Myths and truths about American high schools

leahutinet

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Hi guys, I'm not American and I had a question about American high schools: I wanted to know if there were lots of events in high school like we see on TV. For example, on Pretty Little Liars, there's the father/daughter dance, the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that. So, I was wondering: are these events real or is that a thing made up for TV shows and movies? Because I have several ongoing projects and most of them take place (partly) in high school, so I want to get it right.

Also, if you have more time, could you tell me more about American high schools? Anything that comes to your mind, and also the hours, like how many hours do students usually work in a school day, stuff like that. I guess that could change depending on what state you're in, too.

And if you have more time to waste, you could even tell me other clichés about high schools or America in general that you only see in movies.

Thanks!

PS: Oh, and, are those red cups a thing?
 

cornflake

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Hi guys, I'm not American and I had a question about American high schools: I wanted to know if there were lots of events in high school like we see on TV. For example, on Pretty Little Liars, there's the father/daughter dance, the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that. So, I was wondering: are these events real or is that a thing made up for TV shows and movies? Because I have several ongoing projects and most of them take place (partly) in high school, so I want to get it right.

Also, if you have more time, could you tell me more about American high schools? Anything that comes to your mind, and also the hours, like how many hours do students usually work in a school day, stuff like that. I guess that could change depending on what state you're in, too.

And if you have more time to waste, you could even tell me other clichés about high schools or America in general that you only see in movies.

Thanks!

PS: Oh, and, are those red cups a thing?

Solo cups are a thing, everyplace.

Everything else entirely depends, not on the state, but a much, much smaller model.

District, if you're talking about public, but private vs. public is a whole thing. Size of school, type of school...

Most schools have stuff, but the scope and type is ENTIRELY dependent on the school.

My h.s. was small and we had no dances whatsoever, save prom (and one, not several), but we did have things like colour days, when everyone was supposed to wear a certain colour, and ring day, where we got our class rings (that was a whole dress-up dinner event), other stuff, games in the park, etc. We had like one team, but a whole bunch of clubs, but a sibling went to a much bigger school that had lots of teams (even fencing, crew, etc.) in addition to the tons of clubs. Not big on the dances there either, heh. Sleepover lock-ins happen; my school didn't, but I know ones that did, either at school or like, at the museum. Our clubs took trips -- French club to France, etc., but some don't. Those are optional. Some schools do little trips, we didn't. Clubs would sometimes go places just after school but we didn't really do field trips. I know there are schools that send like, the band to Disneyland and such -- we didn't have a school band. *shrug*

Hours, etc., also wildly, wildly, depend. Some schools are very academiically-minded, some are less, some are mixed and you choose your path. Mine was academic and with very little choice. I know kids went to schools with way more options, so where my school day (classes) was 8:30-3:30 or 4:30 basically, nearly every day, which was like six-seven classes and a homeroom and lunch, and clubs were after (oh, and mine required serious volunteer hours from sophomore on, which some have requirements, some don't) some kids at other schools were there from 7:30-5 or 8:30-2 or... entirely depends.
 

borogove

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Hi guys, I'm not American and I had a question about American high schools: I wanted to know if there were lots of events in high school like we see on TV. For example, on Pretty Little Liars, there's the father/daughter dance, the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that. So, I was wondering: are these events real or is that a thing made up for TV shows and movies? Because I have several ongoing projects and most of them take place (partly) in high school, so I want to get it right.

Also, if you have more time, could you tell me more about American high schools? Anything that comes to your mind, and also the hours, like how many hours do students usually work in a school day, stuff like that. I guess that could change depending on what state you're in, too.

And if you have more time to waste, you could even tell me other clichés about high schools or America in general that you only see in movies.

Thanks!

PS: Oh, and, are those red cups a thing?

As Cornflake said, each school is different. Here's a recap of my experience — I went to high school in Kansas City, Missouri, in the mid 2000s, so take with a pinch of salt:

*Hours: 7:30-2:20, with extracurriculars before, during and/or after, depending on the activity
*Organizations/activities ranged from sports to quiz bowl to play rehearsals to language clubs
*Musical orgs like orchestra, band, higher-level choir were treated like classes and met during the school day, as did the Student Council
*Three formal dances a year — one tied to football season, one to basketball, third was Prom. Prom was for juniors and seniors, but students could bring freshman or sophomore dates.
*Teen cliches that didn't exist at my school: bitchy cheerleaders; jocks are always cool; one-trick-pony smart kids; the most popular kids are also the most attractive; underage drinking parties; prom king+queen is a big deal (in our school, people just voted for the couple who had been together longest); smoking in the bathroom; money=power/popularity
 
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frimble3

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And, more on the red Solo cups: Solo is the brand name, not an indicator of single-user or anything. If you wanted to indicate that a party was done on the cheap, you might describe their cups as 'no-name Solo knock-offs'. The more neutral term is just 'plastic cup'.
(I went to a high-school in Canada, a long time ago - I have nothing else relevant to add.)
 

