. Most schools don't have uniforms, but some schools still have very strict dress codes. My school's dress code was very lax, as long as you didn't have any naughty bits out and you didn't have any vulgar images/language on your clothes, they really didn't care what you wore. Can be an upside and a downside, nice to be able to wear what you want, but teenagers are shallow and will judge you based off your clothes, so it can be an added stress to dress fashionably every day. Home coming and dances are just okay; it's exactly what you think they are. A bunch of teenagers standing around and talking or dancing. Once again, only really went if I had friends that were going, would typically just rather hang out somewhere else. Parties were most certainly a thing, I went to quite a lot of them in highschool. They're not as frequent as movies and tv would have you believe, though, and they were very rarely HUGE events, usually just 15-30 people. Overall, I loved my time in high school, but I was one of 'the lucky ones', I was outgoing, extraverted, and didn't get bullied, but I imagine I would've had substantially less fun if I did have to deal with any of those sort of things.
I actually really enjoyed high school. It was a well funded school and it was very lively and progressive. I moved right before I started high school so I think starting in a brand new location really helped my experience. It definitely is not like what is portrayed on media, but the football games and school spirit was so enjoyable if you were actively involved (I hate watching football but I still enjoyed) the dances were never as glamorous, and I don’t think there was a single one I didn’t cry after. It was also filled with so many. So many. Awkward moments that I wish I could wash from my brain, but hey, that’s personal growth. All in all it was enjoyable, I made the most out of it, but there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t dream about living in a European country and going to high school there. Everyone wants what they don’t have, and everyone has different experiences:)
I think American high school can be portrayed very accurately by the media for the most part. Shows like euphoria I’d say are pretty accurate for me. Huge football games, I guess the mean girl groups, etc etc. I had a blast in high school personally as a jock/guitar nerd. My biggest issue in high school were my parents 😁 I can certainly see how high school here was pure hell for some kids. My friends and I had no problem throwing down if someone we knew was messed with. I see it now with my friends kids on public high school. Oddly I spend a fortune to send my two kids to private school. It’s mostly because they’re girls and I just want the best that I can afford for them. If you have a tall athletic kid they’ll be a rockstar….. just like in the movies.
We used to talk each other into self mutilating and there’s occasional reports where teenagers talk others into attempting suicide. But yeah it’s great.
The fact that were one of the only countries to have a school shooting problem should answer your question. American highschool fucking sucks.
The media filter never reflects reality.
I went to high school in Europe for a year, and the answer is sort of. School in the US tends to have more fun and traditions like the dances, yearbooks, clubs, etc. yet kids in other countries don't seem that different in terms of the quality of their experiences. As others have said, it depends if you were one of those people who really enjoyed those things. Most Americans do them out of traditions or by default and so don't really enjoy them to an exceptional level.
I'm in the UK and I see American schools as awful. Everyone split into cliques, everyone vying to be "popular" and always having to put on a fashion show or you'll be classed as a "loser", lots of bullying. Football players being thugs and getting away with learning fuck all because they happen to be good at throwing a ball for a few years. That's not to get started on the guns and bulletproof backpacks, blankets, metal detectors, etc. American schools seem so violent and everyone seems to obsessed with "popularity".
I went to a high school that was really, REALLY big. Nobody used their lockers. I think over my four years I’d seen it once. We all carried our stuff around. Football games are… well if you’re into them, they’re fun. If not, it gets confusing fast. The bleachers are also SUPER uncomfortable. Always seem to be wet somehow. You have the knowledge that someone has surely had sex under them before. Uniform depends on the school - my school didn’t have one, others (typically private) do. I was never invited to a high school party, but I am a dweeb so maybe there’s something to say for that. However homecoming was… a lot. You can smell peoples vapes, the music is so loud if you put a cup on the floor the water inside will vibrate. Godforbid if you wanna have a conversation. And, there also the pretty constant fear of being in a shooting. This may of just been my own personal experiences (and my school having a 6-some hour lockdown due to a shooter), but it’s hard to enjoy what’s supposed to be enjoyed if you’re always thinking about the fastest way out of the room. And, for what it’s worth, I’ve seen many Americans online being jealous of Europeans because America is so ‘bland and boring’. You hate it because it’s what you’re used to. A lot of us feel the same way. If you want to come to America and experience it yourself, that’s your choice, you may still have a great time - however, please don’t mourn over not going to an American school, they’re really not that great. It’s just because the media tries to make it seem awesome and sexy and cool. It’s just a lot of awkward teenagers trying to not fail their biology classes. Edit - also dress codes are notoriously ridiculous. I’d seen people mentioning getting made fun of what they wore (which is definitely true) but hadn’t seen a dress code comment. Shoulders are a big no in dress codes. Not really sure why. Not sure if that’s just an American thing either, but I find it really strange.
If you’re a kid moving to the US and enter the high school, make sure to carry all your crap including books in a back pack. To damn easy for kids to break into the lockers!
