Directions: Based on our discussions of what it means
to have an idea and the “notice and focus” reading strategy, your first writing
assignment is to write about an original idea(!) you have after reading an
article from New York Magazine, entitled
“Why You Truly Never Leave High School.”
For homework, as
you read the article, apply the “notice and focus” strategy that we learned in
class today. You can take notes in the margins—this will help you arrive at an
idea that you will write about on our class blog. You can write about anything
that interests or strikes you based on what you read. As you write, make sure
you refer back to specific details from the article. Note: This assignment asks you to write about an original idea you have. Please do not repeat other
classmates’ ideas. This means that you need to read previous blog entries
before submitting yours for everyone to see.
Don’t forget to construct
your entry with your audience in mind. Your personality and your voice in
writing is what makes a blog engaging. Also, avoid writing long paragraphs—long
blocks of texts are difficult for readers on a computer to digest. Remember to
include a catchy blog post title—you want your entry to stand out from the
rest! Your blog entry should be approximately 300 words long (circa one page
typed). This will be due on Thursday, September 11th.
Why is it that there are so many teenagers who are cast aside, bullied, and ignored in high school? According to this article, it is because “the people [in high schools] have little in common, except their ages.” Because of this, a social ladder is constructed based on things such as looks, clothes, and athleticism, and oftentimes, these social systems reward aggression.
ReplyDeleteAnd even though high school is supposed to be the time when people define themselves, it is often hard to do so due to social hierarchies and pressure from peers. So wouldn’t it be better if kids and teens were able to go to a different kind of school—one where they were able to experience life more realistically with a mixture of different kinds of people and ages?
An alternative to the public schools is homeschooling, which, according to the National Home Education Network, “more closely resembles real life than does a same-age school setting.” This method of learning may be more beneficial as it would get rid of the unrealistic social hierarchies in high school and allow kids to blossom, removed from the peer pressure to conform and the social fear and anxiety that comes along with high school.
Being homeschooled could also help with a kid’s social skills as they would have to interact with both teens and adults, better preparing them for later in life. They would be able to focus more thoroughly on studies because they would not have the same social anxieties that come from the hierarchies in high schools. This would allow them to discover themselves during a time when they are developing and growing, during the time when they are supposed to discover themselves.
It seems like most kids would do better if they were homeschooled instead of going to a school where they are apt to be labeled and put under social pressures.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
ReplyDeleteThe fact that high school status is what will affect you in 15 years or so completely astounds me. There are some good things and some bad things about it. Studies show that memories for adults are most vivid and easy to remember between the ages of 15 and 25, and a lot of that time is while you are attending high school. This is probably why whenever I ask my mom what memory is her oldest, other than one or two memories from when she was six, she can only go back to when she was about to start high school. I used to always think that people shouldn’t make a big deal out of high school because it’s just four years of your life that’ll go by in a snap. But now, after reading this article, my opinion is changing a bit.
There was a study that right before adolescence, the prefrontal cortex in your brain undergoes a “huge flurry” of activity. This makes adolescents “feel” more, everything they do is a little more defined and I think that’s why people remember their teenage days. People are the way they are, because all their experiences of being an adolescent have carried on with their aging. Once you’re socially impaired, it carries on. The level of stress, the attractiveness, height, and even music taste from the times of when you were growing up are able to make you into the person you will become 20 years later. But shouldn’t it be that way? What if people thought differently?
Adolescents are put into high school at the peak of their social anxiety and it makes them so vulnerable to not only being labeled, but also by not being yourself. And being labeled sends off a shame trigger in the teenager. It’s like a small trauma that makes you paralyzed, it could be when you get turned down on a date, yelled at by a fellow student for a mistake, or not being able to have anywhere to sit at lunch. There are only three ways of dealing with this shame. Move away from it by hiding. Move towards it by people pleasing. And finally move against it by using shame against itself. These three ways are also what you’ll probably use for the rest of your life as well, since it’s happened in high school and is the only way you know how to avoid that feeling of being unloved and unwanted.
The problem with teenagers is that we think that we know it all. We think about someone a certain way before actually meeting the person. That’s why there are labels and enemies and populars and outcasts. What I still don’t get is that why after reading this article, do teenagers still label others, knowing that it will come back to haunt them in the future? This article should open up their minds and teach them that they should be kind, smart, and successful now, because then your future will be better.
How The Hunger Games Is Like High School
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Jennifer Senior's article: "Why You Truly Never Leave High School", parts of the account reminded me of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games.
Throughout the piece, Senior discusses various hierarchies in American high schools. These rankings are often determined by looks, wealth, nice clothing, and athleticism (Senior 6). Some of the categories mentioned include: Jocks, Populars, Brains, Toughs, and Outcasts. Senior also states that in high school, students will use aggression to either become popular or retain their status (Senior 8).
The article then mentions that when many different adults are gathered together; a situation similar to high school cliques tends to arise. Like a reality television show, teams, alliances, and the taking out of opponents begins to occur (Senior 10).
This particular section of the piece reminds me of The Hunger Games for various reasons. Like high school, in the Hunger Games, the tributes can be categorized into different groups.
For example, contestants from Districts One, Two and Four are referred to as the Careers. Tributes from these districts are richer than those from elsewhere, athletic (they spend their whole lives training for the Games), and aggressive. Careers are known for forming alliances with each other and killing anybody who stands in their way of winning the Games.
In contrast, Katniss Everdeen—the main character—was from a poor district. This put her at a sort of disadvantage in terms of fighting skills and allies. However, like some not-as-popular high school students, Katniss was able to rely more on knowledge (versus physical strength or looks) to win the games.