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My high school (southern California) had different schedules depending on the days. Monday was a normal day. Tuesday had some sort of enrichment period that I don't remember much about except that it made our classes shorter. Wednesday and Thursdays were lab days, so you had half the classes for almost twice the length, but not quite because you finished early and had time to do more lab work after school if needed. Fridays started late to give teachers professional growth time where they were supposed to coordinate certain classes, frex, American Lit reading about the same period we're learning about in U.S. history. We had six periods a day, but you could add on "half" periods after school for some classes.

We had 2000-3000 people in my school and every activity you could think of had a club or a class for it. I never heard anything about ditch day or a sleepover, but we had a retreat at the school on a day off that was all about community service. We had a lot of dances, but only one homecoming or prom (Winter formal, Halloween, sadie hawkins, etc.) Spirit days were days with a theme, but in high school, they were all in one week, probably Halloween week, now that I think of it. So you had a day in PJs or a day wearing red and gold or a day wearing everything backwards, whatever. The last week of school, seniors did a bunch of activities instead of going to classes. Our choruses went to Disneyland, the band did things like that too; both were classes, but band also had to do Marching as P.E. every fall semester. We were in semesters. A clique was more likely made up of community service kids than jocks, but maybe that was my perspective in a school that size.

Our buildings were set up so that there was no interior hallways full of lockers, as seen in every high school television show ever. Our lockers were outside between buildings.
 
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Debbie V

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Google is your friend here. Most public schools in the US have websites with events calendars on them. So if you're setting a story in a specific region, look up schools there. My WIP takes place in part in Southern California high schools. I've gotten all of my info on them from the web. I don't need huge detail.

Info includes:
Curriculum guides
events
hours
lunch menus
demographics
school rules
and more.

Happy searching.
 

Devil Ledbetter

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I have a child in high school and another who recently graduated. To answer your questions, based on our public school experience in Michigan...

Father/daughter dance. Not in high school. This is a little kid thing, typically beginning around 1st grade and ending around 6th grade. Beyond that age it seems a bit creepy.

Dance-a-thon. I've never seen our local schools offer that.

Sleepover. This is a middle school (grade 6-8) thing. Around here it's called a "lock in" as in all the kids are locked in the gym so they can't sneak off for drinking/drugs/sex etc.

Dress-up Days. My kids' school has a "spirit week" before the homecoming football game, with Pajama Day, Dress-up Day, Dress Like Twins Day, College Sweater Day, etc.

Movie/TV tropes that don't reflect reality well:


  • The most popular girl is a conniving bitch.
  • Cheerleaders are the most popular girls (and bitchy) and they "rule" the school socially. In reality, nobody gives two shits who's a cheerleader except maybe the other cheerleaders. It doesn't confer social status, let alone the goddess-like status it gets in movies.
  • Cheerleaders in short, flippy wool skirts. (Ours wear leggings and jackets).
  • The jock is dumb.
  • The nerd has tape on his glasses.
  • The band kids are all dorks.
  • Everyone is cis-gendered and heterosexual (unless they are the Gay Best Friend).
  • Everyone is all about dating and there are no genuine male/female friendships that don't involve a Gay Best Friend.
  • Dances are really important social events. (Barely true when I was in high school in the early 1980s, even less true now according to my kids.)
  • The prom is in the high school gym (this wasn't even a thing when I was in high-school.)
  • The class reunion is in the high school gym (hilarious).
 
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Chris P

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As Cornflake said, each school is different. Here's a recap of my experience — I went to high school in Kansas City, Missouri, in the mid 2000s, so take with a pinch of salt:

*Hours: 7:30-2:20, with extracurriculars before, during and/or after, depending on the activity
*Organizations/activities ranged from sports to quiz bowl to play rehearsals to language clubs
*Musical orgs like orchestra, band, higher-level choir were treated like classes and met during the school day, as did the Student Council
*Three formal dances a year — one tied to football season, one to basketball, third was Prom. Prom was for juniors and seniors, but students could bring freshman or sophomore dates.
*Teen cliches that didn't exist at my school: bitchy cheerleaders; jocks are always cool; one-trick-pony smart kids; the most popular kids are also the most attractive; underage drinking parties; prom king+queen is a big deal (in our school, people just voted for the couple who had been together longest); smoking in the bathroom; money=power/popularity

This is pretty much what my kids in Mississippi experienced between 2005 and 2010. And not much different than my 1980s experience in Iowa.

