Bagels and Cereal

[icepixie]

I watched The Breakfast Club for the first time in my life tonight. I know, I know, unamerican, alien baby dropped in a field, etc. etc. One day I'll make a list of all the pop culture standards I missed the boat on and get around to watching them.

Anyway. The best thing about that movie was Ally Sheedy's haircut, and yet...it was still strangely compelling. Perhaps after teaching college freshmen for a year, I have more sympathy for high schoolers. Or perhaps after teaching college freshmen for a year, I have more sympathy for the principal, particularly when he's telling the janitor how horrified he is that these kids will one day be running the world.

I think I would've appreciated the emotional highs and lows more had I seen this at sixteen; instead, the whole grinding-to-a-halt-so-everyone-can-cry-for-a-while section came off as unintentionally hilarious. I was glad when the flare gun bit got it back to something resembling comedy.

The ending made me cringe somewhat, with the whole NO ONE WILL LOVE YOU UNLESS YOU'RE CONVENTIONALLY PRETTY message that Andy and the newly-made-over Allison falling into each other's arms sent. Not to mention that she was more more striking and attractive pre-makeover. Bender and Claire I saw coming a mile away, and it was pretty entertaining the way they did it ("Remember how you said your parents use you to get back at each other? Wouldn't I be outstanding in that capacity?"). Bender in general was like the train wreck you can't look away from--he was horrible, but full of fascinating energy.

So tell me, was this at all representative of high school in the 80s, or high school in general? 'Cause I went to nerd school for grades 9-12, and more and more I realize how very unusual my high school experience was, at least compared to popular representations of it. Well, okay, yes, part of this is me--I was so uncool that by comparison I made Brian look like a hep cat, as the kids say. But I don't remember all this brouhaha about whether one had or had not had sex, don't recall such well-defined cliques (nerd school, remember--we all fell into the bright kid category, so differences were muted), don't think there even was such a thing as detention, let alone shop. I don't seem to remember much ado about boyfriends/girlfriends (this could be because 2/3 of the student body was female), and there never seemed to be this adversarial relationship between students and teachers/administrators that always gets depicted. Not that I would have liked to have had any of that as part of my high school experience, but I have to admit that it feels much like I grew up on Mars.*

* OR MAYBE I DID. *whistles X-Files theme*

Comments

[pezprez.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, I haven't seen Breakfast Club yet. Nor have I seen Casablanca. Or Groundhog Day. Or a lotta other movies. Maybe I grew up on Mars too... or at least without cable.

[icepixie]

Heh. I had cable, but skipped the movies, apparently. (I haven't seen Casablanca or Groundhog Day either.)

[alto2.livejournal.com]

All those things you list--detention, boys, evil teachers, sex, etc--totally typical not only of high school in the 80s but high school now (we had all those things where I used to work). I find it difficult to comprehend how you missed them and kinda wonder what other pop culture references fly right over your head as a result. But yes, they were real, if slightly exaggerated here and there, and we worshipped John Hughes for getting it, and geting it so damn well.

(Also, if you recall the fact that we are talking about the 80s here, it was pretty damn true that no one would love you if you weren't conventionally pretty. Really. It was a product of the insanity of the "greed is good" decade. If you were going to be greedy about everythig else, you weren't suddenly going to stop while you were shopping for a date. Just sayin'.)

[icepixie]

I find it difficult to comprehend how you missed them

Nerd school. Neeerrrrrd school. If you screwed up too much behaviorally or even failed a class, you'd be kicked right back to the high school you were zoned for. We didn't have anyone like Bender at my school.

People probably did care about sex and I just didn't notice, but there was definitely never this OMG YOU'RE A VIRGIN!!! stigma. This may well be because it was uber-religious Nashville. Likewise, by the time I would have noticed any kind of relationship developing between people, it was probably over. Plus, given the gender disparity, these relationships likely tended to occur with people at other schools, and anyway we all had so much work to do for classes that it really seemed like everyone was perpetually single and didn't have time to care about that fact.

I remember we had one guy who commonly subbed whom we all hated because he was a jerk, but beyond that I liked my teachers even when they were giving us tremendous amounts of work, and I got the impression my friends did as well.

