Discussion: 10 Things Authors Get Wrong About High School

The Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction & It Starts At Midnight.

Last year I read a novel that starred a 16-year-old girl. In the middle of class, the girl’s friend group walked out of the classroom without asking permission. They smoked cigarettes outside the school’s front door and then went back to class. None of the teachers said anything about kids leaving the building during school hours.

I know that book characters need freedom in order to make the plot happen, but I couldn’t help thinking that this scene probably wouldn’t have happened at my high school. I attended a public high school in the US during the early 2000s. A big group of kids probably couldn’t stroll out of a classroom without permission. Smoking wasn’t allowed anywhere on campus. Not even outside. If you were going to do those things, you had to be sneaky about them!

The scene made me wonder how my high school experience differed from the experiences of book characters. So, I made a list.

10 Things Authors Get Wrong About High School

1. Getting to school on time involved waking up ungodly early in the morning.

School started at 7 AM. In winter, it’s still dark at 7 AM. My friends who lived on ranches woke up around 4 in the morning to get their chores done before driving to school. We were all zombie-level exhausted. The school cafeteria sold coffee, but we weren’t allowed to have food or drinks in class.

2. Speaking of exhaustion, I had many hours of homework every night.

It was fairly common for me to start my homework when I got home at 3 PM and finish around 10 PM. I don’t remember any nights without homework.

3. My school didn’t have uniforms, but we had a strict dress code.

My friend got sent home because the fishnet sleeves on her shirt were “too sexy.” Her whole body was covered except for her sexy, sexy forearms. A boy got sent home because the hula dancer on his Hawaii t-shirt had a bare midriff (too sexy!)

All four of these girls would be sent home.

Some other things we weren’t allowed to wear: hats; sunglasses; headphones; political messages; miniskirts; short shorts; long coats; chains; stiletto heels; anything that looked sloppy or had too many holes; anything that showed shoulders, stomachs, or boobs. School events (such as dances and field trips) had the same dress code as school.

Nope.

4. Touching your fellow students was discouraged.

No public displays of affection. No roughhousing. If you were quick about it, you might be able to get away with a hug. Passionate make out sessions in the hallway? No. Probably not.

5. Actually, we didn’t have time for hallway make out sessions.

We had 5 minutes between classes. Since the school was large and overcrowded, it often took the entire 5 minutes to get from one class to another. Do you need to pee or go to your locker? Too bad. You probably had to wait until lunch. (Or hope your teacher took pity on you and gave you a pass to leave class.)

6. We all carried backpacks.

Most of us attended 7 classes a day. Each class required a 3-ring binder + 1-3 textbooks. Unless you got lucky with your schedule, getting to your locker between classes wasn’t possible. We carried the stuff for our morning classes and then swapped it out for afternoon stuff during lunch.

7. We ate lunch in the cafeteria (under the watchful gaze of a prison guard).

While we ate, a teacher stood guard at the door. Once we were in the cafeteria, we weren’t allowed to leave without a pass. If the “cafeteria guard” teacher had a sense of humor, we taunted them while we ate. This is how we learned that teachers were not paid extra for guarding the cafeteria, and they were not allowed to tackle us if we stormed the door.

Cafeteria cleanup was our responsibility. Students were randomly selected to clean the cafeteria after lunch. You could also get cleanup duty as punishment for doing something stupid. Yes, cleaning up after a thousand teenagers is disgusting. That’s probably why they made us do it.

8. We made a lot of prison jokes because the building looked like a prison.

It was made of gray cinderblocks. The inside was gray and beige. There were lots of doors with locks. The only door that could be opened from both directions was the front door. The rest of the doors—including the classroom doors—could only be opened from the inside or with a key. The student parking lot had a gate. If you got to school after the security guards closed the gate, you had to park in the far-away lot with the teachers. If you needed to leave during school hours, you had to go to the security office and convince someone to open the gate.

9. Every teacher took attendance at the start of class, not just the homeroom teachers.

If you didn’t show up for a class, the office called your parents. This made ditching difficult but not impossible. There was a long delay between being reported missing and the call home. I ditched class fairly often during my senior year. Where did I go when I ditched? Usually Chipotle and then the library. Yep, I was a burrito-craving, book-reading badass.

10. If you were an awkward loner, the teachers reported you to the school counselor.

You didn’t know you were reported until someone from the office showed up at your class to escort you to your surprise counseling meeting. My meetings weren’t especially deep. The counselor asked about my family. I said everything was fine. The counselor asked about my lack of friends. I said everything was fine. The counselor asked if I was homicidal. I said no. The counselor asked if I was suicidal. I lied and said no. The counselor sent my awkward butt back to class.

How was your high school experience different from the experiences of book characters?