Chris P patented (c) Wall o' Text in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Most states require 180 days of school per year, but starting and stopping dates vary. In Iowa, we started August 20-ish and finished the first week of June. My kids started stupid early like August 5 but were done by Memorial Day (the last Monday of May). I don't know about my kids, but we had A days and B days. Full credit classes met every day, and half credit classes met on only A or B days. Full credit courses were the basics: chemistry, algebra, English, etc. while half-credits were usually electives like Art, Typing (whoah, showing my age! It's called Keyboarding or Data Entry now), drama, and others. On Mondays you had to remember if Friday was an A or a B day, and just about every week someone (not me, haha!) would show up to the wrong class on Monday. Speaking of credits, you needed (I think) 28 to graduate from a four-year high school (grades 9 to 12), or 21 from a 3-year (grades 10 to 12). If you kicked butt and got enough credits you could graduate in December, but most people who did walked across the stage in June with everyone else. Lunch was taken in shifts, and depending on what class you had near the noon hour would be go with your class to A, B, C or whatever lunch you had. My memory is fuzzy, but I seem to remember that if we had B lunch you had class for 20 minutes, went to lunch, then came back for another 20 minutes. My high school also had an early morning class option that started at like 7:15 or so.

Some seniors got early release if they were in a work study program. These students would go work in an office or in some skills trade. My stepson did this with SkillsUSA, which was a building trades program and he got pretty good at brick laying. He also was in Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC), where they learn about the military by wearing uniforms and having drills and such.

Only people who were considering college/university (synonymous here for practical purposes) took standardized tests like ACT or SAT. People going into the military took the ASVAB. People who dropped out could take the GED (general equivalency diploma) but not everyone does. Many people go to a community college either to get credits at lower cost for two years to transfer to a university, or to get a specialized associates degree like nursing, business, or trades such as auto mechanics or metalworking. Another way to get credits to transfer to a university is to take the CLEP test. I say all of this because testing is the source of much MUCH angst! People were crying during the ACT test the day I took it.

I didn't have much of a social life in high school (just get me to college! That's where the fun begins! And it was; I HATED high school and loved college) so I can't say much about the party scene. I just roamed around town with my skater rat buddies looking for half-smoked cigarettes and trying to look menacing. I failed.
 

cornflake

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This is one of the ways what type of school you're talking about will inform what you're doing.

Even talking about public schools, there are the mixed type ChrisP mentions above, and there are public schools in which close to everyone goes to university; they're geared that way. There are also public schools in my area that are geared mostly toward kids who want to go into specific types of vocational skills; there's an aviation high school that trains kids to work on planes and avionics in addition to covering basic academics, a music school that trains kids who are very serious about music, etc.

Private schools are mostly college prep. In lots of them, 100% of kids go on to university/college. Taking the SAT/ACT is just a thing you do; PSATs are first given in freshman year.

So what kind of kids/families/world you're writing should inform what type of school you put them in. There are endless choices in the U.S.
 

Chris P

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Cornflake makes an excellent point: larger cities will have a larger variety of schools, but small towns and rural areas will likely only have the public school. To attend a specialized school, the parents would have to send the kid away to a boarding school. Like Hogwarts. So it matters what size of town your story is set.

It also matters where you are in the US. In Iowa, we only had the public schools, one Catholic school, and a handful of tiny church schools. Homeschooling was unheard of as far as I know until about 2000 or so. In Mississippi, we had the public schools, several church schools, lots of homeschooling, and "academies," which were private high schools. The academies were stereotypically the snobby rich white kids, while the public schools were stereotypically Bedlam USA. I don't have kids here in the DC area, so I don't know what it's like here. There are also alternative schools, which is where the troublemakers get sent (used to be called Reform Schools).
 

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Oh, and some schools give extra points for your GPA for AP classes (5.0 instead of 4.0 for an A, for example).

I was floored to find out a friend with a class of 100 and 8 valedictorians because they didn't have weighted GPAs.
 

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I've taught both middle school and high school. I've been everywhere from small schools to large urban schools and there can be a big difference depending on what kind of area you're in. Feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions.
 

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I'd tell you about my high school, but anything that happened in the 1960's is completely irrelevant today, so...
 

JJ Litke

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For example, on Pretty Little Liars, there's the father/daughter dance, the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that. So, I was wondering: are these events real or is that a thing made up for TV shows and movies?

If you want reality, don't base your work on that show.

I never even heard of father/daughter dances when I was a kid, and bringing that up to a more current time, my daughter's school certainly never did any such thing. Dance-a-thons strike me as something out of the 1950s (though I suppose there could be schools doing something like that). I do recall a single all-night event back when I was in high school (1980s), but my daughter's school never did that--really I think that'd be extremely unlikely at most US high schools, given the need for extra personnel to staff and chaperone the event. Themed dress-up days were usually connected with football games (football is a big damn deal at Texas high schools).

The lists of unrealistic tropes others are mentioning sound about right to me (as in, they have it right that they are unrealistic).
 