Like Senior later states in her article, the "brainy" girls could depend on their strengths as power and a source of self-esteem (Senior 11). This statement certainly holds true for Katniss. Although she was not the most compelling, beautiful, nor daunting tribute, she was able to put this aside and excel at the Games.
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ReplyDeletePerception is key
ReplyDeleteNow and then it occurs that a person will ask their friend if they’re alright, explaining that they look upset. The friend will answer they are perfectly fine and that nothing is wrong. This scenario is not uncommon in high school between friends or classmates. Of course, sometimes the person really is sad or angry, but more often than not they are completely fine.
Teenagers may not always know how to read the behavior of others. The study made at McLean Hospital by Deborah Yurgelun-Todd proves this. Adults and teenagers were asked to look at a picture of a face and describe the emotion they saw in it. While all the adults replied they saw fear, the teenagers answered they saw sadness, anger or confusion. Although it was a small study, it demonstrates teenagers show more diversity in how they interpret others’ expressions and emotions.
Something else that is striking is the perception of friendship. In a study made in 2005, only 37 percent of adolescents’ friendships were reciprocated. This means that when the teenagers named people they considered as their close friends, their feelings were returned only 37 percent of the time. This shows how young adults are sometimes unable to tell when they are being rejected versus when their perception of the relationship is different.
A lesson that can be drawn from this may be that if teenagers become aware they each perceive emotions and expressions differently, then there may be less cases of friends misinterpreting each others expressions, as well as a greater understanding of their friendships.
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ReplyDeleteWhen reading the article “Why You Truly Never Leave High School,” by Jennifer Senior, I found my self both agreeing and disagreeing with the author at the same time. This article is written from the opinion of a woman who went to high school 25 years ago, and while her opinions may be accurate for that time period, I strongly believe that high school today has evolved immensely from what is used to be like.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the article Senior refers to studies about labeling and stereotyping social groups. Often using words such as Jocks, Brains, Populars, Normals, Druggies, and Outcasts. Most of these studies asked kids to label themselves under one category and compared it to how their peers saw them. This seemed to me that the adults, due to their experiences in high school, didn’t quite see another option. Today kids don’t use just one label to define themselves. High school students are breaking typical stereotypes and allowing themselves to fall under more than one category. Kids who play sports can also be the smart kids, taking honors and joining clubs therefore diversifying the peers that they interact with allowing for people to have more in common. It’s no longer so black and white where people belong, social groups are becoming grey areas.
Although things have improved I am aware that the same standards are still in existence. These labels are used, however our society has progressed to be more tolerant and open minded. The author is writing from her experience during a time when being different was looked down upon, rather than embraced. Kids today still worry about popularity and what their peers think of them, but they also have more room to figure out who they are. You have the opportunity to decide who you want to be. Join sports, clubs, take classes that interest you, be friend with people who accept you. Don’t label yourself when you can be so many different things.
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ReplyDeleteA Different Society
ReplyDeleteThere are so many different societies around the world, but what most high school attending adolescents do not notice, is that we have created our own. After reading the article “Why You Truly Never Leave High School” by Jennifer Senior, I realized that by teens being put into “a giant box of strangers” they have created an unorthodox society. According to James Coleman, when adolescents spend time away from adult company, such as in school, they generate a culture and society with independent values and priorities.
A lot of our views and values are different because we have not finished developing yet. Studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex has not finished developing yet and is still adding myelin, which speeds up neural connections. That basically means we, as adolescents, are more emotional.
In our society everything is greatly intensified. In retrospect, in twenty years nobody cares if they got a B on a paper rather than an A, or who broke up with whom, but since we are adolescents our values are more intense. Adolescents are focusing on topics that are not important in the long run. James Coleman talked about how the small teenage societies focus on teen-age interests and attitudes on things far removed from adult responsibilities. It’s true that times have changed and more students are staying in school instead of dropping out and working such as in the Depression, as Jennifer Senior stated. On that note, fewer teens know what its like in the job field, or what having real responsibility is like.
The teenagers within the teenage societies, and hierarchies of high schools need to learn value and real life circumstances instead of being trapped in a giant box of strangers with a lot of the only similarities being age. Otherwise when they enter the adult world, they will continue to live as they did in high school, and prioritize nice clothes and popularity rather than subtleties of personality and responsibility. People are tending to have an Unrealistic perception of what true society is, and In reality if this keeps happening people will truly never leave high school, and their four years will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Why Do We Even Go to High School?
ReplyDeleteAs I read this article, I started thinking about why all American teenagers went through high school. Of course I know why; it’s the law, and it’s for our education and blah blah blah. But why do we really go? What’s the point? Why it is structured the way it is? Why don’t we all just stay home and take online classes, so we’re not distracted by friends, wasting free time, etc.? Anyway, “Until the Great Depression, the majority of American adolescents didn’t even graduate from high school,” (p.5) so why do does it really matter?
Imagine if you could inject a chip into your brain that would give you your entire four years of education with just a small, inexpensive surgery. We wouldn’t even need high school anymore. Or so I had believed, before I really started thinking about it.
I realized that high school isn’t just for your education. It’s for the experience, which is a whole other education in and of itself. As adolescents, we are slowly getting closer to discovering ourselves in the real world, and we have to be prepared for it. High school fills our brains with the necessary information to, say, do the math to pay your taxes, or check someone out at the grocery store, but that’s just book smarts. That’s only half of what we need to know.
