Trying to explain the hierarchy and politics of my former high school is slightly more difficult then actually surviving the experience. I'll try to be as least confusing as conceivably possible.
So, a stereotypical white bread high school in the United States might have a pecking order similar to this, if movies and TV have taught us anything. Excuse me for being very stereotypical, it's kinda the point.
-Jock/Athletes/Cheerleaders
-Guys/Girls popular for other reasons (i.e. funny, or the "token" kid, someone that everyone tolerates because they throw great parties etc)
-Normal kids, neither jocks nor losers but not anything definitive about them
-The kids who are smart but still can function socially, usually the student government kids
-The musical/theatre kids
-The "goth/emo/alternative/stoners"
-The Marching band
-The REALLY smart kids i.e. The "nerds" the "dorks" the "losers" Smart kids with no social skills whatsoever
-Then you might have the totally untouchables, which are generally a very small handful of kids who all the other groups agree are either "Weird" or "freaks"
I'm not sure if anyone agrees with this fictionalized, 80's teen movie cliche high school politics list or not, but I think it's fairly accurate.
Now, my school's foodchain was like this
This behavior of just letting everyone in stopped abruptly in middle school. Also in middle school is when they started forcing us to actually try out for these musicals IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. What a horribly cruel thing to do to adolescent children. In high school you got to try out in a classroom by yourself, but everyone else who was also trying out stood outside the door with their ears pressed against it listening to you, so it was hardly better. Fucking musical kids.
Now, my school's foodchain was like this
-Jocks/Athletes/Cheerleaders/Musical Kids/REALLY smart kids (many of these people were also often in student government)
-Everyone else
Did I go to a performing arts high school? Did I go to a private, expensive school where being smart is a requirement for being admitted, thus everyone is smart?
No, I went to a PUBLIC high school.
Now, the athletes/cheerleaders that went to my high school would have probably liked to believe that they were the most popular, most exclusive clique. That's actually not true. The musical kids, along with the band/orchestra/marching band kids were actually the hardest to get integrated into. They were the ones that judged, that made fun. (Jocks too I suppose but I've personally experienced the musical kids.) Hell my classes' Prom Queen was a girl who was always the leads in the musicals. On what planet is a high school's Prom Queen a musical/theatre girl?? Is this real life?
My school district, as public as it was, was extremely fortunate to have an above excellent music program. Everyone who was in the musical was GOOD. If you weren't good, then you were not in the musical, it was as simple as that. And this started wayyyyy back in Elementary school, I was actually in two "Operettas" as we called them back in elementary school, but that's party because that was before it mattered to everyone QUITE so much who was in the choruses, and everyone was in them.
(But, surprise surprise, the ones always getting the main parts even in elementary/middle school were always the ones who had the main parts in high school. Gee, where did their sense of entitlement come from I wonder?)
This behavior of just letting everyone in stopped abruptly in middle school. Also in middle school is when they started forcing us to actually try out for these musicals IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. What a horribly cruel thing to do to adolescent children. In high school you got to try out in a classroom by yourself, but everyone else who was also trying out stood outside the door with their ears pressed against it listening to you, so it was hardly better. Fucking musical kids.
(My elementary school musical teacher wasn't a horrible evil person like the middle school and high school musical teachers were, she just let us join if we wanted to)
I love musicals and the theater, and oh how I used to wish that I could have been in a school where the musical kids were mocked by the "popular" people, and as a result the musical kids were accepting of everyone, and grateful for anyone who wanted to just be in the musical. No such luck of course.
Sometimes talent wasn't even good enough for them. I know personally of a few accounts where a person was talented, but they were not "in" with the musical kids, (an outsider) so they did not get in the musical. (The director played favorites too, and I hate her so much)
I grudgingly admit that our musicals were awesome, but I still don't think it gave those people the right to act they way they did.
Why did we HAVE to be good? It was only high school. Why did it matter? Why couldn't we have admitted everyone? We could have left the main parts to the ones who had the great voices, I wouldn't have cared. All I ever wanted was the chorus. It didn't, and it doesn't make any sense. It's not Broadway people.
My bitter feelings toward all theatre/musical kids are perfectly justified. It's exactly the same as my stereotypical "nerd" hating the stereotypical "jock" in high school. The musical kids were rude, haughty, entitled, and strutted around like they were the hottest shit.
