Does your school have "cliques"? What do you think

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My school's packed with cliques, I've noticed. It seems the average or semi-popular kids are in little 4-15 people groups. The popular kid's seem to crowd together. At least 10-25 people hanging out. It's obvious who is in which group as well.

I honestly don't understand it. Walk through my school for 5 minutes and there's at least 20 different groups sitting separately. Boys and girls sitting in a circle, and another bunch of boys and girls sitting in a circle nearby, making little to no contact with anyone outside of these "circles". The popular kid's crowd themselves into really open and spacious places for them to chill, still making little contact with anyone else. I don't know, I guess I'm just a little bias because I'm a drifter - I moved between 4/5 different cliques/groups last year. But it's still just weird to me. I don't understand it, and I don't get why people are so narrow minded. "Let's just hang out with the same 4 friends every single lunch break and in class, let's not make contact with anyone else or meet new people".

To put it simple, I think it's confusing and I kind of hate it too. Obviously they exclude me because if one of them has a problem with it, they all seem to. Also because I mess up their groups social structure (how one might be boss, one might be second in command, one might be the guy who gets pranked the most - I blur the lines in whatever group I hang out with whether I intend to or not) They all seem peer pressured and conformed to their groups standards, removing individuality and free-thinking to fit in and be like their friends and be seen as "the same" and not different. I'm not exaggerating, a 5 boy group might see themselves as "all unique and different" but they all just look like dumb jocks, clones.

Sorry for being long. Anyway, what do you think of "cliques"? Does your school have them?

I have the same feeling about cliques as you do. I've always thought they were stupid and pointless. For being "social creatures", they really suck at socializing!

I totally get what you mean, as in I appear to be attached to three cliques right now, (but that's because I have no where else to go) but it feels like I'm just sat on the outside watching (which I guess I kind of am)

My school of about 200 has very loose cliques. I guess the two main ones are jocks and nerds, then there's some outcasts. And a really small group of older kids who are rebels. Doesn't really have any non-aesthetic effects though, we all hang and talk with each other.

EXACTLY!! !!

Apparently us Aspies are the non-social one's because we just don't follow or understand the "rules" of social interaction, but it seems like most of the time we're not the one's too scared to come out of our comfort zones and talk to other people outside of our tiny small circle of friends like NTs.

It seems like THEY fit in easy and go no further, WE struggle to fit in but when we do we're brave enough to do it all again to look for more. We never give up with socializing but they do when they're achieved what they originality wanted.

And yeah they are pointless. Why do they exist? Because they are your friends? But not all of them will be your friends, and friends of friends will be considered a part of the "group" as well, so that kind of throw's out the concept of you and your friends being a group together, instead it's joining something to fit in, to feel accepted, and to not actually hang out with your legitimate friends.

You didn't have to use anymore or less words for me to know I felt the same.

Last year I was in a few different little cliques, there was this one with two actual friends and there were 5 of us altogether, one only showing up sometimes. Then there was these 5 guys who played handball/sports, and these 6 friends of both sexes who just talked, and finally this final 4th one near the end of the year. The whole time absolutely none of them I felt completely accepted, but some kind of outsider. I've noticed there are a few more people like me and you, move between groups but can never truly realize that the guy who keeps showing up a few times a week actually wants to get to know some of the members better and isn't just showing up for no reason. And yeah the feeling of just being on the outside watching their group, being a little "tag-along" no one care about or notices, is tough as well.

The group that I'm part of is the 'lowest' group in my grade. There's my group, the bigger group of middle popularity people, and a large group of popular girls. The guys go mainly with the top two groups, and there's a little group of outsider guys as well. Lately I'm finding it hard to believe that I belong in any of them.

I don't even pay attention. Like I don't even care anymore. I go to such a small school that everyone's used to each other. I hang

Nope, we never had cliques. It might be that my school was too big for the, (3,000+ kids). Everyone would talk to everyone and there never really was specific meaning to "popular" or "nerd." Wow, I think my school was kind of like the end of Mean Girls where everyone was just sort of peaceful, except we're not that peaceful.

My old secondary school definitely had cliques. The quiet ones would bunch together; the really girly girls would belong to one group; the bitchy stuck-up gits would stay together, and the geeks/nerds would stay together too. Even the loud ones would stay together too. And if you didn't belong in any group then that was it. You were an outcast.

I don't understand cliques. I don't understand them at all.

I think that the other students at my high school definitely assigned each other roles and gave labels to each other which set up a sort of clique mentality but it didn't always manifest in a bad way. There were a few cliques or groups where everyone got along with each other and I belonged to one of them.

I find that there's a bit of a clique mentality at my university as well just because a lot of people are very strident about their opinions and aren't really interested in socializing with you unless your willing to be converted to whatever it is that they're being strident about. I don't think it's as big of a deal as it would have been in high school though.

Well, I didn't really pay any attention to other people at school last year.
But this year I have a friend in my class, and I don't really talk to anyone else... So I still don't know. But I've recently found out that I really like socializing and almost everyone knows about my autism now.
I'll be on my own for a (little) while, because my one friend is traveling, so who knows what I'll find out? ^^

Yes, I've noticed this a lot at my school.

There are the "popular people", they all hang out with each other, but I've noticed that they also have their own little sub-groups for their closer friends. Since they are popular, you can't really tell who each one is "best friends" with.

The semi-populars also all talk to each other(thats the "clique" I'm in) but there are sub-groups and it is obvious who everyones "best friend" is.

I've also noticed that there are cliques that are based on race. My school is diverse, so I notice that all the Asian or Muslim students tend to have their own "clique".

Then theres the jocks/athletic students who are in their own clique, but may also be part of the "popular" clique.

I noticed at my school the jocks; doesn't matter what grade; are all drawn to each other.

There's this large 20-30 group of 10th graders that play sports; they are friends with around 5-10 11th graders; they're like a jock one...

Do you like that there is "cliques" or do you think its pointless?

I always thought it was weird; just boxing everyone into little groups like that...

My school is for people who for one reason or another can't go to public school. There are kids with bipolar, kids with autism, kids who are really advanced in one area, but suck at another. There is a sense of "community of outcasts," but even we are not immune to cliques. There are four main groups, but a lot of overlap between them. They are the nerds, the artsy people, the jocks, and the human rights activists. They are roughly equal in size, and overlap. They often will have official school sponsored events e. g. basketball, tennis, field trips to art museums, LARPing events, DnD games, Magic the Gathering games and weekly diversity and Queer Straight alliance meetings

Yes. Within both the staff and student cores.