First things first, Troy Bolton is not the realest; high school students do not only take one class with Mrs. Darbis and we do not break out into thematic songs whenever we are feelin’ it.

  Growing up with High School Musical basically being a religion, I had some false assumptions about high school.

  Obviously I knew we weren’t all going to break out into song about how much we love high school or sing about how to “work this out” when a problem arose, but disappointed would be a word I would associate with the notions made in this film.

  High school is not exactly the place that we all look forward to spending our day everyday. Extremely challenging classes, cliques, frustrating teachers and homework which consumes your entire day and into the night is not exactly a teenagers’, or anyone’s, idea of a good time.

  How could Troy Bolton, known as lunkhead basketball boy, get accepted into the University of California, Berkeley? Grades in high school are the bread and butter of your future.  No one with the work ethic of Troy Bolton would ever get into a school like Cal.  Not once did we see him open a book or even do homework.  Wouldn’t it be nice to go through high school like that, and be able to get into Cal? Yeah, same.

  I would also love to dance and sing on the roof in the rain instead of going to class.  But no, these things are not allowed in high school.

  Apparently at East High, there were no rules.  Kids could go anywhere, leave when they wanted and wear what they wanted.  

  This is not reality. I attend a high school where we cannot leave as we please and we can’t show our shoulders because our administration believe people will not be able to focus during the school day.

  I, being an avid High School Musical enthusiast, am not here to derail the film or say that it should not have been made, because this movie makes my day 100 times happier every time I watch it.  However, the unrealistic qualities of the film are ironic and set themselves up to be ridiculed.

 Mean Girls is also a classic example of a popular and unrealistic representation of high school.  

  At Granite Bay High School, we do not have any “plastics,” and I can’t imagine people similar to the popular girls portrayed in the movie actually exist in the real world, outside of the media.

  Yes, there are cliques and exclusive groups and disrespectful people in high schools, but this movie takes it to another level.  

  Movie directors and scriptwriters over embellish these films with extreme versions of what ACTUALLY occurs in a high school.  

  High School Musical is on one side of the spectrum, optimistic and positive, whereas Mean Girls jumps to the other end conveying the exaggerated version of the horrors of high school.  

  Reality is somewhere smack dab in the center of these representations.  

  Yes, we like to say that we hate school and that we would rather be doing anything else, but in reality, is high school really the worst place we could be?