At Hawthorne High School recently, students easily identified areas where different groups hang out: the basketball players are in a corner near the cafeteria, the rockers near the stage, ditchers and smokers near the school gates and the JV football players and cheerleaders near the field.
The exercise was aimed at focusing students' attention on the many social and cultural barriers formed by cliques on campus and the stereotypes they can engender. Afterward, Hawthorne senior Naya Pierce said she hoped her classmates would begin to reach beyond their tight-knit circles but admitted it would be slow going.
"In school clubs I don't think it will be hard, but school-wide, I don't think there's a lot of school spirit here," said Pierce, 17.
Hawthorne, which has experienced racial tensions among students, is one of many schools in Los Angeles and nationwide taking steps to broaden students' interactions and fight the negative attitudes that can form around social cliques.
In lunchrooms and playgrounds, educators say, children are self-segregating at younger ages and in expanding categories: preppies, geeks, punks, emos, oddballs, hipsters, stoners and delinquents, popular kids, couples and loners, to name some.
Seeking out friends with common interests is not necessarily harmful and can help students become involved on campus, childhood experts say. But such activity becomes destructive when others are excluded based on status, wealth, race and gender, they say. Cliques can affect school culture, increase tensions and embolden bullies. But in addressing such issues, schools are finding that it can be hard to break entrenched habits.
"Cliques are part of how adolescents form their own identity," said David Fassler, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Burlington, Vt. "But involvement can be positive or negative. For some, they provide structure and keep them from getting into trouble, but they can also encourage hatred and bigotry. For teachers and parents, it's important to pay attention."
Hawthorne and other schools are trying new ways to push students out of their comfort zones, such as small-group discussions and assigning random lunch partners. Many schools will participate this week in Mix It Up Day, a national project sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance program that encourages students to cross social boundaries.