We had fewer than 700 students, so maybe there just wasn't critical mass to form cliques; I interacted with every member of my graduating class at least a few times over the four years. People fell into groups of friends, but no one ever refused to acknowledge anyone else's presence, or at least I never saw that happening.

and kinda wonder what other pop culture references fly right over your head as a result

Many, I'm sure. But I'm your girl for 19th and 20th-century BritLit references!

Re: 80s greed: interesting. I can see it. But it seems at odds with the whole "don't judge by appearances" point of the rest of the movie.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

We didn't have anyone like Bender at my school.

Oh, we had...quite a few!

I don't remember a public stigma in the movie (in my defense, if I'm wrong, it's been quite a while since I've seen it--every so often I'll watch some of it if I come across it on TV, but otherwise it's been at least several years). I do remember more of a whispered query among the girls, at least, which is what I remember from high school. I hope I had a good poker face, 'cause I sure tried to shrug and dodge and pray like hell nobody ever actually made me answer.

We had fewer than 700 students, so maybe there just wasn't critical mass to form cliques

Oh no, you had plenty. My graduating class had 120 students, so we had about 600 kids, maybe less, and we had cliques aplenty. So did the private school I taught at, which had 470--including grades 6-8.

it seems at odds with the whole "don't judge by appearances" point of the rest of the movie.

Ah, but see, that only applies if you're a guy... ;)

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

We had fewer than 700 students, so maybe there just wasn't critical mass to form cliques

Ha! The critical mass for cliques is three people: two to form a clique, and one to be ostracized. (I have a Ph.D in Teen Girls!)

[icepixie]

The critical mass for cliques is three people: two to form a clique, and one to be ostracized.

*snerk* I seem to remember this from sixth grade. In one class, I was seated across from these two other girls, who immediately decided I was uncool or something. My problem, though, was that they didn't ostracize me enough. I wanted them to ignore me all the time, not ignore me 75% of the time, and steal my pencil/book/paper the rest of the time.

(I have a Ph.D in Teen Girls!)

Gaaaaaaaah. (Actually, I think the 10-12-year olds are so, so, so much worse.)

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

My problem, though, was that they didn't ostracize me enough.

Ha! It's like they knew!

Actually, I think the 10-12-year olds are so, so, so much worse.

Tweeeeeeeeeens, noooooooooo!!

[rensong.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen Breakfast Club, either, aside from random bits and pieces here and there over the years. Actually, I've seen very few of those Whats His Face Coming Of Age movies from the 80s - I have seen Weird Science and... I think that might be it. Never seen Sixteen Candles or Animal House or any of those, though I have seen Goonies many many times if that counts. I've never been a huge fan of High School Drama (though I did like 10 Things I Hate About You), so yeah, never got around to watching most of those.

And I honestly have no clue what qualified as the "norm" for high school. Mine fell pretty far from the stereotype, too - our Homecoming Queen was also one of the presidents of the student counsel and an honors student to boot, our band got almost as much attention as star football team (we were division champions or runners-up pretty much every year), and the geeks and the "Popular" kids got along pretty darned well - possibly because a lot of the popular kids *were* quasi geeks. The town I grew up in had one of the biggest clinic and hospital facilities in the state, so I would guess that at least a third of the student population were Doctor's Kids, so our honors program was pretty huge. Even maintaining a GPA of about 3.5 most of the way through high school, I still fell into the bottom 50% of the class.

[icepixie]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of high school stuff either. I wasn't even when I was in high school.

Your HS experience sounds like mine, 'cause we were all geeks first, and popular/jocks/whatever a distant, distant second. We didn't even have a football team or a marching band.

[alethialia.livejournal.com]

more and more I realize how my high school experience was, at least compared to popular representations of it. Well okay, yes, part of this is me--I was so uncool that by comparison I made Brian look like a hep cat, as the kids say. But I don't remember all this brouhaha about whether one had or had not had sex, don't recall such well-defined cliques

You and me both, apparently. I went to a serious college prep school - or perhaps, I was in a very serious program at my school - so there was none of this bs. We studied. A lot.

there never seemed to be this adversarial relationship between students and teachers/administrators that always gets depicted.

