Freshmen are despised by all. Sophomores are just glad they’re not freshmen. Juniors are overexerted, terrified of senior year. Seniors are always loopy. This is the hierarchy of high school, a view shared worldwide. While our charter school may be different, so far the stereotypical hierarchy of high school has predominated.

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With the addition of high school to UME, the stereotypes people generally associate with it have come as well. What is it that makes a freshman so despicable to the others? No one really knows, but many feel it, even as they themselves go through their first year of high school, demonstrated by the 11th grader Tyson Jones’ statement, “I even hated myself as a freshman.” Despite the best intentions to be a different school, the feelings remain, and the hierarchy slowly takes over.

 

Jonathan Villanueva, another 11th grader, offers this explanation for the feeling of disgust for the freshman, which certainly is true: “[T]he juniors and seniors are busy with applying to college… freshmen don't [get it] because they have not gone through this [process]”. This explains the chasm between the upperclassmen and the lowerclassmen. The freshmen are clueless, while the seniors struggle with the stress of facing the real world. Sophomores are just beginning to grasp the concept of stress that comes with junior year. Undoubtedly, this shows the stereotypes that have appeared at UME.

 

Overall, stereotypes are a part of life and high school, and not even UME can escape it. 10/14/16