Fitting In, Standing Out: Navigating the Social Challenges of High School to Get an Education

In American high schools, teenagers must navigate complex youth cultures that often prize being real while punishing difference. Adults may view such social turbulence as a timeless, ultimately harmless rite of passage, but changes in American society are intensifying this rite and allowing its effects to cascade into adulthood. Integrating national statistics with interviews and observations from a single school, this book explores this phenomenon. It makes the case that recent macro-level trends, such as economic restructuring and technological change, mean that the social dynamics of high school can disrupt educational trajectories after high school; it looks at teenagers who do not fit in socially at school - including many who are obese or gay - to illustrate this phenomenon; and it crafts recommendations for parents, teachers, and policymakers about how to protect teenagers in trouble. The end result is a story of adolescence that hits home with anyone who remembers high school.