Ask Lemmy

It's pretty much the same kind of thing as Japanese schools portrayed in anime: the major points are often accurate, but the specifics are exaggerated and certain things get disproportionate focus, because those are the "most entertaining" parts.

Do many Japanese schools have culture festivals? Yes. Is it every Japanese highschoolers most important event of the year where major life changing events happen? No.

Do many US highschools have prom and homecoming? Yes. Is it the highlight of every teenager's school experience? No.

It's all based on something real, but it's exaggerated, and definitely not a universal experience for everyone everywhere.

I should also note that the stereotypical American highschool you see in TV shows and movies is heavily modeled after 70s/80s/90s school life, because those are the people creating the shows/movies.

This is the type of question I receive if non Japanese people ask: "Are high schools in Japan like anime?" and the answer I give is: "no" since that's not reflective of what actual school life is.

You mean Japanese schools don't usually have student councils that rival state governments in political power?

Schools in the US are run at a very local level, and so there's a HUGE amount of variance across the nation.

That said: The busses really are yellow. That part is accurate.

The whole jocks & bullies thing was alive and well when I was in public school in the US.

I mean most shows and movies skip over the actual classes, but they’re usually not too far from my high school experience. I skipped prom and homecoming, but they did matter to some people depending on what clique you were in. Cliques and their clashes were definitely real. One group would pick on another or have some kind of drama.

The general description you gave is very accurate to American schools. How it goes about on TV is not.

sorta back in my time. The thing is very few boys try out for football and even fewer make it. same with cheerleading. bullies and being picked on. yuppers. obsession over popularity im pretty sure but anyone popular has to keep their obsession on the dl because its generally not cool really. hanging out after school or at someones house. of course. drinking if you can get away with it. yuppers. some students are super diligent and study every night and often on weekends. some don't do any of their work. most are in between. all that was from my time though. our local high schools got refurbished and have large kinda social hangout areas near the cafeterias which are generally more open. Im not even sure where the lockers are. now most all ingress and egress is limited to a few monitored spots. for awhile kids had to wear their ids around their neck but now they have them on their phone. the attendance desk is more chill and easy going to. so thats near me anyway.

Yes, but often they are portraying the wealthy elite and large schools. Because this is where most of the people who are in Hollywood went to school... and that's what they know.

No, to 99.999% of high schools, which are mostly boring, mediocre, and mundane. I went to a high school where there were no cliques, because it was only like 600 kids, and all of us were too poor to dress up as goths/preps/jocks/etc. I knew people who went to high schools with 10,000+ kids, and some who went to ones that were like 100 kids. The culture/experience of all these schools tend to be very very different.

High school is entirely a product of the state/city/geography of where you live. In rural areas some kids take like 1hr+ rides to schools, in the city they often walk to take the subway to school, etc. In major urban areas with lots , there are often specialized high schools (science, performing arts, trades, etc).

On the extremes, the small rural and huge urban schools there often isn't sports teams and proms and all that stuff, but for most average schools, it exists but it's not a big deal. Depends on the local culture. In Texas, for example, often high school football stadiums seat 10,000+ people... because Texas. Where I went to school nobody cared much about the football team, mostly because they were awful and almost always lost. But our soccer team and our marching band were 'cool' because they regularly won championships.

My college however, was very much like what you see on TV/Movies.

ABSOLUTELY not.

To add to the rest of the comments. It also depends on how far from a city you are. Most of the high school depictions on tv are based on smaller suburbana and rural high schools where there is a better chance to know people. When you go to a school that has 3,000 kids, it’s a bit harder for all of that to happen. Especially if you rush to class and have no time to hang out in between periods. My high school had bullies, but it did not have a real jock or cheerleader crowd.

Nothing is like it is portrayed in fiction

The activities and stuff is accurate, just always turned up to 11.