By the way I would never go so far as to call them bullies. It was more of the way they looked at everyone who wasn't them, they way they spoke to you if they absolutely had to. The smirks on their stupid faces.
Unfortunately I have carried my disdain for those involved in the theatre life over from my former high school years. I currently work in the theatre department at my college. (I spell the word "theater" like "theatre" out of habit, it's how they spell it the department) During my three years here I have discovered that there is no shortage of egos in this theatre program, and it gives me such horrible flashbacks to high school. I have been here almost every weekday working for the past three school years, and still the stares I get when I walk down the theatre hallway make me want to flip. I want to say "Well, obviously I'm not a theatre major but don't ANY of you recognize me from, oh, I don't know, EVERY DAY?" It's infuriating.
Fortunately, I have personally met a handful (a small handful) of perfectly pleasant, normal, lovely theatre majors while I've been working here. Which has improved my impression of them slightly. And I am also glad that they faculty and staff of the theatre department do not appear to be as horrific as the previous directors of musicals I had to deal with during my younger years. (Or not deal with, since I wasn't in musicals)
But nope, I'm not bitter at all. Being treated badly and looked down upon by the powerful people in my high school doesn't have any effect on my attitude now as an (almost) adult. Of course not!
Okay so I'm super bitter. But not at never being "one of them." I'm mad because I love music, I love song and dance and the glitzy nonsense of musicals. I'm bitter because I was never able to be apart of that, and I certainly won't ever be able to now. I feel like my chance was missed.
If this post doesn't really make a lot of sense then I apologize, it's hard to recreate the same feelings and environment that I felt in high school. I've gotten over a lot of stuff, I've grown up a lot too, so these things don't seem as important as they once did. But unfortunately things that happen in high school will always be in the back of everyone's mind. But I have the good times in high school to look back on fondly.
Why did we HAVE to be good? It was only high school. Why did it matter? Why couldn't we have admitted everyone? We could have left the main parts to the ones who had the great voices, I wouldn't have cared. All I ever wanted was the chorus. It didn't, and it doesn't make any sense. It's not Broadway people.
My bitter feelings toward all theatre/musical kids are perfectly justified. It's exactly the same as my stereotypical "nerd" hating the stereotypical "jock" in high school. The musical kids were rude, haughty, entitled, and strutted around like they were the hottest shit.
By the way I would never go so far as to call them bullies. It was more of the way they looked at everyone who wasn't them, they way they spoke to you if they absolutely had to. The smirks on their stupid faces.
Unfortunately I have carried my disdain for those involved in the theatre life over from my former high school years. I currently work in the theatre department at my college. (I spell the word "theater" like "theatre" out of habit, it's how they spell it the department) During my three years here I have discovered that there is no shortage of egos in this theatre program, and it gives me such horrible flashbacks to high school. I have been here almost every weekday working for the past three school years, and still the stares I get when I walk down the theatre hallway make me want to flip. I want to say "Well, obviously I'm not a theatre major but don't ANY of you recognize me from, oh, I don't know, EVERY DAY?" It's infuriating.
Fortunately, I have personally met a handful (a small handful) of perfectly pleasant, normal, lovely theatre majors while I've been working here. Which has improved my impression of them slightly. And I am also glad that they faculty and staff of the theatre department do not appear to be as horrific as the previous directors of musicals I had to deal with during my younger years. (Or not deal with, since I wasn't in musicals)
But nope, I'm not bitter at all. Being treated badly and looked down upon by the powerful people in my high school doesn't have any effect on my attitude now as an (almost) adult. Of course not!
Okay so I'm super bitter. But not at never being "one of them." I'm mad because I love music, I love song and dance and the glitzy nonsense of musicals. I'm bitter because I was never able to be apart of that, and I certainly won't ever be able to now. I feel like my chance was missed.
If this post doesn't really make a lot of sense then I apologize, it's hard to recreate the same feelings and environment that I felt in high school. I've gotten over a lot of stuff, I've grown up a lot too, so these things don't seem as important as they once did. But unfortunately things that happen in high school will always be in the back of everyone's mind. But I have the good times in high school to look back on fondly.
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