Delaware Schools and Identities

I went to two different high schools in Delaware, a big public school called Caesar Rodney, and a tiny (200 people) Catholic private school called St. Thomas More Academy. At Caesar Rodney, the cliques were very true to their stereotypes. There were more of them, though. There was the jock clique, goth kids, the "gangsters" (if there is such a thing in Dover, Delaware), the scene/straight edge/hardcore kids, the theater kids, and the "nerds" or "inbetweens."  I was probably inbetween there, I got good grades, went to hardcore shows, and was involved in theater. At this school though, the jocks and goth cliques were very exclusive, just like the article's descriptions.

At the school I graduated from, St Thomas More, with only 50 of us in the graduating class, it was very different. Everyone had known eachother and gone to school with eachother since kindergarten since there was only one elementary/middle/high school in southern Delaware. So they did not conform as much to their social identities. There were the hippies who got stoned and listened to music every day, the rich kids who commuted from their beach houses in their new cars every day, the jocks, and the artsy students.

But no one was part of just one group. There were "hippies" on the lacrosse team, rich kids in the plays, jocks in choir, etc. For example, I was accepted as a cheerleader, actress, singer, honor roll student, and anything else I wanted to try or take part in. A girl who is now a senior won an award for her art and was the captain of the field hockey team. So it was easier to talk to everyone and there was less pressure to conform to any one identity. Practically everyone used the same slang and took part in multiple school functions and activities.

I think a big part (aside from everyone knowing eachother for so long) that played into the lack of social classes amongst the students at my private school was that, since we wore uniforms almost every day, we based judgement less on appearance. By the time of year that we could wear our own clothes to school (only on "tag days" and if you paid a certain amount towards a charity), people had already made their first impressions and their personalities were already known on some level.

I guess you could say, on a larger scale, that the St Thomas More students were a clique of their own. While waiting to take the SATs at my old school with people form my new school, I saw my current classmates mixed in with my old ones. I could tell that there was a definite difference that I cannot explain but the acknowledgement between schools was somewhat tense and uncomfortable.