This discussion topic goes along with the movie we seen last week. I was honestly shocked at some of the scenes in the movie with different classes. I was wondering what scenes shocked or particularly stood out to you guys too.

One scene in particular that stood out to me was the single mother of 2 boys that lived in the trailer, and walked 10 miles everyday to work at Burger King. You can call me nieve, but I guess I've just never had an inside look at poverty on that level.

Also, as far as cliques in high schools, Im curious as to which cliques many of you belonged to, if any. Me personally, I feel like I never fit into a clique, I always had friends everywhere, in all cliques. But there was definately the jocks, the preps, the goths, the rednecks, etc. What about at yall's schools?

I guess with this thread, Im just interested in hearing what all of you think also.

I can't really say that I was shocked by the movie. I thought that it was interesting to hear the different sides coming from the people experiencing it instead of an outsider. Usually there's a specialist that gets on t.v. and talks about how the rich and poor people live in our society, when in reality they don't have a clue.
I'm glad you brought up the woman living in the trailer, because I have to say I think I liked her more than anyone else on the video. I can't say that I relate to her, but I know in my experiences working with underpriviledged families, she is a rare case. More than once I have seen families such as her's, only the parents choose to abuse the welfare system. I'm sorry, but that makes me so angry. There are people out there who work their butts off and can't get a break, and then there are people who figure out the system and choose to abuse it. Sorry, soap box moment. Anyway, as I was saying, it was good to see a woman in her position working so hard to make a better life for her kids, and still keeping a dream.
As for the cliques, I was a lot like Emily. I had friends from every group. However, in my school the cliques weren't that big, and most of the students were like me. But I guess it's like that in most small schools. It's hard not to know everyone around you.

That same woman caught my attention as well, but for a different reason. I wonder how that womans father would have answered the camera crews questions and how he felt about his children and his life. In the video the woman said she was doing everything she could do for her two boys and providing for them as much as she could, and because of that the boys were acting and dressing better than she was. The older son especially knew that the life he would live would be "better" than that of his mothers. But i wonder if as a teenage this woman knew her life would be better than her fathers; and then stove to prove herself right and forgot her dream when it comes to her sons.

In another part of the movie someone said "(Everyone) is trying to be the best person they can be for themselves and for their children"

I think that is all this mother is trying to do for her sons and it is probably the same dream her father had for her.

... any thoughts...

I agree with what you're saying Lisa.

I have to also say that coming from a family of 22 children, you aren't going to get much in the way of money. So anything this woman ever wanted for herself, Im sure she was forced to go at it alone.

One thing that I have to say though also, if I were that woman, my children would be helping me out more! I think it'd be really important for me to instill in them hard work ethic and not let them sit around the trailer and be lazy! If I was walking 10 miles to work everyday, my kids could do things around the house, or even work for that matter. I know plenty of people who go to school full time AND keep a job AND keep themselves up totally solo.

I guess I just feel like the kids could be helping out the mom at least a little bit more. But, maybe that's just me!

I agree with both what Lisa and Emily have said. Those boys should be doing a lot more to help out their mother, but I was also surprised by the attitude of the older son. Although Lisa could be right, and he may forget his dream of a "better" life and end up the same way as his mother, it made me really happy to hear that boy say that he wanted to go to college and hoped to get a good job. He seemed like he cared about school and worked to get good grades and he didn't let the situation of his family and income keep him from believing that if he worked at it he could have a better life.

the story of the woman and her kids was also the one that i left class thinking most about. 10 miles. everyday. that is something that my mind can not even fathom. i think in the back of my mind i knew that for some people that way of life was a reality, but i don't think i had ever seen it depicted quite so literally. when she was walking to work and the rain was pouring down on her i just couldn't help but wonder what was she thinking. is she mad at the situation she is in? she said she wants to go to college and be a teacher, but in her deepest reality, does she believe that is truly possible? can she get out of this poverty? she said at the end of the segment, "i don't know what else to do..." i just can't imagine. and then i find myself thinking about how here i am paying so many thousand dollars for this "education" and yet more can be learned from her life than from so many classrooms. even when i write this i sit in my nice apartment, all safe and warm, typing away at my computer, knowing that i don't have to worry about how i will pay for food and it's so humbling....