SO MUCH THIS! Seriously, they were more like learning partners. We got together with them outside of class. I still talk to them. My hs teachers were more like professors than some of my profs.

Thus, I find it interesting to watch other depictions of hs. Kind of a spectacle. Idek.

[icepixie]

You and me both, apparently. I went to a serious college prep school - or perhaps, I was in a very serious program at my school - so there was none of this bs. We studied. A lot.

THIS. Apparently college prep schools are completely alien to the rest of the country's experience or something. My school, you either studied or you left.

SO MUCH THIS! Seriously, they were more like learning partners. We got together with them outside of class. I still talk to them. My hs teachers were more like professors than some of my profs.

I was never quite that close to mine--although my AP Spanish teacher had us all over to her house a couple times during the year--but I know what you mean.

Thus, I find it interesting to watch other depictions of hs. Kind of a spectacle. Idek.

It's like being an anthropologist! :D

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

John Hughes films are pretty true, judging by my own experience - their accuracy was what made them so popular. It's a dramatized version, yeah, and all the dull bits have been edited out and everything left has been exaggerated a little, but... yeah.

Cliques at my school weren't quite so starkly black-and-white, but they were a huge presence. Relationship drama was also a daily thing, whether you were personally involved in it or not. Detention wasn't used much (not in my circles, anyway - though some kids had "in-school suspension" all the time), but we had a whole building dedicated to shop classes, lol. As far as teachers v. students, it got much more antagonistic the further down the GPA axis you went... and it went down a long ways. (Some unreasonably large percentage - maybe 25%? - of my class didn't graduate on time, if at all.) Stay classy, South Knoxville!

[icepixie]

I think shop would probably have been useful to me, actually. Less for making a ceramic elephant lamp than "here is how to do minor repairs to your car/troubleshoot your house's electrical or plumbing systems/build a bookcase out of scrap wood, because you have way too many books and damn, those cheap fiberboard bookcases aren't all that cheap anymore."

As far as teachers v. students, it got much more antagonistic the further down the GPA axis you went... and it went down a long ways.

Ohhhh, my. I guess that comes from not being allowed to completely kick them out of class like we can at college...

(Some unreasonably large percentage - maybe 25%? - of my class didn't graduate on time, if at all.) Stay classy, South Knoxville!

Ouch.

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

I think shop would probably have been useful to me, actually.

Yeah, I almost took some auto shop classes, because they seemed really useful, but I was stopped by lack of schedule space and being creeped out by all the redneck guys that would be my classmates for an entire semester...

because you have way too many books and damn, those cheap fiberboard bookcases aren't all that cheap anymore

You know what's awesome? Ikea bookshelves. They're just like the cheap fiberboard kind, except fancied up a notch and much sturdier/less bendable, and the price is quite decent. I'm tempted to buy another one to contain all the books oozing out of my first one... If only they had more Ikeas in the world!

I guess that comes from not being allowed to completely kick them out of class like we can at college...

Yup. The options were "public school" or "no school at all," with option B being almost purely voluntary. And my friend's boyfriend made a bomb threat and didn't even get expelled! He was just suspended for a little while!

[icepixie]

I could've used about eight weeks of shop and eight of home ec. The internet is a marvelous thing, but I did feel a bit ridiculous looking up how long one needs to boil an egg.

Two problems with IKEA: the closest one is in Atlanta, and my Office Depot ones are doing fine construction-wise, but got expensive.

And my friend's boyfriend made a bomb threat and didn't even get expelled! He was just suspended for a little while!

Duuuuude. I think that would've at least gotten you into the Alternative School For Criminals school in Nashville's district, no matter where you were going at the time.

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

The internet is a marvelous thing, but I did feel a bit ridiculous looking up how long one needs to boil an egg.

Oh internet. How else would we fill the holes in our educations?

It's a shame there aren't more Ikeas near Tennessee. We're so spoiled up here, we have two within easy driving distance.

Duuuuude. I think that would've at least gotten you into the Alternative School For Criminals school in Nashville's district, no matter where you were going at the time.

I think they figured he wasn't a threat because he was just too stupid to make a real bomb...