High School: Difference between revisions

[[File:2003877392881690582_rs2003877392881690582 rs.jpg|link=High School Musical|frame|<small>Just one of many [[Sarcasm Mode|highly accurate]] depictions.</small> ]]

The archetypical high school set consists of a single hallway lined with [[Stuffed Into a Locker|wide lockers]], and three doorways leading to a classroom, the principal's office, and a rest room. An interesting note is that in [[Real Life]], many high schools in the southern and western parts of the US are "open-air" -- meaning—meaning, classroom doors open to the outside, and there are no hallways at all. It's [[Egregious]] with the many high school-centric television shows set in California, a state which has almost exclusively open-air campuses. It should be noted that the big gothic-looking schools of film were designed for maximum heat in winter. In the Mediterranean climate where this is less of an issue, open air schools were built to keep classrooms cool, but once air conditioning became universal in schools in the 2000s, the trend went back towards one large building.

You will notice that the writers often base high school themed works off of where ''they'' went to high school, or off of popular stereotypes that are present in a lot of high schools. Part of the reason [[Alpha Bitch]], [[Bookworm]], and [[Jerk Jock]] tropes are ''so'' prevalent in these works is because ''everybody'' knew someone like that. (Detailed below) It's often heavily exaggerated, too, for [[Rule of Funny]] and [[Rule of Drama]]. As a result of how different all schools are from one another, there's going to be somebody in the audience saying "Have these guys ever actually ''been'' to high school?!"

Fictional American high schools are almost always named after historical presidents of the United States, with the more obscure 19th-century presidents ([[Head of the Class|Fillmore]], [[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide|Polk]], [[Glee|McKin]][[Freaks and Geeks|ley]]...) most favored though other famous historical figures may be used as well. Hillariously obscure or inappropriate figures (such as George Wallace or [[Thirteen (Theatre)13|Dan Quayle]]) may be chosen for comedic effect. A high school named for the community where it is located [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|(Sunnydale High)]] is often used to invoke a small-town or suburban setting and geographic names like [[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|Moperville North and Moperville South]] usually indicate that a cross-town rivalry is going to figure into the plot. These are the most common sources of names for US high schools in the real world as well.

As the high school setting is crucial to the formula of the show, producers often find ways to [[NotComic AllowedBook to Grow UpTime|draw out the high school experience]]. Almost all shows start in freshman year. On ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'', an extreme case, the producers actually had the students go to junior year twice. Finally, the cast is often made to attend a [[California University]] to keep the group together.

A word about school dress codes here -- fromhere—from the mid-90s to the early '00s, an entire trend towards stricter dress codes and uniforms in American public schools has developed, peaked, and largely died out with hardly [[No Dress Code|any notice from the creators of fiction]]. There are a number of reasons for this -- itthis—it started after the creators were out of school, the Real Life version of this trend was more common in elementary schools (and never even considered as an option by some 80% of them), varied clothing helps in characterization, the creators want their cast to look cool to teen viewers, the actors can't wear golf shirts and khakis without looking like [[Dawson Casting|computer salesmen]] -- the—the upshot is, if there's a strict dress code in a fictional American public school, chances are it's a [[Compressed Vice]] and probably also a [[Chekhov's Gun]]. Exception: a "no-hat" rule is probably ''more'' common than in [[Real Life]], as it's useful for justifying an absence of baseball caps which make lighting difficult in live action and are hard to render accurately through 360deg in animation.

Fiction tends to regard the [['''High School]]''' and its students as [[Serious Business|central to the workings of the Universe]]. Adult characters will always look back on their high school years as either the best or the worst of their lives, and will remember every detail of their time in high school as if it had just taken place the previous day. This is generally not [[Truth in Television]]; most adults (or at least those who were not abused) barely remember high school, considering it as a relatively unimportant prelude to their real, adult lives. Other times they may hold an idealized vision of high school due to the [[Nostalgia Filter]], blocking out all the stuff they ''hated'' about high school and only remember the stuff they liked. Despite this, high school is about the only experience that a majority of the adult audience is guaranteed to have in common, even if they failed to graduate.

A subtrope is [[Inner-City School]]. When the [['''High School]]''' days are overtly idealized, it becomes [[High School Rocks]].

* The CLAMP school, which shows up in ''[[CLAMP School Detectives]]'' and ''[[X 1999|X/1999]]'', is in the shape of a pentagram and contains all of the facilities necessary for daily life. In fact, the whole of the CLAMP campus contains schools from kindergarten through highly advanced university, and houses in excess of ten thousand students, plus various other people. The claim that it is wholly self-sufficient is made at least once.

* Miyagami Academy, the school in (and main setting of) ''[[Best Student Council (Anime)|Best Student Council]]'', is not only huge, it has a cannon that its [[Absurdly Powerful Student Council]] can use and an underground tube (with high-speed roller coaster-style chair) connecting the dorm and main school building.

* ''[[Azumanga Daioh (Manga)|Azumanga Daioh]]'' falls into this category, though it's in a Japanese high school and those usually don't have lockers in the hallway.

* [[Pani Poni Dash!]]. Welcome to Momotsuki Academy, where one of the classes is governed by 11-year-old supergenius Rebecca Miyamoto.

* [[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]] The show setting is of Duel Academia, a high school for learning how to play the card game Duel Monsters. [[Serious Business|Why parents would send their kids to a high school for the sole purpose of learning how to become more skilled at a fairly ridiculous children's game is anyone's guess]].