The other half, I realized, comes from our own experiences and interactions with others and our environment in high school. Imagine you went to high school alone, and all the classes were taught by robots. You would never experience some of the most important aspects of life, like friendship, and relationships, and even those awkward situations you wish you didn’t have to go through (like Kenji going to “the party I never got invited to in high school” (p.1), where he was undoubtedly “re-experiencing the shame of high school” (p.7)).
But those awkward situations and everything else are part of your own social education, as they help you build a better understanding of how to interact with the world around you. And high school is, according to the article, the most intense time of your life, so all these interactions are magnified and expanded in ways that would never have occurred had you experienced the same things during another time in your life.
Without the high school experience, you wouldn’t be ready to go off on your own. Imagine you just went into the real world only knowing what was in your textbook. How would you make friends? Go out, live your life? You would probably totally flub your first job interview, not to mention your first date.
Your high school experience prepares you in ways nothing and no one else, not even the teachers or your parents, can: it gets you ready for real social interactions in the world, and it teaches you, and you learn yourself, how to deal with them. And that, I believe, is why we go to high school.
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ReplyDeleteHollywood High School: What is High School Really Like?
ReplyDeleteMost of us have heard the story of that nerd in high school who grew up to be the successful multi-millionaire CEO of some revolutionary company that monopolizes the economy. Thus, we must treat them with respect, because one day, nerds will rule the world. We don’t often hear the other side of the story, the insecurities that might linger with a person from the glory days of high school, no matter how successful they have become, and in that this article makes a fair point.
However, as true as the article rings, there is also a gross over-simplification and stereotype found within. Who says that nerds are always the ones bullied? There are a lot of “popular” students who receive a fair amount of gossip and scandal thrown towards them, as if to be popular these days is to automatically be put down as a shallow, superficial, egotistical, self-centered bully. And to be a “nerd” is slowly being embraced. There seems to be a focus on the "poor, bullied nerds versus the self-centered popular kids" story arch in this article. And while that is certainly true in some cases, and bullying, especially cyber-bullying, is still a huge problem, it is not as simple as Hollywood portrays it.
The categories describing high-schoolers in this article are grossly simplified. We are much more complex than simply being identified as Jocks, Populars, Brains, Normals, Druggie/Toughs, Outcasts, or None, the labels which one study in the article used in 2007. These are mere categories, from which stem many other sub-categories, or even complete deviations. What is normal? Some people say normal is overrated. What defines Popular? Can Jocks only play football? What’s to say that a student can’t be more than one of these? Categorizing students with these words no longer holds the significance they once held. Brains can apply to more than just math and science these days. Jocks can play soccer instead of football. We have branched out, and specialized other fields as well. Studies like these force students to define themselves in nice one word labels such as “Outcast” or “Bully” or “Nerd” that might not apply to some students. But who can blame them? There is so much diversity within high schools and the world in general that it would be impossible to glean some sort of result without simplifying the possible outcomes.
The article portrays a very cynical view of high school, blaming it for the faults in our society, and calling out the repressing hierarchy based on popularity. As it states, “But one also has to wonder whether high school is to blame; whether the worst of adult America looks like high school because it’s populated by people who went to high school in America.” But what’s to say that high school doesn’t help us? Not only to learn math or history, but to build lasting relationships, to learn how to deal with the hurt and insecurity, and how to interact with our peers. High school is not just the torturous four years we are forced to endure of bullying and being misunderstood, but a chance to discover ourselves.
Novus ordo seclorum
ReplyDelete( New Order of the Ages)
I admit, that on the first day of high school, I was scared out of my mind and felt quite apprehensive as I tried to navigate myself through the labyrinth. We realized that high school is not just about academics or sports but also social life. This makes the high school produce a weird social system that is very unique and cannot found anywhere else.
The Breakfast Club experiment alludes to the fact that high school is very similar to ecology. Each cliques are constantly competing with each other for fame or to be on top of the food chain. Some social groups like the “nerds” often struggle to express themselves in high school but as they transition into the external world, they bloom and flourish rapidly. This type of power shifting from the “popular kids” to the “nerds” seems to relate to Darwin’s theory of natural selections. Many students who were once perceived as the “cool kids” struggle to adapt outside their high school environment as their power shifts to a new social group bringing new orders, hence the title.
Adolescents at the high school live in their own biospheres interacting with their fellow peers creating a society full of moral values. The fear that lurks in many students are embarrassment and shame which the article accentuates. Since our school is small compared to other schools such as Shen or Shaker, this means that we all probably know most of our classmates. This forces us to accept shame and embarrassment as a daily part of our lives because rumors travel quickly in a small population. “ ... whichever strategy we choose, she says, the odds are good we’ll use that strategy for life...”( Senior 7). But its the character and the mental diligence that you build from your embarrassments that shapes your stereotype.
High School is a melting pot full of different social groups interacting to create an environment full of competitions but, also helps embrace your stereotype. This article offers us another viewpoint to what social lifestyle at high school is about and we should all relax and embrace ourselves while we watch an endless battle between different social groups.
Everyone Wants to be Accepted
ReplyDeleteHigh school can be an intimidating place for most, maybe even all kids. The article by Jennifer Senior, “Why You Truly Never Leave High School” seemed to support that idea. Whether you are in elementary school, middle school, or high school everyone wants to fit in and feel included.
As everyone who has been in high school has figured out, not everyone who wants to fit in actually does “fit in.” Teenagers are constantly being judged, stereotyped, and even bullied just because of someone else’s opinion. People always say that you shouldn’t care what other people think about you, but let’s face it, most people do care what others think or say about them. Everyone is scared of being judged but we do it to each other anyway because we are all insecure.
