Entering the doors for the first day of high school, the last thing you would expect to see is kids dancing on the table singing about sticking to the status quo. You would not expect to see a bunch of kids breaking into unplanned perfectly choreographed song and dance in the middle of the day. And you definitely would not expect to not see a bunch of clique obsessed kids who are scared to venture outside their groups. Shocking right? 

A lot of movies about high school, such as “He’s All That” (yes the corny remake with Addison Rae) and “Tall Girl,” tend to show the same types of things, such as stereotypes and relationships, when it comes to depicting high school. However, the reality of high school is that although some aspects of these movies are accurate, most of them are not. 

The “Troy and Gabriella” whirlwind romance

Let’s be honest: being in a “Troy and Gabriella” relationship where you and your partner make it through everything, do everything together and make everyone jealous sounds kind of amazing. Finding “the one” without having your heart broken countless times along the way would be great. But the chances of that are low. Some high school couples go on fancy dates and spend all their time together, but most do not. In reality, they fight about how they looked at that one person in the hallway, then go home and lip sync “Gotta go my own way” from “High School Musical.” 

While movies like “High School Musical” and “The Kissing Booth” show the adorable couples who are from different cliques, go from hating each other to being in love, or having forbidden love, sadly, that is all cinematic. As high school has taught us, most couples will not date all throughout school and grow old together. Some may date 10 people, and some might not date at all. Either way, having the “Troy and Gabriella” just is not in the cards for most people. 

The endless high school tropes 

Let’s not get started on the dumb blondes who have a brain the size of a pea. After all, what is a high school movie without all of the endless high school stereotypes and stigmas? The stereotypes go all the way from every jock in the school being stupid to there always being one queen of the school who is in charge. While there are some people who are up on their high horse and think they own the school, there certainly is no Regina George or Blair Waldorf in typical high schools. Just to clear it up: not all cheerleaders are mean, not all nerds are introverted or ugly and just because you are a jock does not mean you can not spell your own name. And sure, every high school has bullies, blondes and jocks who fit some stereotypes, it just does not include everyone. 

No clique switching 

Everyone has that one “main” group of friends that they hangout with, but that does not mean it is their only group. It is not forbidden to hang out with your friends from soccer during lunch and your band friends during break. Not only do kids interact with different groups, but groups mix. It is not forbidden territory for a band kid to talk to a football player. And unlike the movies, the different cliques do not hate each other. 

Gossip blasts to the whole school

Did you get the recent school-wide blast about who Jane Doe is dating now? No, you probably did not because another myth of the movies is that everyone has everyone else’s phone number. Half the time, different grades not only do not know what is going on with the other grades, but they do not even know the gossip about everyone in their own grade, maybe even all their names for that matter. And even if, by some chance, news about something gets out to the entire school, not everyone cares. Let’s face it: most people are too preoccupied with their own life to care about someone else’s gossip.

Not all about school spirit 

Most of us have probably seen how big school spirit also is in these movies. Kids breaking into random dances at a basketball game singing about how they are all in it together and how “Wildcats everywhere, wave your hands up in the air.” Yeah no. High school is more like the parts of the movie that are not shown. Classes followed by more classes and a bigger stress on grades rather than school spirit. Minus the occasional pep rallies and games, no one is that big on school spirit 24/7.

The reality of high school 

While movies about high school show unbreakable friend groups and fairytale dating, most of the time, it is just not true. It is just a lot of sets, scripts and 22-year-olds playing teenagers. Hagerty High is not anything like East High, North Shore or any other movie-set high school, and no real high school is.