I was a nerd, and d*mn proud of it. By the time senioritis set in, my "identity" morphed into social nerd -- NHS officer, president for clubs, all that jazz that sounds good on the surface -- and it won me a class superlative (which was a feat in a class of 460). Most my friends were the kind who compared SAT scores and GPA's in some vain fight for the highest rank (our class valedictorian became a Rhodes Scholar) but my southern, religious upbringing humbled me out of competing academically, ... even from Quiz Bowl.

I drove the typical, giant SUV to school but carpooled 3 peeps on the way to and from school. They were an upper-middle class, white preppy girl, a midddle-class, white goth/computer geek, and a lower-middle class black, choral chick. The SUV was packed wtih friends from different walks of life for lunch: the cheerleaders and I went to Miami Sub, the band geeks liked Bojangles, -- but my closest friends were the artsy types, so we ate bag lunches outside on the ground. It was a city school; there were many ethnicities and religions (from Jewish to Islamic) and orientations (like an open transsexual) that it seemed people were more open- than closed-minded, yet I admit to only seeing the jocks and gangs from a distance.

As far as the video, I most identified with the girl who moved from a small town to DC and feels like she doesn't fit in with either place.

I think Lisa made an interesting point about the boy being who is mom wanted him to be in sense. Yes I agree that he appeared pretty disrespectul and ingrateful, but if you think about it, he is that way almost because he wants to be different and rise above. Which is what his mom is working for him to do. I dont know if this makes sense but I found it interesting. What attitude does it take to rise above? one of contentment or one of discontentment?
The part that stood out to me was the part about the grocery stores in Burlington Vermont. I think this stood out to me because alot of my family is from Vermont. I guess they would classify in to the co-op grocery shoppers. Not because they are wealthy by any means but because of values they have that I guess would make them hippyish. I think this is very similar to Boone and the Earthfare conversation we had. But what really stood out to me was the intense anger of that one women. She was pointing fingers and yelling like crazy. I dont know her specific story but I do know that this issue was more than a grocery store to her.

I find that there were many cliques at our school. Like others we had the preps, geeks, goths, jocks, rednecks, etc. It seems though as I remember even though there were cliques everyone seem to get along pretty good. I mean of course the entire school was not friends, but for the most part there was no trouble unless trouble makers caused it. I remember in lunch everyone would sit with their group of friends but you would find people finishing their lunch up and mingling with other people. I really liked this aspect of my high school.
As for college I have found that sterotyping is worse. I am a cheerleader at ASU and our coach tells us that everywhere he goes he hears about how we like to party and drink. Which is not true. I am guessing that a couple of years ago the cheerleading program here was not as serious and the cheerleaders might have drink a bunch and went to parties. Now, we practice 4 nights a week and have game days on Saturday. Between that and school many of use dont have time to do anything.
It is just bad how if one person gets sterotyped in a certain clique it seems like all of the people get the same sterotype. Like people in frats and sororities. They are sterotyped as party girls and boys aslo. Not saying all of them stay sober, but I am sure that some of the girls and boys are not the partying type. Just bc one has been sterotypes the whole group is.

I agree with Jessica, that I did not find the video very "shocking" at all.

Maybe it's because my family has at least one friend in each of those "classes".

So this is kind of interesting to me. I guess my family is upperish-middle class... but among my particular group of friends, I was at the lower end. In other words, I was always the one who "couldn't afford" to do certain things...

Where we live, there are people up the road who are extremely "lower" class... and on the next road over, there are houses that are so expensive it blows my mind. I guess when my parents moved there, it was mostly farmers. One woman up the road used to babysit me when I was little. Another family has a boy who was good friends with my brother. We knew that they had less money than we did, but it never really mattered. My dad is a well-respected lawyer in our area, but most of his friends are farmers. Some of the parties we go to border on the "redneck"-type scenes in the movie. A lot of my dad's clients are also of a somewhat lower class, and they are his friends. However, he is also friends with the other lawyers, the judges, and also the police officers in town.

My dad's parents reminded me of the more "upper" class people... My grandfather is a retired surgeon, and my grandma served on the Virginia House of Delegates. Their friends all have similar financial situations... yet they are always doing charity work of some sort.

I could think of people I know that remind me of all of the people in the video. I guess I didn't really see anything that I hadn't seen before.

Except for those lawn sculptures. I guess that's just not so popular around where I live. Maybe I should get a gnome for my family.

I was a cheerleader in high school and I was friends with all the other cheerleaders, footballs players, and other people that didn’t do anything with sports. However, I talked to everyone and sometimes other “cliquesâ€