Roxxsmom

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Hi guys, I'm not American and I had a question about American high schools: I wanted to know if there were lots of events in high school like we see on TV. For example, on Pretty Little Liars, there's the father/daughter dance,

I've never heard of these as a standard activity at a public high school. My nieces went to a father-daughter dance with their dad, but it was via a church group. Maybe they're a thing in some parts of the country, though?

[/quote]the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that. So, I was wondering: are these events real or is that a thing made up for TV shows and movies? Because I have several ongoing projects and most of them take place (partly) in high school, so I want to get it right.[/quote]

High schools certainly have dances, both formal and informal. The formal (or semi-formal) dances one typically brings dates to (though some schools now allow stag or groups of friends to attend too nowadays) and dresses up to attend would be Homecoming (in the fall), some kind of winter formal (in my days, this was a "girl ask guy" dance, but I'm guessing that these kinds of things are outdated now, and anyone can ask anyone), and the prom in the spring (often reserved for juniors and seniors and their dates). They used to elect queens and or kings--popularity contests generally--for these dances, but I don't know if they still do. They also have informal dances after football games and so on. These are often held in a gym, but not all students attend them.

Schools also have some on-site fairs and carnival type activities. I haven't heard of overnight pajama parties, though maybe some schools do this. By the time my younger brother was going through the pipes at our high school, they had these all-night things for some dances and for grad night, where they had an on-campus carnival or party that students weren't allowed to leave (this was to prevent drinking and drug use, which were problems at school events when I was in HS). They also have football games, basketball games.

Again, not all, or even most, students attend these things. At my high school, they were mostly the providence of the so-called "soc" crowd--i.e. the jocks, cheerleaders and student government types. There are other clubs and activities too, of course, and I think there's more pressure for even the most introverted to belong to something these days, because college admissions are much more competitive than they used to be, and with almost all college-bound seniors getting very high GPAs these days, activities are used to differentiate applicants for the four-year schools.

Also, if you have more time, could you tell me more about American high schools? Anything that comes to your mind, and also the hours, like how many hours do students usually work in a school day, stuff like that. I guess that could change depending on what state you're in, too.

School hours do vary, but in general, a student will spend around 6 hours in class, M-F, and they may stay after for activities like band practice, athletics, clubs and so on. Seniors may have shorter days in some districts. Schools vary. Most I know of have the same classes each day at each time, but some may do more of a college-type scheduling, with different classes meeting on different schedules. We started at 8:30 and went until around 2:30 with one half-hour break for lunch and one fifteen minute "nutrition" break between 2nd and 3rd periods, but schools differ. I think there was a move for a while to start high schools even earlier, but in recent years, someone discovered that teens really weren't getting enough sleep, so some schools start later and get out later. I notice the high school kids walking down the main street in my neighborhood around 3 here. They seem to start around 9.

I think public high school campuses tend to be more "closed" here, with kids not allowed to leave campus during the day, and with metal detectors and security checkpoints scanning people at set entry points. This may vary with state, district and memory of recent school shooting events, however. I don't think they have lockers anymore, except for P.E. (gym) class.

And if you have more time to waste, you could even tell me other clichés about high schools or America in general that you only see in movies.

Thanks!

The one that jumps out at me is the idea that everyone's entire life revolves around the high school campus and that all the students attend dances and sporting events and so on, and that there are essentially two cliques, the nerds and the popular kids. In fact, it's more complex than that. Not only do some students move between groups of friends and activities, there are different ways to be "cool" and "uncool" in high school, and even groups (like band or drama) that may be considered nerdy by the kids who do athletics, there will be people within the band who are considered cool and not so cool etc., and they generally don't pay attention to what kids in other circles think of them. There are also plenty of more introverted students who may be loners or who have smaller groups of friends or who hang out with one or two best friends mostly and aren't focused on school activities at all.

And of course social media and cell phones are much more central to modern teens' social lives than they once were.

One thing about modern public high schools in the US is that their curriculum is much more dependent on testing than it once was. But even this varies by district and demographics. The standardized tests (and passage rates) might not be such a big deal in affluent communities, were parents tend to be educated. And schools in wealthier neighborhoods tend to have more money and better facilities. So those schools might still have time and resources to spend on other subjects than math and reading comprehension for test preparation. I've noticed a huge difference in the preparedness levels of students at the community college where I teach, with some coming in with a decent background in natural science, and others reporting only a very perfunctory science curriculum at all in K-12 (some have never looked through a microscope, or even learned what a cell is, or learned about the different taxa of plants and animals).

This is more about academics than about social life of teens, though.

PS: Oh, and, are those red cups a thing?

No idea what you mean here, I'm afraid. I'd have to ask my nieces.
 