Unfortunately, many teenagers feel as if they don’t fit in with the popular crowd, or any crowd, for that matter. Most people who feel that way should keep in mind the “this won’t matter in four years” concept. Although, in the article it seems to portray the idea that it does matter and high school makes you who you are in the real world. I completely disagree with that theory. It is true that you learn things that will be necessary to know in the real world, but just because you don’t fit in during these four years of your life doesn’t mean you won’t fit in somewhere later. I believe that none of this matters after we graduate, and you probably won’t find out who you are during the high school years. This is a great concept that everyone should remember when high school is hard for them, or they aren’t fitting in.
If everyone in high school would just be kind and understanding of one another it would be a safer place for kids who feel they are judged. In the first page of the article, after 25 years the “nerd” finally worked up the courage to ask the “jock” if he could come to his party. If everyone could understand that these four years don’t have a major impact on your life, high school would be much more easy going socially. Teenagers need to have less pressure put on them to fit in or be cool. Everybody should just be themselves and accept one another for who they are.
This is what we have come down to?
ReplyDeleteThis article brought many important points to my attention. One of them was about how taller white men in the United States and Britain have a higher chance of obtaining an higher income or salary. On Page three of this article, paragraph two: it is stated that also: “it was their height at 16” referring to the height factor of white men at the age of 16. This fact itself also does not surprise or bother me.
The fact that bothers me is that people of the world are (no offense) wasting their time researching these statistics, bothers me. I mean to me, this is just a coincidence. If shorter men were on the positive side, everybody would be shocked at how shorter men are receiving higher wages, and salaries. I believe in hard work, and to me, anybody of any size, sex, race, etc. Who works hard will gain an opportunity to achieve success. I mean, there are so many other important topics the world should be focusing on. Such as (in my opinion) poverty, and rape.
Another point of attention which attracted my mind is how the author of the article discriminated between “pretty girls”, and “brainy girls”, by stating that pretty girls (a.k.a. princesses) have no “brain”, while brainy girls have no “attractiveness”. (Page 11) This to me is a horrible fact to state.
I mean, really? In my mind all girls (only focusing on girls, and not boys for now due to subject matter), have the potential to excel academically, and all are pretty/attractive. It’s just that some girls focus more on appearance, and others focus on the books. And, the ones who focus on the books are considered ugly, or unattractive in a typical/stereotypical high school setting. Which the academic focused girls should not worry about, as after high school, there is a whole new world to explore
The Imaginary Social Ladder is Causing Issues
ReplyDeleteHigh school, a four year experience that has a great influence on determining your future and finding your true self. Unfortunately many high schools these days have a noxious reputation of a being a complete battle ground of immature children striving for dominance among their peers on a imaginary social ladder. When you put socially unstable adolescents into a building trying to compete for a social status, that’s a terrible recipe for an absolute disaster.
For many teenagers, high school prepares them for the life long journey ahead of them. It teaches them many lessons that are very valuable. Some of these lessons may help them solve complex problems in the future. Other lessons may be social lessons such as how to deal with a bully or what to do to get out of a awkward situation. All of these lessons will help to be a beneficial asset in life. Unfortunately teenagers also have to deal with popularity and social boundaries when the real world truly don’t care about these factors.In high school we can all relate to the the classical high school student stereotypes such as jocks and geeks. These stereotypes may seem somewhat of a major factor in high school but, after you graduate your status in high school means nothing much in the real world.
The article states “They start to generate a culture with independent values and priorities.” (Senior 5). The “they” in that statement is referring to the crazy teenagers in high school and how they create their own society with different values as they fade away from the real society. For example teens in their own superficial society places a high emphasis on social status. The real world does not place value on the social status of a person these days and it’s frowned upon to judge a person by their social status. Yet all over school, teenagers place value on social status and fight aggressively to reach the highest status possible. Their fantasy society contains many misleading characteristics that does not exist the real society.
I can personally relate a lot of similarities of the stereotypical social classes mentioned in the article to the ones at our school. For example our schools does have jocks, geeks, gossipers, and brainiacs. For some reason we’ve placed people in one of these social classes and judged their popularity, personality and reputation from it. This fantasy of a social ladder that high schoolers created is causing some unrest and sometimes even chaos among people. High school shouldn't be a war ground for popularity or social status that becomes forgotten once you graduate. Teenagers should just ignore it and enjoy high school as a fun four years of great experiences instead of being reminded throughout your entire life the social status you had during your high school years.
The Harsh Truth:
ReplyDeleteIn Jennifer Senior's article on "Why you Never Truly Leave High School", she discusses the science of the fact that one's brain, and therefore personality develops during the years spent in high school. Although personally I was first shocked by this fact by understanding the science and some examples she gives I able to see this in action.
Senior talks about the fact that one forms their ideas of the world, and other people in high school. If one inflicts terror on other students during high school they will, probably inflict terror on peers in adulthood.
Senior also writes that mistakes teenagers make in their high school careers can cause guilt for decades after the mistake was made, the memories still vivid in both the victims and assaulters minds. In a semi-culmination of these factors the author brings up the prep-school life of now famous Republican politician Mitt Romney.
In high school Romney terrorized many students including a closeted boy and even a teacher. Though at the time Romney's assault of the boy was viewed as a "boys will be boys" scenario, it left a mark on his co-conspirators, one even apologizing years after the actual event. That man, Thomas Buford is quoted as saying "To this day it troubles me" showing firsthand that you can never escape your high school blunders.