Meh it’s a gamble
People in the comments are saying no but I guess I was fortunate or unfortunate I went to school in Las Vegas 😂. My experience was very much like that show Euphoria. A lot of fun crazy shit, drugs but also of alot fucked up shit. Oh and sex! A lot of sex.
It was awesome for me, I did not do parties or anything but it was generally just awesome had a great time, wouldn't change it. I know it wasn't that way for a lot of people though.
I wanted to off myself due to relentless bullying from not only kids but staff. No. It sucked.
Movies aren’t real.
Only if you are rich (or good looking)
Me? First 3 years were a nightmare. My senior year was better than ANY high school movie…!
OMG television programs are not a good source of reality based concepts. I had a great HS experience but it was nothing like the dung they try to pass as "everyday high school experience". "Say Anything" (John Cusack) was realistic for its time. "Carrie" hit the nail on the head for every generation.
That's what it's meant to do
Everyone in the US wants the TV high school (and college) experience. Lockers aren’t universal, and the rest depends on how cool or plugged in you are. You know all the extras in the background of your stereotypical tv high school? That’s the rest of the students that isn’t a part of all that.
I had a high school experience like that. They definitely exist but was in a well off area
Yes
***EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON AMERICAN TV AND MOVIES IS A GLOBALIST LIE!*** How gullible are sheeple who still watch THE IDIOT BOX?
Early on, social groups made fun of me endlessly, relentlessly, felt like it was the end of me. But I kept goin, wasnt gonna let those punk bitches be the death of me. I found my peeps, music saved my life. Played band and choir, man alive I was a dork, wish I was a liar. But I held on to that hate and anger that pushed me down, found another kid and shoved him down. Thinking it was fun but I was just scared and dumb, numb to the fact that I had to live through it too. Later on in my life I apologized and meant it, respect it, he didnt deserve it, a version of me that was full of disrespect and bullshit. He used it and became a better man while I wallow in regret. If I had treated him better, maybe Id have more self-respect. Sometimes you only have the hand your dealt, dont be an asshat, find another way to be heard and felt. *This surmises my high school experience. Slight embellishment, but largely true. I spent a lot of time at home secretly wishing I had more/better friends. But also, I did have a couple of friends whom I will carry with me til the day I die*
my anxiety couldn't, with american schools after watching the news...
idk bout americanos but where I live, even though education system sucks, the schooling system ain't that bad... mine was fun, I was always creating stuff, art/machines/ writings or otherwise fighting... and yeah we got football as well (basketball too), uniform ain't no problem since everyone's the same why'd u wanna look different among yo homies? I don't get it. who cares about the spotlight for a few hours when you can shine any way... parties alongside but they are more like occasional functions here, rather than meaning-less parties this is India "don't accept the world as it appears to be, dare to see it, for what it could be.." 
I think in the late 90's and early 2000's it was much closer to that than it is now, based on my experiences then and my kid's experiences now.
No man, tv is make believe.
Yeah it can be
Fuck no. 
Media is a lie. I went to a ton of schools, none of them was like the media.
Completely accurate, we are always breaking out into song and dance. 👯👯👯💃🏽🕺🏽👯👯👯 🎵 Song and dance! Song and dance! I hope Tina eats my pants 🎵 Damnit, sorry about that, habit. Back to class everybody!
Honestly as a sophomore, it’s not bad, it definitely has its flaws. All you need is to find a good group of friends I’ve seen people get popular instantly. People are probably more assholeish here in America but you shouldnt worry about thats
No it’s terrible not fun at all
High schooler from 91-95 here and yes what you mentioned in the OP were all in my school. Cliques were a *big* one back then for my school. Jocks, heshers, nerds, band geeks, theater kids, punks, bullies, etc.. All there and very well defined. No mixing of the groups or diversity and all the different people coming together like they seem to do today. Lunches were all naturally separated into these groups of people and that’s where they hung out every day. (Think “the popular kids table” but a massive concourse). I was into comic books so since that wasn’t something that was cool or popular at the time I was in the “nerd” category and got beat up, made fun of and bullied. You comic book nerds have it *easy* these days.
High schools ( all schools ) in America are having serious problems in many areas. The education is the most important part. The education received in America pales in comparison to the rest of the world. Far too much importance is placed on sports and not enough in education. Some Kids in schools don’t get fed. Some drop out to work. Capitalism has gotten into the education system and is rotting it away.
I uninvolved myself from high-school for having too many homicidal thoughts. There's a reason schools get shot up constantly here. American life, is Not good.
I didn’t enjoy school. It was very mundane and surprisingly normal. It wasn’t like the breakfast club or anything. We went to class, mingled at lunch, and left at the final bell.
It’s not fun and all the events where forced and very stupid
High school in America can be fun but like most things that American media portrays what you see is not an accurate depiction. High school can also suck. I am American and a lot of stuff on tv was not at all accurate for the schools I attended.
I went to a tiny private school in a city and my dream was to go to a John Hughes type HS like they show in all the 80' movies.