Clique Poll

Wow, I’m on a roll today. The entry I wrote about high school made me wonder what cliques or perceived social groups people I know were in during high school. Report them here! 😀

I’d also like to know what group your significant other was in, just to see how things have ended up in the real world.

Use the cliques found here and here.

Me: Advanced placement, church people/youth grouper, individualist, nerd, friend of orchestra geeks, Korean/Asian, tomboy, possibly student government (but not actually *in* student government), new wave.

Hmm, I need another list.

Being easy vs. Being helpful

In an email thread about where to have lunch, a friend tossed out three suggestions and asked the rest of us which place we’d prefer. I picked one of them and gave an answer right away. One of the responders said:

I’m easy… anything is good with me

The original suggestor wrote back:

No! You are not being easy!! Easy = Opinion!!

I totally agree. And I think this is something that is overlooked in a lot of group (or one-on-one, even) situations. When you have a lot of people who genuinely don’t care or want to accomodate the group, it can be that no one proffers a real preference.

The individuals involved may think that they are being helpful because they are willing to go along with any suggestion, but this is actually unhelpful because it doesn’t help move the decision along (whether it’s for where to go eat or whatever) and puts the burden of investigation and decisionmaking back on the one person — or no one at all.

When it comes to group decisionmaking, I like to do it this way: everyone takes turns making two or three suggestions, and then we see if there is an overlap. Then we go! Forcing people to make suggestions makes this process wrap up quite quickly, usually in a matter of a couple of minutes.

The worst is when one person makes a bunch of suggestions, and another person says that they don’t really want to go to any of those places but will if everyone else does.

Reality check: Al Bundy

Everytime I wax poetic about my high school, I think people must think I’m like Al Bundy and his stories of his glorious high school days.

Where is the “punch self” smiley?

Central

Sometimes, I get nostalgic. Ok, I’m always nostalgic. I’m just like that.

Some random email reminded me of high school today. Most of my friends know that I really, truly loved my high school, Central High School of Philadelphia. One of the things I vowed when I graduated was that I’d one day give back to the school in some way.

The first four lines of the school song goes as follows:

Let others sing of college days,
Their Alma Mater true,
But when we raise our voices,
‘Tis only High, for you.

Sure, it’s cheesy, but it’s true. All CHS alums remember the song, and most feel it is true.

What made Central High so great? There are a lot of things.

• It’s a college prep magnet school, so everyone specifically applied to be accepted into the school and is motivated to achieve.

• It’s big. Each graduating class is about 500-600 people. So it’s easy to find someone to be friends with.

• It’s diverse. “Central students reside in every area of Philadelphia and represent the widest variety of racial, ethnic, geographic and economic groups. The student body is 33% African-American, 21% Asian, 5% Latino, and 41% Caucasian, making Central one of the most diverse schools in the nation. They afford each other multi-cultural opportunities in a rare atmosphere of cooperation and interaction.” — Wikipedia entry. That sounds about what I remember.

• “Central High School holds the distinction of being the only high school in the United States that has the authority, granted by an Act of Assembly in 1849, to confer academic degrees upon its graduates. This practice is still in effect, and graduates who meet the requirements are granted the Bachelor of Arts degree.” — Wikipedia entry. Yup, I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from high school.

• It has a dedicated, motivated staff. “99% of Central’s 130+ teachers hold a Master’s degree or higher.” — Wikipedia entry. About half of my teachers who taught my AP classes (and some not) had Doctorates in their fields. And it showed in their passion for their subjects.

When I hear about other people’s high schools, I see a huge difference in the culture of CHS. There was a desire to achieve, there was confidence that nothing was insurmountable, there was political freedom to cultivate and exercise our budding beliefs and skills. There were tons of clubs and teams to join, for everything from the math to the wrestling , from debate to francophilia, from Pro-Life to Pro-Choice (they set up moderated debates for the two clubs), from SALSA (Spanish and Latino Students Association) to KSA (Korean Students Association). We spent money renovating the gym, but we also spent money renovating the library — apparently, “[Barnwell Library] is now one of the most advanced public school libraries in the United States.”

We give academic credit to be in the orchestra. You could replace your physical education class by writing research papers or by volunteering to tutor a peer — but you couldn’t write a paper to get out of health class (at least, I never did, but now that I think on it, maybe you could? Someone correct me). And they taught sex ed and allowed the distribution of condoms.

And there is a enforced commitment to community service. “It is one of the few public high schools that has a yearly community service requirement that needs to be fulfilled before graduation. 30 hours of community service need to be completed and verified by academic personnel before the end of each school year.” Yup, I remember doing community service, but I think it only kicked in in our junior or senior year. Again, my memory is a little spotty. There was a pretty big range of things that counted as community service, and I think I might have done tutoring and some tree-planting related thing for my requirement.

I think the biggest, lasting impact was diversity. I think about my college, and I think about my current work situation, and frankly, I work with a bunch of white people and Asians and that’s it. In high school, everyone had friends of every race. You didn’t have a lot of time to spend mulling over stereotypes, because in every class, you’d be surrounded by people of different races, and being in contact with so many individuals, you didn’t have time to be juggling stereotypes along with actually getting to know people.

There was an emphasis on discussions and asking questions. There was an emphasis on respect for teachers and learning. My history teacher used to joke that we were little trees in the “Grove of Academia”. He also joked that we were all brainwashed with “liberal orthodoxy” and that’s probably true too. 🙂

There were a couple of randomly competitive kids, but it was never, ever cut-throat. Being a nerd was not a problem. I was a big nerd, but no one teased me. I never felt like I wasn’t “popular” or that popularity was an issue, period. Sure, some people may have, but there were enough people who didn’t care that it didn’t matter. There was no dominant hegemony of bullies or athletes. Almost everyone took the subway or the bus, because hardly anyone lived around there. Some kids probably had cars, but most kids didn’t. I never had to worry about someone beating me up for earrings, at least not within Central.

Damn, I loved my school. I miss the sense of community, of support, of limitless potential for growth (that’s just me feeling older though), of never forgetting that we were there through hardwork AND fortunate circumstance, which not everyone was lucky to have. I miss the sense of liberalism and equality that was pervasive in those halls that I have never experienced since.