Understanding my high-school Experience Through Julie Bettie's Commentary

Although I find myself cringing while reading some of Julie Bettie’s commentary, there was a lot of truth found in the dynamics of the interactions with different groups of girls. I have criticized how she seems to have a biased perspective and she regularly talks negatively about the preps. Many things about my high school seems to make a lot more sense after reading her novel. I went to a high school, which was considerably large and had the best football and girls soccer team in the nation. The school was a brutal and continuous place for girl confrontation and conflict. Similarly to the novel, the preps practically ran the school. They were the only ones who were solely involved in school government and sports. The preps staked their lunch spot in the very center of the student center in front of the library. Just like in the book, everyone agreed on the different titles for the cliques, and many of them were the same as in the novel. The prep girls were the only ones on the sport teams, and they wore matching clothes with ribbons in the hair. We had 4,000 people who attended La Costa Canyon, and it was typical to see new people every day and then never see them again. After Reading Girls Without Class, I feel that I have a better understanding of why certain cliques distinguished them selves in some ways that seemed obscure and irrational. Girls were eager to form an identity and claim importance. There were often fights, which mostly took place amongst the Latino girls. During these fights, the entire school would crowd around them and cheer them on. This was the only time when the Mexican students interacted with the jocks and preps. Girls were incredibly vicious and gossip was what they collectively thrived on. Personally, I had problems understanding where I fit in amongst all of these groups that seemed to be so distinguished. Surprising, I was voted homecoming princess freshman year. This is usually something that is reserve red for only preps, and so I was a bit confused. Our school was the epitome of catty, cliquey American high school. Because of this, I ended up leaving in order to attend an alternative private school, which had only 12 people in each grade. Unlike many of the Latino girls, or the smokers I was fortunate to have the resources and opportunity to make this decision.