Cliques

A critical structural form organizing the social arrangement of adolescent lives is the clique, says Patricia A Adler and Peter Adler of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver respectively. They further state that this primary group colors the character of children's adolescent years and shapes their socialization to adult live. Many teenagers believe the only way to be recognized is to be affiliated with the popular crowd this is behavior that some sociologist speculate is a natural social order. Although this behavior is frowned upon in many school systems in other countries it is disregarded in the Trinidad and Tobago secondary school system as being irrelevant to normal school functions. This in my opinion is demoralizing and illustrates ignorance to adolescent social problems.

There are many factors that bring about cliques in high schools. Some are based on wealth, style, race, and athletic and musical interest. But in many cases there are cliques that are mixtures of these elements. This type of clique is the one I like to call the "cool kids." In my opinion, they all can be very demeaning and superficial. Cliques are the some total of adolescent social tendencies, which creates a jungle or darwinistic environment in schools that I call the clique phenomenon that can ultimately affect academic productivity in the secondary/high school environment. The school system in Trinidad and Tobago is similar to that of the English system primarily because of the fact that we were once a colony of England.

The system comprises of three levels or four in some cases, it commences and the preschool level attendants are usually of ages 2 to 5. Then there is the primary school system which lasts up to seven years including first and second year infants and standards 1 to