On the other hand, Romney still has the pretentious, harsh personality that he had as an adolescent, just now in his political career, he hides that side. To examine the arrogant workings of Romney, one has to look no farther than the 2012 presidential election. In a private event Romney discussed the fact that 47% of Americans would vote for President Obama because of his tax policies. Those Americans, which Romney went on to bash in his comments were enraged with the Romney campaign when the statements were released to the public, causing many more voters to side with the more empathetic Obama. The high school personality of Romney came out again when, he apologized to the victim only after it had been leaked to the press
Up to the point in the article where Romney is discussed, I didn’t want to believe what I was reading. The realization that as humans we are molded in high school is a scary thought when you look at it in today’s world. With so much bullying and other forms of harassment happening in these places of education, it makes one uncomfortable when faced with the inconvenient truth of high school, especially when examining a top 1% politician like Mitt Romney.
The fact of the matter is that scars can be formed in high school that will last a lifetime, sometimes forcing kids to make decisions about their personality, decisions that now are very evident in forming these students personalities which will last a lifetime. Therefore it becomes very evident that high schools need to become a better environment both for students to grow in, and be disciplined in. If this does not happen then mankind will continue on the slippery slope of self-inflicted combustion, with the harsh realities of high school to blame.
While reading “Why You Truly Never leave High School” by Jennifer Senior, I was intrigued by how much I related to this article. I am in high school and know exactly what the writer is talking about when she says kids during this period in their life have very low self-confidence. Kids are more fearful than adults, according to the study done by B.J. Casey and two of her other colleagues. I feel this is very true and there are a number of reasons why.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, high school is a place where kids are trying to find out who they really are or how they should act to be considered cool. Most students think popularity is the ultimate goal. With this thought going on, kids start to get down and will pick on others to feel better about themselves. On the other hand, some will just become more and more fearful of their days at school. Teens start to get low self-esteem by being judged. I see it a lot and it just is awful to see kids being mean to each other because they lack confidence or just plain maturity.
So many people are very stereotypically and not accepting of people who finally found what they want to be in life. This is another reason why it is very hard to have confidence in high school when you are afraid of what people will say or think about you. The article mentions this and how it shows a struggle for young adults to be themselves in the world of judgmental people.
The article talks about this issue a lot and tells of studies why kids are more fearful then adults. High school is a scary place with many new changes and not so nice kids. I feel that I try to be the best person I can be and not let people put me down. But, like it says in the writing, kids struggle with this throughout high school and some even into their adult life. I feel that kids should mature and grow up. I am not saying they should forget totally about high school, but they should not be the same person as they were then because they now see how they need to act as adults.
High school is a time when adolescents began to define themselves. Our brains begin to develop and we become our own person. But in this time, we remain relatively confused. We “gain unwanted identities and are labels” as the article states. But why is this? Adolescents are prone to these sorts of things, to being judge and judging, but why are they; why are we like that?
ReplyDeleteBy a biological standpoint, teenagers are simply in the stages of development. ‘“Why You Never Truly Leave High School” has multiple examples of science and how it affects us in High School. For one, we are overly dramatic and have poor self-regulation. This is because the brain is still changing, there is more dopamine activity going on, and therefore, everything appears more intense than it truly is.
As teenagers, we are sensitive. When you stick a huge group of us in one place, we cannot adapt that quickly. For some it is easier, they just happen to have high self-esteem. It all comes down to how we view ourselves, even if others don’t see you that way. Many times, teenagers don’t see themselves like the rest of the world does, but that’s understandable, in fact, it’s expected, I mean, we’re teenagers after all. High School is like a giant box of strangers, much like the rest of the world, and if anything, High School prepares us for that reality.
While going through High School, teenagers aren’t sure who they are. High School is a time when we begin to understand how the world works, we start to understand other people’s emotions and our own as well. I can’t really say if I relate to much of what was in the article, I don’t know what social grouping I belong to, or even if they are social groupings, but, I do know that High School really is a time for self-discovery, and like Senior said at the end of her article, it wouldn’t be fun any other way.
The Academic Battlefield
ReplyDeleteIn Jennifer Senior’s article "Why You Never Truly Leave High School", a common foil she refers to is the classic Jock vs Nerd comparison. Why these two stereotyped groups often clash is no mystery. It’s brains vs brawns. While reading this article I realized something; if the jocks are hindering the nerd’s success, and the nerds are overwhelming the jock’s urge to get good grades, shouldn’t they be separated?
In Germany there are two separate secondary schools. An average school, and an advanced school. Our school system has honors and regents classes, so why not separate schools? In the average secondary school in Germany the students learn skills that don’t require high intensity intellect. They can learn how to do things they wish to pursue and can realistically acquire a career in rather than constantly underachieving in the high-paced academic environment, where the nerds are the leaders. If the nerds were all together in an advanced school, they wouldn’t be nerds. They would all be normal, and they would be able to develop the rest of their personalities without being held back by the large-scale box they’re originally placed in.
In an environment where the playing field is level, the jocks wouldn’t have anything holding them back from trying their best. In my personal experience, the “jocks” never try to achieve academic success. They feel stupid and dumb; hurtful labels that alter their will to learn. In elementary school it seems as if everyone has a similar thirst for knowledge. However, in high school the average are crushed by the success of the above average, and they give up trying to be intelligent, and in doing so fall to under average. But the problem is that they’ve always thought they were below average.
High school should not be a competition, although unfortunately it is viewed as one. In competitions there are losers and winners. And those who think of themselves as losers will become discouraged very quickly. Four years of the same process of winning and losing is counterproductive. Many people who saw themselves as losers will most likely keep thinking of themselves as losers. And those who are “winners” put themselves under constant pressure to do better, or stay on the same level. And when these “winners” do even slightly less than perfect, they become “losers”. So losers never become winners, but winners can become losers. This system of thinking ends with a handful of academic “winners” who were insulted because they were the odd ones out, and a large number of popularity “winners” who were constantly followed by their label of stupid.
