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.
