Sarah Grunkemeyer
Mrs. Allen
AP English Language and Composition, 2
17 March 2013
The Joys of High School
Think about high school and all the students that fill up its student body. When thinking of the students, do stereotypes and clichés come to mind? As teens form close relationships with others, they struggle to understand who they are and where they fit in; they start to form their own identity in relation to others. High school is a critical time of social development which forms these clichés. Social styles differ- some teens want to join groups, others prefer not to interact in extra curriculum activities after or during school, and then there are students that are just socially awkward. For example, some students prefer to play sports which lead them to hang out with all the athletes. Some students despise sports and so they form their own groups like the nerds or bums. Within each different cliché, there is a distinct style in their clothing. These stereotyped clichés are often classified by their clothing style which creates the groups like “preps”, “jocks”, and “nerds.”
The word prep was originally used for rich students who went to expensive private schools that were well known to students from public schools. These students weren’t always snobs, and they normally did much more sophisticated things then an average middle class student. For example, instead of playing football, they played a game of polo, and shopped in
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stores like Coco Chanel, Dolce and Gabana, Christian Dior, and Gucci. They dressed on the formal end with exceptions of wearing plaid shorts, or canvas pants on casual occasions. In today’s society, we have the public school “snobby preps”. Snobby preps are the people that everybody loves, but hates at the same time. The prep is the boy or girl that is concerned with the way they look. They can usually see themselves on the cover of a Ralph Lauren catalogue or modeling for Abercrombie and Fitch because of