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9th grade = freshman
10th = sophmore
11th = junior
12= senior

my HS (in the midwest region) was a private labeled school. we had Homecoming week, prom, ways to earn the right to wear JEAN shorts for your grade, the seniors got a Free Period where they could go off campus for that hour, they also got an end of the year ALL NITE party
(which was held off campus). we had half days, snow days, Exams at the end of each year, Spring Break, Winter Break. the year was broken up into 2 quarters and you got a report card at the end of each quarter. so from August - December and then Jan - May. i think 9-10 graders started early august and 11-12 graders started and the end of august. and seniors finished early May.

the class schedule was ...
Monday = A Homeroom B C D E (which was split in half...half went to lucnh and the other half went to class and then switched) F G
Tuesday = B Homeroom C D F E G A
Wednesday = C Hr D F G E A B
Thursday = D Hr F G A E B C
Friday = F Hr G A B E C D

in between classes there was a 5 minute period to get to your locker and get your stuff for the next class. and they would always have a warning bell at like 4 minutes....
the cool thing about Free Period which they called study hour...was if it was your first class of the day, you could sleep in, and if it was the last class then you could leave early. and if it was before or after lunch, depending on what half of the hour you went to lunch, you got extended lunch! lol some classes were skipped if there was an assembly (which was a meeting for the entire school usually to give news or seminars or whatever)

juniors and seniors each had their own assigned parking lot. everyone else was either picked up, rode with the juniors/seniors, walked home or took a bus.

that's about all i remember from personal experience.

i think most public schools started AFTER labor day.
 

Debbie V

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Again this varies greatly. My friend's son in Maryland is allowed off campus for lunch. That doesn't happen where I am. But they have a single lunch period, not part of the instructional day. We have four periods where the cafeteria is open for lunch. The more specific you can be about your needs, the better.
 

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Late to the party, but I can share about public HS in central Ohio in the mid to late 2000s.

Ditto the father/daughter dance not being a thing in HS. I went to one through Girl Scouts when I was in elementary school and we also had a mother/daughter dance.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned (and have no idea if it's mentioned or shown on TV) that was big in my school district was that we had lockdown drills to prepare for armed intruders or school shooters. Dark but yeah. I remember more of those drills than fire drills, honestly. We had to lock classroom doors, cover any glass that could see into the room and hide and be quiet. Don't think we ever had a real one but my mom still works in the district and has been there during real ones.

We also had snow days. There was one year that we missed so many days because of inclement weather that they were talking about adding days on to the end of the school year.

Oh! We were always fighting to get voter support/funding. Every time the measure failed because homeowners without kids didn't want to pay more in taxes we would lose more cool classes. So we had wings of the school that were just shut down because we didn't have the funding to pay teachers or supply those classes. Things like photography, film studies, food and nutrition (aka home ec/cooking) all got the ax. As more "extra-curricular" type classes were cut, kids ended up with more and more study halls. My mom has kids that have 3 study halls a day because there just aren't enough teachers/classes.

My HS had three dances a year: homecoming, sweetheart (around valentine's day), and prom. I went without a date to almost all of the dances, and going alone whether you are male/female was called "going stag." Don't know if that's just a local thing though. YMMV.
 

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I graduated from high school a few years ago, so still recent enough to be fairly relevant.

As everyone has said, it varies heavily from region to region and even from county to county/city to city. The school I attended was a large pubic school in a mid-sized Florida city.

It's my understanding that public schools in other states are managed by cities. In Florida they're managed by counties. The high school hours in my county were from 7:33 am to 3:30 pm. We went to school Monday through Friday. The county next to us had hours that were 7:25 am to 1:56 pm. That county was rural. They went to school Monday through Thursday. This should give you some idea of how much variance there is just between counties. I know someone who attends a charter school in the same county I grew-up in. Its hours are from around 7am to 2:30pm.

I wasn't very social in high school, so I'm probably not the best person to ask about social events. However, I think all we had dance-wise were a homecoming dance and prom. There were also a spirit week which ended in a pep-rally that Friday and a homecoming game before actual homecoming over the weekend. There would be a clothing theme for each day of spirit week (for example alphabet day where students dressed-up like something that starts with the first letter of your name or blast from the past day where students dressed up like themselves in elementary/middle school). This would often fall around the same time as Halloween to prevent students from dressing up in outfits that broke dress code so they would where these outfits instead. Many teachers would give extra credit to students who dressed up because otherwise almost no one would.

Our high school didn't have the same cliques that often appear in movies. Our high school was racially and economically diverse. As a result, more cliques were formed around racial/ethnic background and how much money someone's family had than common interests, though there was some of that too. It was also much less rigid than what movies portray. Students regarded as "popular" could have friends who weren't and that was considered completely okay.