The So-Called “Food Chain” flips Later in Life
ReplyDeleteHigh school is arguably the period of your life where you are highly influenced by others. Students undergo constant judgement from their peers and are impacted by what others say and do towards them. What happens to students in High School, whether they are bullied, the bully, popular, or any other stereotypical type of student, they will carry their experience throughout them in life. After they graduate high school, students who were frowned upon in high school trends to become the most successful later in life.
In the article, Kenji was the typical “nerd” who kept to himself and was the valedictorian of his class. After being the unpopular kid in high school, Kenji is now a successful software engineer at an Amazon subsidiary. This is a prime example of what “nerds” are capable of after graduating high school. The “food chain” seems to flip or at least the “food chain” that Hollywood loves to express in their movies. The so called nerds turn out to be the most successful after earning their diploma where on the other hand the “popular” students become not as successful to just being the average american in most cases, which is nothing bad, but not as impressive as some others. Some people prefer to be more relaxed during the time in which they are learning and studying through High School and College while others would prefer to expend as much effort possible in achieving during these times so they can benefit greatly later in life.
Students who were frowned upon in High School due to their intellect seem to achieve more later in life. The “popular” or “bullies” of the high school don’t seem to achieve as much as their peers and in some cases don’t seem to succeed at all in life, which doesn’t happen all the time. The social ladder in adulthood is almost the exact opposite of what it was in High School.
Jennifer Senior’s article brings out a lot of points through the many experiments she writes about. One of the most important facts that are mentioned in her article is about, the way one thinks in High school, and how it sticks with them for the rest of their life. For example, she writes a bit about the three strategies Brown has mentioned about how people deal with pain. If you naturally fall into one category, chances are you will remain in it for the rest of your life.
ReplyDeleteBased on that fact, I think we should learn to follow what we think is right and what we like to do, rather than just agreeing with the majority. High School is a time where individuality comes out, where we get to express who we really are to colleges and eventually, our future employers. So, if at that point,we decide to do what everyone else is doing, it will stick to us. There will never be a chance where we get to truly express the our “real” selves to the world and give a bit of uniqueness to it. So, to avoid that, I think the best way to bring ourselves out is by being involved in clubs or sports we are interested in, take classes that will both challenge ourselves yet show that we can handle the challenge, and more importantly have fun in whatever we do.
Another thing Senior brought out into her article is the understanding of a teenager’s brain. It is believed that teens never really understand the reality of a situation, they just interpret it their own way and expect it to be right. Senior used two examples to support this; one of them was the situation where students were asked what “group” they belong to in school, and the other one was to guess what expression was on a person’s face. The results were quite shocking, especially with the facial expression one. 100% of the adults who were asked this, said that the expression they see is fear, but not a single teenager guessed that correctly.
We are teens afterall, and the above experiments already show that we do not know everything, so why not accept that fact. Whether you admit it or not, every teenager at one point feels like they know everything, and they don’t need anyone else’s advice or opinions on anything. But, clearly, that is not always true. So, why not interact with others and try to understand what they are trying to say? It brings out a lot of new ideas and solves a lot of problems quickly and effectively. Before, believing that there is only one solution to something, every teen should speak to one another and try to understand a given situation more clearly to really know what is going on before immediately jumping to conclusion
Why are we still in high school with everything we know?
ReplyDeleteIn high schools it is known by teachers, students and parents there are all different kinds of groups, from jocks, to popular kids to nerds. Most adults wouldn’t think all the things they did in high school would affect how they are today, but this article proved them wrong. According to this article everything adolescents affected them later in life. It seems kind of crazy that what you did 15 years ago would affect you as an adult.
There is a lot of science that goes along with the idea that high school is one of the most influential times in your life. Along with science there are just examples of people from high school that were popular, and ended up being more successful than the people who were bullied and harassed in high school. That idea seems completely twisted considering the people who were doing the bullying and harassing should be punished for what they did, rather than rewarded. When thinking about it this way, I wonder why they even allow us to go to high school anyway.
Although people really seem to develop after getting through college and getting a job, this really isn’t the case. This article is really just saying you are what you were in high school, in some way. Most high schoolers figure, none of this will matter in 20 years anyway, but they are completely wrong. They will continue to be haunted by all the bad that happened to them, or joyed by all the good that happened to them.
High schoolers should try to cherish all their good days and try to forget about the bad ones, so it won’t affect them later in life. Although it really doesn’t make sense why adults, knowing everything they know about high school, would make us continue to go to school, we should try to make the best of it, while we can.
High school is a place where people feel judged, and that they aren’t able to be themselves. Some would believe that high school shapes you into who you will be as an adult, as Jennifer Senior mentions in the article “Why You Truly Never Leave High School.” I don’t agree completely with this.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that many of the decisions you make in high school shape your future. Probably the biggest decision we are asked to make during our high school years, is what career path to choose. Is asking students what career they’d prefer during high school not the best time? If the students are feeling pressured or influenced by parents or peers, will they accept the career they weren’t really meant to have? A decision you make in high school, related to one as that, could perhaps change your future.
Not only do students feel the pressure of determining a career, but many students feel pressured to fit in. Almost anyone would say that high school is mainly about fitting in. Do adults still care about “fitting in?” I would say some might, because how is it that after you graduate, you suddenly stop caring about what others think of you?