* In ''[[Angel Beats (Anime)|Angel Beats!]]!'', the high school is eventually revealed {{spoiler|to literally be Purgatory, intended to purify the souls of dead high school students to let go of their regrets.}}

* ''[[Heathers]]'', a [[Black Comedy]] about doing in the [[Alpha Bitch|Alpha Bitches]]es, a [[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Ancestor]] to ''[[Mean Girls]]''.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'''s [[Wizarding School|Hogwarts]] is the magical equivalent of both [[Middle School]] and [[High School]].

* In ''[[1632]]'' a West Virginia mining town circa 2000 is transported back in time and the local high school becomes the greatest repository of human knowledge in the world. The author then demonstrates just how much knowlegde is available in such a typical school.

* ''[[Welcome Back, Kotter]]'' was set in Buchanan High, and followed the archetype of a single hall and classroom.

* ''[[Saved Byby the Bell]]'' also had the archetypical one-hall layout, though was fortunate enough to have multiple classrooms. It also had unisex bathroom scenes, but less often. To further compound the claustrophobic nature of the set, there exists a [https://archive.today/20160616141749/http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/486.html theory] that the entire ''Saved By The Bell'' universe is contained inside the school. Furthermore, Bayside High is an example of [[Television Geography]]: in ''Good Morning Miss Bliss'' (The original title of the series), it was Midwestern, moving to northern California for ''[[Saved Byby the Bell]]''. The selfsame school reappeared years later in ''[[That's So Raven]]'', by which time it had migrated to San Francisco.

* Rarely seen, but ''[[Married... Withwith Children]]'' often referenced James K. Polk High, whose mascot was the Dot.

** Buffy's high school had the obvious drawback of being built directly on top of a gateway to Hell, which tended to give typical school problems a supernatural and lethal twist (oh, and assuming you got out of the place alive, the Hellmouth still made the entire town a magnet for vampires, demons, etc). The school was written out (rather dramatically) in season three, and back in (with a new and different building) in season seven.

* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' had it all, and did a lot of [[Lampshade Hanging]] about it. The school was named for John Adams (probably a reference to the fact that William Daniels, who played one of the only faculty members we ever saw, had played John Adams in both the Broadway play and the film adaptation of ''[[Seventeen Seventy Six|1776]]''); it had two classrooms (to accomodate a second teacher introduced for one season) but only one hallway (The "Senior Hallway" seen in later episodes is the same set shot from a different angle). In one season finale, a recurring character who had left the cast years ago reappeared, and explained his absence by pointing offstage and announcing that all his classes had been down the other hall. The regulars responded with shock and fear, as they had never set foot in that part of the building themselves.

* In ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', Chilton, being a private school, does not obey many of the standard public [[High School]] cliches. However, plot-driven class lengths are so powerful that the average class lasts about three and a half minutes.

* In ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' the characters actually attended junior year twice, in a move to extend the life of the popular show.

* ''[[Lizzie McguireMcGuire]]'' ushered in a newer tween version on the Disney Channel, leading to other, similar shows like ''[[Phil of the Future]]'' and ''[[Hannah Montana]]''.

* ''[[Superhuman Samurai Syber -Squad]]'' featured both a hallway and a cafeteria with a small stage. At one point a closeup of one of the cafeteria walls was used for a scene in the principal's office.

* ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' managed to get the look fairly well with a single T-shaped hallway set, plus classroom, cafeteria and gym sets. They did go through ''three'' different schools as exterior locations over the course of [[Screwed Byby the Network|18 episodes]], however.

* ''[[Strangers Withwith Candy]]'' has Flatpoint High, complete with all the classic sets and a couple of less common ones. Certain teachers spend an unusual amount of time down in the basement, and then there's the teachers' lounge, complete with its own shower. The principal's office also bears the distinction of being accessed via secret passage.

* ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'' has [[The Godfather (Film)|Corleone]] Junior High, [[Sanford and Son|Lamont Sanford]] Junior High and [[The Godfather (Film)|Tattaglia]] High.

* ''[[Escape From St. Marys (Video Game)Mary's|Escape From St Marys]]'': Set fully in a high school, with typical school tasks, like playing basketball, working with the website team, hunting for aliens, traveling through time...

* ''[[Annyseed (Webcomic)|Annyseed]]'' . Despite being set in ''[[The Good Old British Comp]]'' school, it mismatches American high school motifs, such as, lockers and trophy cabernets in the hallway, students wearing their own clothes, and high school stereotypes like, the ''[[Alpha Bitch]]''.

* ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' features two different high schools - Moperville North and Moperville South. Half the cast attends North, while the other half attends South. Moperville North's mascot is "The Frenzied Turkeys". Even though it's a webcomic most of the action takes place in the corridors and cafeterias, just like a TV show.

* [[The Wotch (Webcomic)|The Wotch]] and its spinoff [[Cheer (Webcomic)|Cheer]] are centered around Tandy Gardens High, home of the fighting Kangaroos. Their mascot costume is so embarrassing even their token Australian exchange student refuses to be seen in it.

* When not on world-saving missions, ''[[Kim Possible]]'' and friends attend Middleton High, apparently the only high school in a mid-sized city. The only faculty member seen in most episodes is the [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] coach/teacher, Mr. Barkin. The mascot, portrayed at pep-squad events by hapless sidekick Ron Stoppable, is the Middleton Mad Dog.

* ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' has Pearl Bailey High School.

* ''[[As Told Byby Ginger]]'': All the melodrama and social hurdles of High School, [[Junior High|without the High School]]. Funny thing is, when the characters finally got there, the show got canned.