It did at times though seem as if there were two different levels of education at our school that operated almost as if they were two separate schools as opposed to one and the same. There were the honors/AP kids and then the regular kids. The "regular kids" group seemed to hardly learn anything in some subjects. From what I gathered by sitting in on some of them, it seemed at times as if some of these lower level classes were more of a babysitting service than actually teaching the students anything.

Funny that ESGrace should mention lock down drills. Our school didn't have drills for those, though we did have them for fires and tornadoes, but those were practically a joke. We did have actual lock downs though, including one that lasted from about 9:30 until about 2 hours after school. Fights were common too. I'd say one occurred about every two weeks and tended to occur in clusters. Our school also had some serious issues with illegal drug use.

Living in Florida we also didn't have snow days. What we did have were hurricane days, but the time I was in high school was pretty quiet hurricane-wise, so we didn't have a lot of those if any.

Seniors who got good grades and didn't miss more than a few days during the semester were let out of school about a month early. Seniors with bad grades who missed too many classes had to go to school about as long as everyone else.

There wasn't an official skip day sponsored by the school, but the students made one up. They were still officially supposed to be at school.

We also had some weird thing around Valentines Day where every boy would get a paper heart to give to a girl or something like that. I'm not sure. I don't remember it all that well.
 

Nerdilydone

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I'm going to throw in a bit about ROTC.

That's Reserve Officer Training Corps, but you won't hear people say anything besides the acronym, most days. High school has JROTC (junior ROTC) while college has just ROTC. Often, though, highschoolers don't bother with the "J".

ROTC is basically a class about the military, and, per school, it is themed either army, air force, marines, or navy. My school had air force. We wore our issued uniforms every Wednesday, with inspections during our class period that determined our grade. We had to do things like take off our hat indoors and wear them outside. We also had to salute officers when we saw them. Only on uniform days, though.

We were issued the uniforms, as well as some PT shorts and a shirt to wear for our yearly field day. We did warm ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and then a mile run (four times around the track). Ha, I was always annoyed in gym class (not part of ROTC), because our school required us to wear white shirts as a part of gym, but they wouldn't accept my grey ROTC PT shirt. It was almost white...

In class itself...to tell you the truth, I don't remember a lot of what went on in there. Since we were air force, a lot of the classes had to do with flying and the history of military flight. There was some survival stuff too. But the class itself really wasn't all that special, and ended up being a class that a bunch of slackers joined because it seemed easier than other classes.

However, the real ROTC members were those that joined the drill team (NOT cheerleading), where we would practice ceremonial drill, colorguard (again, not cheerleading, but actual guarding of the American and state flags), and exhibition drill. Exhibition drill is fancy drill, where the guys generally spun rifles and the girls usually did unarmed fancy drill, which is more or less disciplined step team. The rifles the guys spun were real M-1 garands. These rifles were filled with lead and the firing pin was removed, so they wouldn't shoot. They were pretty heavy, though.
This is an example of some unarmed exhibition drill.
And this is armed exhibition.

Our ROTC unit was run by two real Air Force officers, a Colonel and a Chief Master Sergeant. They switched off teaching events, and usually Chief was the one who went with drill team on our trips to various schools for drill competitions. Yeah, we drilled at various schools, usually in parking lots marked off with either tape or streamers and cones. Some events were service-only, such that only Air Force schools could come. Others were mixed. We had regulation drill in the morning, exhibition in the afternoon, and an award ceremony after that. Our school won a lot of trophies.

The reason I brought up ROTC (besides not enough people knowing/writing about it) is that you mentioned events, and ROTC has two events you may be interested in. One is the dining out, where we all get dressed up and have a nice dinner on the local army base. It's an event where awards are given out during the year. I'm not really sure what was the criteria for the rewards, but generally getting good grades, participating with others, and showing leadership during the year matter. It was never that clear cut, though. As in, you had no way during the year to ensure that you actually got an award, other than obviously avoiding inappropriate behavior.

The dining out also came with a motivational speaker, and a part where you could send people to the "grog" for doing bad things during the year. The only rule was, you had to write a poem, and the officers at the head table (like, real officers, not just ROTC ones) could decide if the offense was worthy. The grog itself was usually not that bad, mainly because we wanted to avoid things like allergies. It was kept in a toilet and placed on a table, though. That was funny.

The other event is the military ball, which is like prom, only better. For one thing, only ROTC people (and a possible guest of an ROTC member) were allowed to come. In fact, it was required, absent of emergency, that every ROTC student come. This means that the guest list is much smaller, and there's a greater chance of you knowing the people there, even if you're just a freshman. Plus the DJ actually took requests. The guys could wear their uniforms instead of tuxes, but the girls typically wore dresses. Other than that, it's not terribly different from prom, but with far less expectations. It was a far more relaxed time.
 