I don’t agree that high school will definitely change what your life will become because everyone is different and not everyone had the same high school experience. Some people choose to stay and live where they grew up, raise their kids to attend the same high school they did and share their high school experiences with their kids. Others wish to graduate and forget about those four years of their lives and start over. I believe some can successfully forget about what events happened in high school, and start again.
People can be influenced by their high school years differently. Their high school experiences, whether they were good or bad or if that person was the smartest, most athletic or the most popular, could potentially change what future they will have. We still have a couple years of high school to make
Things Have Changed
ReplyDeleteThis article is all about the stereotypes in high school and how you’re emotionally attached to those four years even when they’re over, but I don’t think that my generations’ adult years are really gonna be like that. Jennifer Senior talks about your typical stereotypes: jocks, nerds, band geeks, druggies, etc. But not everyone stays that way forever.
On the first page and a half Jennifer talks about her friends Kenji and Larry. She says they both fell under the typical quiet, band geek stereotype. And the fact that at their high school reunion Kenji was still so caught up with the past when they were actually in high school, and the morning after Larry was so fascinated with the story of that party, kind of worried me. I was thinking, will I turn out like that? Will I be a person who mainly keeps to myself and my close friends throughout these four years, and then regret how I was after this is over and wish that I had been more like the other “popular” people? I thought about it for awhile before reading on. But then I reached page six. The last paragraph states, “Though adolescents may want nothing more than to define themselves, they discover that high school is one of the hardest places to do it.” That may have been true in older generations, but I don’t think it’s true now. These days there are people with rainbow colored hair, they wear all types of clothing, they try out daring makeup or do none at all, and they know who they’re attracted to no matter what others think.
My generation is all about finding and defining themselves. We’re each our own person. Sure there’s still your typical stereotypes, but not everyone is one. Which is why we won’t have as many problems with stereotypes following and haunting us into our adult years like the people mentioned in this article seemed to have.
Is being popular really worth it?
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Jennifer Senior's "Why You Truly Never Leave High School" I agreed with many things she wrote and people she interviewed said about their high school experience. High school is over rated. So many people are so focused on fitting in and what other people think of them before they do something. When you have a thought about doing something, you should think of how you would feel about doing the action. Not everyone else. Mostly everyone who Jennifer interviewed felt that what they experienced in high school shaped them to who they are today. Which can be true for a majority of high school graduates. I think its really what you take out of high school. Some people choose to hold on to the past but some people want to get away from the past. I feel the people who were popular in high school change less than the people who were classified in the "Brains" stereotype. The smarter students in high school are much more successful and confident in college because being smart is a major characteristic to have in college. As said in the article, popular people are so used to having their looks, popularity, and charm get them through everything in life, that they don't focus on what will make them most successful in life.
According to the article, you do most of your shaping as an adolescent. Which is obviously true. More high school students should take this into more consideration. If high schoolers are so focused on fitting in with the "popular" group or any group they want to fit into then what is the point of high school? It seems people are less focused on education which is really what is most important for the future. I would rather be smart than be considered popular and always surrounded by "friends". Being smart in high school and really focusing on education will make you more confident in the future. Wouldn't you rather be confident for a better reason than being pretty,popular or athletic? Your confidence would remain high as you get older because you would most likely be successful.
Most people never truly get over high school. Even if they think they will completely forget about all the bullying and teasing they will probably still feel some sort of sadness in the future. That shame could come back to visit you in the future. And for the students who were worshiped as high school students and think that fame will follow them throughout their life are also wrong. Those are the people who change the most after high school.
Students need to stop focusing on and worrying about fitting into whatever group they classify as "popular". You won't be needing to be popular in the future, what is really the most important is how you think of yourself and how much more important success and intelligence will be in the future.
Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)
ReplyDeleteGuys I am not going to lie that article kind of shook me. The idea that all of our emotions, experiences, and memories are never going to be as passionate or intense is daunting to think about. No wonder why adults go through midlife crisis, their “Glory Days” are behind them so quickly in life. Now I am not saying that we should go out and do anything that crosses our over active minds but, we should seize the chances were getting now these will be the ones that will define us for possibly decades to come. We should be wise to remember that it is a doubled edged sword and that those choices can also haunt us for decades to come. Where is the fine line between good and bad, caution and impulsiveness? It is hard to tell which choices these will be, and that should worry us but, not paralyze us to the point of inactivity in our own lives. Every situation has it’s own circumstances and maybe to go with your gut is good idea every once in a while. For me it usually is until I think about and do the wrong thing, it should be noted though that I have awful luck.
I also have another sneaking suspicion that is even more intimidating because there seems no way out. I would like to think now that after reading this article we might have a leg up on the situation. Now that we know the profound effect of these deep rooted insecurities in adulthood truly lie amidst our adolescent experience. The scary part to me is that’s not the case and even worse now we know that we might be deeply affected by our experience here at Nisky. That the insecurities we acquired here will be lasting and there is nothing that we can do to change that. Almost as if we are programmed to regret the choices we or didn’t make, and that really sad. You know I am truly sad because I am an adolescent and this is the most emotional, passionate time of my life. Sorry for that was uninspiring I will try to avoid it from now and onward through the blogposts.
I chose Carpe Diem as the title for two reasons. The first I think it’s meaning truly embodies the way we should carry ourselves through these formative years, the second is I could not bring myself to call it Y.O.L.O. that I would regret the rest of my life. In the movie The Dead Poets Society the teacher named John Keating played by Robin Williams, he encourages his students by saying “Carpe Diem Seize the day” as well “Strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin the less likely you are to find it all.” Adolescent, high school, college is that not what it is all about finding your own voice.
