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Adolecent Behavior In The School Environment

George Fischer Middle School is a large school and has students attending from six Putnam County towns and two Dutchess County towns. On the average, the graduating class has close to 500 students and the typical class has 32 students attending. The school has two cafeterias in order to accommodate it's large student population, one cafeteria to provide for fifth and sixth graders, and another for seventh and eighth graders. Interesting enough, the different classes do not attend lunch together, in other words, seventh and eighth graders do not attend lunch together nor fifth and sixth graders. Again I assume this is strictly do to the large population of this school. I entered the school at the start of the day, I considered this to be to my advantage, therefor not standing out so much among the huddles of people gathered outside the school building. It can be said that the students appearances varied somewhat, but a whole it remained within a certain unspoken code. The girls wore their hair long-shoulder length or longer, and had it tied back in a pony-tail or very straight. Some were in skirts (slightly above knee level)-all were either corduroy or floral material. Most of the girls though were in jeans and hip length sweaters and wore tennis-sneakers or the clunky type shoes which are all the fashion now. All the girls I saw wore earrings, mostly the small dangling type and often they had two holes pierced. Most of the girls wore make-up, mostly lipstick and eye-shadow, although it was not excessive. The boys all seemed to be in clothes that were least five sizes too big. It consisted primarily of one of these two clothing options: extra-large sweater overlapping a thermal-type shirt, with jeans that were just short of slipping to the ground or extra-large flannel overlapping a thermal-type shirt, with jeans that were just short of slipping to the ground. A close second to this dressing trend for boys was the sweater and jeans/sweater and khakis style, although nowhere near as prominent. Nearly all of the boys wore their hair short, most frequently with the back cut close to the nape of the neck and the top gelled. Some had earrings (both hoop and stud types were observed) and many wore neclaces-either choker chain or hemp styles. All of the boys seemed to be wearing sneakers of endless varieties, and most in the one-hundred dollar range.

Aside from these primary gender fashions, there were those who differed. A few of the girls had short hair, a few of the boys grew the top of their hair long. Some of the kids were in clothing that seemed out-dated in comparison to their piers, and even had the appearance of being passed down from an older sibling. For example, not being in this seasons color or style. There were also those students, primarily boys, that were in football or basketball jerseys or jackets that sported the schools name or mascott. I did note a few girls wearing a football jacket, incidentally with boys names on the front. It was easy to note from these observations that generally, clothing was an outward indicator to distinguish among the various social groups. The clothing the students wore was an immediate indication to various social groups, being that it is a visual observation. It can be said that this is a common factor even in the adult world, but not once did I note a poorly dressed student socializing with a student that was in an athletic jacket or a student that was fashion-forward. It was during the lunch period that I figured I could make distinctions among social groups most accurately At first entering the cafeteria, it was much as I remembered, even much like college. The volume was high and immediately I noticed the groups forming, again this is something which does extend into the later teens, and even into adulthood, but here I was observing a much more rigid standard. There didn't appear to be any casual socializing among different groups (except in one situation which I will mention). The first group I noticed was the jock group, I most likely noted them first because this was the group that I was part of during my teenage years. All of the boys were sporting either baseball, football, or basketball jersey and/or jacket. The girls were all of the cheerleader type, many of them also wearing athletic jackets. An interesting thing to note was that this group was tightly packed together, even when every apparent inch of the table was filled, if another one of their-own came over a chair was pulled up. It almost appeared comical, especially since a near by table was almost vacant. I noted that this group was the most vocal, and drew the most attention. As I remarked earlier, there was one exception to visual social groups intermingling. It was with the jock group and a group that was fashoin-forward. Often I noted that the jock table and a near-by table (also tightly packed, but to a lesser extent) of fashion-forward kids mingling.