MaryLennox

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A father-daughter dance? That just sounds like a set up for disaster for all the daughters who don't have fathers or have crappy fathers. I hope that's something made up for that TV show to stir up drama. I have a great dad and would definitely not want to participate in a father-daughter dance, especially while a teenager. But then, I never participated in anything in high school. I went to high school in Canada. We would have things like Spirit Day where we were supposed to wear our school colours and Pep Rallies aka Mandatory Hell. We also had things like talent shows and multicultural shows, but you had to buy tickets to get out of class. Some people would use the ticket to actually go to the show, a lot of people would use the tickets to just skip class. We always had a fashion show and musicals/plays, but they would take place during the evening and you had to pay for tickets for those too. I'm pretty sure there were dances, including prom, but I couldn't tell you anything about those as I had zero interest in them and never went. :p

My questions is - you're from France? Why not just set your story in France? There are a lot of North American readers who would be intrigued to read an authentic YA story set in the French school system. It would definitely stand out from all the other American-teenager-stories.
 

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Warning, long post! Like holy crap this is so long what am I doing. Is there a way to put text into a collapsible box? Because I feel this post needs it.

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I'll add to the growing number of personal experiences. I went to a public high school in suburban Massachusetts between the years of 2009-2013, so, still relevant I'd say. My little brother is going to the same school right now and the only difference is that they now offer a basic coding class and also have schoolwide wi-fi :v

the father/daughter dance, the dance-a-thon, or even a "sleepover" at school with every student doing different activities all related to the truth, and I also saw somewhere else events like a day where people have to dress classy, things like that.

We never had anything like a father/daughter dance or a dance-a-thon. We never had a sleepover at school, either, and I don't know of any other schools in the region that did (that's not to say no schools do this at all; I'm sure some do). As for dressing up, we had this thing called Spirit Week, where each day had a different dress-up theme. One day could be Pajama Day, another could be 80's Day, etc. It changed year to year depending on what the student council came up with. The last day of Spirit Week, however, was always to wear the school colors.

As for dances, we had the freshman/sophomore dance, homecoming, the winter formal, and prom (one for juniors and one for seniors, though you could bring dates/friends from other grades). I only attended junior prom so I can't tell you much about them, really. Prom was pretty typical as far as I know--you just wore a fancy outfit, ate dinner, danced to pop songs, slow songs, and popular line dances (or other songs/dances with instructions), and went home. I'm pretty sure there was an after-party, but I didn't attend.

Oh, if you're gonna be writing about school dances, you should know about the Cha-Cha Slide (Everybody clap yo' hands!). That's a staple where I am. Other staples include the Macarena, the Cotton-Eye Joe, and the Cupid Shuffle. There's the Electric Slide, too, but to a lesser extent; when I went to a wedding in Virginia, people seemed to know it a lot better than my peers in Massachusetts.

Also, if you have more time, could you tell me more about American high schools? Anything that comes to your mind, and also the hours, like how many hours do students usually work in a school day, stuff like that. I guess that could change depending on what state you're in, too.

The high school in my town averages about 1,000 students each year. There are other private schools here, but that's the only public high school.

It technically begins at 7:30, but you have to be in your homeroom seat by 7:25 (unless you have a nice homeroom teacher who delays taking attendance. Shoutout to my teacher who always let me and the other stragglers come in during/after the morning announcements!). It gets out at 2:05.

Classes rotate on a six-day schedule, meaning you're never doing the same exact thing every week.

You get 20 minutes for lunch. I think it's technically 25, but it takes 5 just to get to the cafeteria. And if a student has to order through the lunch line (in which case I'm sorry for them), that can take out 5-10 more minutes. Eat fast!

There's no recess or anything. I don't know of any high schools that have some sort of free time, but I felt that was worth mentioning--especially since your location says you're from France, and I heard French students get an hour for lunch and an hour for free time, and that they can go home during that time? I could be wrong. Either way, that's not the case in the high school I went to. You aren't allowed to leave school premises until it lets out for the day.

Clubs begin shortly after the last bell rings, and the length of time varies greatly depending on the nature of the club. Some only meet for an hour, some meet for a few (like marching band practice or D&D).

I was gonna offer examples of all the different clubs from what I remember (so you can get an idea of the environment and what sorts of things the students do there), but heck it I'm just gonna copy it from the school's website :p Be warned, it's a long list. But I guess I saved you some googling? Anyway, first off, here's the general stuff:

-Art Club
-[Name redacted but basically it was a banking club I guess? For some reason?]
-Best Buddies [I believe it's a club for providing for people with intellectual disabilities and hanging out with them and doing fun activities]
-TV Club [The school has its own local broadcasting channel]
-Cultural Exchange Program (Italy, Switzerland)
-Culinary Club
-Gay and Straight Alliance
-Recycling Club
-Ski and Snowboard Club
-Social Awareness Club
-Student literary magazine online
-Student news site online [Used to be a school newspaper but maybe they ran out of resources or something]
-Yearbook Committee
-Gardening Club
-Mindfulness Club
-Fashion Club