How the “Non Existent” Social Scale Hurts Everyone
ReplyDeleteHigh school is a building block to a persons life. It is a place made for learning but has more effects than intended. Many people in high school know of the social ladder whether it is from books, movies, television shows where ever. This social ladder in a high school is a non existent list of how “popular” someone is. How is it real if it doesn't exist? It is because everyone has their own ranking of the social ladder and where people are located. People always do this at least a few times in their high school career. This is where there is a problem. It is a idea of if you think you are cool or not affects your self esteem and your ego.
This both come into play with being social in high school. Many of the “popular” girls think that they are above lots of people so they rude and make other people feel worthless, same idea with the jocks or “popular” guys. The effects of the kids with big egos and self esteems make others feel worse about themselves which is exactly what a bully does but in more general and rude ways rather than mean. The people who are affected by these bullies focus more on why they are there in the first place, to learn.
This is a set up for a harder life after high school for the kids who consider their self “popular”. In high school they used their looks and acting “cool” to become “popular” using this in the real world will not help with anything. This is a different case for the more focused students who focused in school and learned what they need to be able to apply it successfully in the real world. This is shown almost everywhere to be true. Now this doesn’t mean that people who are “popular” are doomed to fail it just shows that while they are trying their hardest to stay “cool” the rest of us are trying our hardest to learn what we can in school.
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ReplyDelete“Fast Times at Niskayuna High”
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the article “Why You Truly Never Leave High School” By Jennifer Senior I had a whirlwind of thoughts. At some points I would find myself agreeing with her and other times I would get angry and disagree with some of her statements. If you think about it everyone goes into high school with a preset mind “Oh my god high school will be awful I won’t sit at the cool table and I will get picked on for my outfits!” people don’t understand that we have that type of mind set going into high school because of all the stereotypical movies that over exaggerate everything! The truth is because we think that high school will be like everyone says it we make it that way ourselves. It may be subconscious but we all find ourselves going into tiny cliques or judging someone for what they like or wear, we will avoid certain people because they are a “jocks, populars, brainiacs, druggies or outcasts” and since we grew up with that mindset we clearly carry it for the rest of our lives. We might not “ever leave” high school because we always carry that mind set with us into our adult years.
One thing that was mentioned in the article that I questioned was the reoccurring statement that in high school we think that it’s our reality but it’s really not. I have to disagree with this, because like this article states we really never leave high school so it is the reality we will face in the adult world with the social hierarchies and regulations, but it’s just masked behind classroom walls. People do not want to come to terms that the ways of high school are all around us and there really is no escape. It may not be in the form of prom queen or who you sit with at lunch but the feeling of wanting to be accepted and in on the in crowd will always be there lurking in the back of our minds weather we want to admit it or not.
“Any cultural stimuli we are exposed to during puberty can, therefore, make more of an impression.”
ReplyDeleteSo this article for me solidified the idea that maybe our parents and people we should respect understand that high school, for lack of a better word sucks. Now I for one thought this article was extremely one-sided and only expressed the negative sides of high school, they didn’t talk about the lasting relationships and memories you make.
So in our adolescent years were are more receptive to stimulus, as our brain develops to help us make our own character, it needs more information to work with. A really scary part of this article was when they brought up dopamine, dopamine is a chemical produced by your brain to create a sense of elations, it’s your brains way of saying you did well. But dopamine is part of what makes some drugs so addictive, now in the article a group said that many of the people that did drugs in high school still identified as druggies. So let’s recap our minds are more responsive, we produce higher levels of dopamine, and people still want to put a bunch of hopeless teenagers to let them “make their way.”
Dwelling on that point, maybe that’s the reason people still do drugs after leaving high school, or the “jocks” still treat themselves as walk of the mill super heroes. On the 4th page it says “everything an adolescent feels is just a little bit more intense, and you never get back to that intensity.” So maybe our minds long for that pleasure of being on top, or being adored as you walked the halls, and at that point in our lives drugs might be all the more potent. But now it’s time to talk about all the poor souls that counted the days since day 1.
So I pretty much hate high school, not going to lie. I especially hate gym class, I hate not having any friends in that class, I hate honestly, being active. Some people thrive in gym class it’s like they were made in a tube to dominate the others in that class, and I can’t stand it. On page 3 the author states that “most American high schools are almost sadistically unhealthy places to send adolescents.” (Which is literally 100,000% accurate) So what I’m saying as our brain are finding out their own inner workings, we absorb so much that it leaves a burning scar in our mind that’s haunts us, theoretically until the day we die.
While reading the article “Why You Never Truly Leave High School” by Jennifer Senior my thoughts wandered to the debate that was on our pretest about whether public education should be mandatory or optional.
ReplyDeleteHigh school is a different experience for each individual. For some, high school can be a positive experience while for others it can be the opposite. I do agree that whichever experience a student may have had, it affects them throughout the rest of their life although I am not sure the reason is quite as scientific as it is made out to be.
From when we are young, high school is supposed to be something we look forward to. Both high school and college are said to be “best years of your life.” I feel that people often have high expectations for these years and are let down if and when they do not fulfill them. They feel as though they have missed out and it continues to upset them throughout the rest of their lives because they feel that if they did not achieve what they wanted, then why would it be any different or matter now? This explains the statistics mentioned on page three paragraph two.
I do not believe that there is a way to stop students from feeling like they are different or not good enough during high school. However, I do think that some can move past these feelings and achieve things later in life, regardless of “scientific facts.”
The way that this article ties into the pretest is that there are ways to avoid the feeling like you never leave high school. One of them, is to not go to high school but rather receive an education through homeschooling. Homeschooling gives a student the same education but without the stereotypes, feelings, and stress that often go along with public high school.