By Tanner Wagner
“The finest movie about American high school life ever made.” That is what critics have to say about the renowned movie, The Breakfast Club. The movie examines American teenagers who struggle to find their identities in a world where parents and educators box kids in with presumptuous labels. I like to think the result of looking beyond people’s appearance and understanding their true selves is, “The Breakfast Club effect.” When people from all different backgrounds and defining characteristics come together.
To see if students at Delavan-Darien High School have experienced the effect, I sent a survey to our student body and individuals who attend nearby schools and got responses back from over 30 students at each school. The other schools surveyed were Big Foot and Williams Bay, and all recipients were chosen at random. The hypothesis, before the survey, was that students at DDHS have experienced “The Breakfast Club effect” and the stereotypical cliques as a whole feel comfortable expressing themselves around others here and are even friends. From all of the schools that had been surveyed, there were replies from every generalized group of students making the data less biased.
Almost 40% of all recipients stated they are placed in a box by others and would describe themselves in a completely different way. The way others perceive us is not always reality and this is exactly why the process of understanding an individual’s true self is important. This means we can’t make assumptions about each other based on the activities we participate in, who we sit with at lunch, or how we dress each day.
Most interesting is the fact that 92% of Delavan students feel comfortable or accepting of peers in other social groups, or are actually friends with peers in other social groups. This differs from surrounding schools with only 71% at Williams Bay and 79% at Big Foot. The difference in percentages between schools may show a lack of engagement between students in those schools — something that is so vital to a harmonious environment.
The traditional labels for students are not as strict at Delavan because we break “social barriers” all the time. I believe we have a more inclusive and understanding student body than other schools. Most people do not move beyond social labels until later in life; they are older when they learn to appreciate the unfamiliar opinions and ideas of others. Here at Delavan, we are lucky to be surrounded by people with different backgrounds and we make an effort to understand each other.
A quote from The Breakfast Club describes the idea that as teenagers we have been taught to believe we will fit a specific role, but breaking free from those limiting labels will completely change our mindset: “You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That’s the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed.” For most of us, this will be the last time we are surrounded by hundreds of people our age who are all in similar stages of life; therefore, it is the most important time to realize what we have in each other. Of course, there are cliques at our school, but I believe our student body does not let these labels define who we are or who we surround ourselves with. The open-minded attitude of our student body here at Delavan is all a result of what I like to call “The Breakfast Club effect.”
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