Now for the performing arts. This is the real Good Stuff, my school was rated one of the top high schools in the nation for music education [/brag]

-Theatre Arts
-Jazz Ensemble
-Marching Band/Color Guard
-A Cappella [There are multiple groups. One is mixed voices, one is all-girls, and I think there's an all-guys one. When I attended, there was only the mixed voices one]
-Winter Percussion

Clubs that compete with other schools (in addition to performing arts, which do competitions and events and stuff):

-Science Club
-Math Team
-Fall Athletics: Boys/Girls Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Boys and Girls Soccer, Girls Swimming and Diving, Fall Cheerleading, Dance Team, Volleyball
-Winter Athletics: Boys and Girls Basketball, Girls Gymnastics, Boys and Girls Ice Hockey, Boys and Girls Indoor Track, Wrestling
-Spring Athletics: Baseball, Softball, Boys and Girls Outdoor Track and Field, Boys and Girls Tennis, Boys and Girls Lacrosse

(So many sports, wew lad)
And lastly, the student leadership stuff:

-Class Officers
-Citizens Scholarship Foundation Student Directors
-Diversity Leaders
-National Honor Society
-Student Council
-School Council [I don't know how it's different from the above, but it's apparently different enough to warrant its own entry]
-Peer Leaders
-PTSA [Not super sure what that stands for, something important I'm sure]
-Student advisers to the School Committee
-Student advisers to the Department of Education
-Student Leadership Forum [So many leadership groups]

So yeah, lots of stuff! I was part of marching band, a cappella, Gay Straight Alliance, and a club called the Intellectual Gamer Society that seems to not exist anymore, but all we did was play D&D, lol.

I saw people mentioning the music department going to Disneyland, and I can confirm this. Every four years, my school's music department (including the marching band, even though that's technically an extracurricular) takes a trip to Disney World for a week to perform and do music/performing workshops and then just have fun.

Every two years, the juniors and seniors who take language classes are offered the chance to go to Paris and Madrid. I think it's a weeklong trip, and they split their time between the two cities? I didn't go on that (had a lot on my plate at the time).

The theatre department does a Scotland trip, I think, but I don't know how frequently. They go to this big theatre gathering, but I don't know much beyond that.

Aside from those, we never took any field trips or anything.

And if you have more time to waste, you could even tell me other clichés about high schools or America in general that you only see in movies.

Well for starters, the whole "cheerleaders are bitches, marching band are losers" thing doesn't apply to my school. I didn't know many cheerleaders but they seemed alright. They weren't "top of the school" or anything. Honestly, if anyone is top of the school, it's the marching band. I mentioned that my school is one of the top rated in the country for music education, and just...lemme tell you about the band. It's award-winning and super well-respected all throughout the school. Tbh it's one of our main attractions. In fact, at football games, people used to attend the game, stay until half-time to watch the marching band perform, and then leave. No kidding! That was more when the football team used to...not play so well, though. I hear it's better now.

In fact, the band is so well-respected, one year we actually got to represent the state of Massachusetts in the Washington DC 4th of July Parade. It was a huge honor (even though I had to drop out two blocks from the end due to an asthma attack).

"School lunches are terrible" cliché: Absolutely true. Well, they're mediocre, at least. I always brought my own lunch.

"Dumb jocks": The guys who played football seemed pretty normal/average to me. Actually, I knew some athletes who were also some of the top scholars in the school. Like with any group, you get a mix of lots of different people.

"Bad boys": I mean, I guess there were some students who were on the rougher side, but nothing like the bad boys in TV or books. Problem students or students with attitude issues had their own classes in this thing called the "alternative program," so I never really interacted with them. They smoked near the school sometimes until the cops came and told them to put the cigarettes out.

As far as drugs and partying goes, I never attended any parties besides marching band ones (which were always clean/dry), so I can't give firsthand experience. Though I did overhear some of my peers talking about getting super drunk at parties, or their friends getting super drunk, etc. I also heard the theatre/drama parties and sleepovers had a lot of sex. For drugs, as far as I know the local kids mostly did weed.

Red Solo cups abound, though :v

And that's about all I can think of for now! But feel free to ask any questions if you want ^^
 
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leahutinet

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My questions is - you're from France? Why not just set your story in France? There are a lot of North American readers who would be intrigued to read an authentic YA story set in the French school system. It would definitely stand out from all the other American-teenager-stories.

Hi! Yes, I'm from France, and I actually have several stories set in France, but this one is set in California, and now it's too late to change, a lot of things wouldn't fit anymore if the story was set in France.
Oh, and yes, I believe the father-daughter dance was definitely made up by the show for drama, but I wanted to ask, just in case!