High school teacher shares surprising observations on high school cliques: 'All love, no slander'

As every teen drama has taught us, high school students tend to form friend groups depending on how they look and dress, as well as what activities or interests they enjoy. While these cliques may have evolved over time, they do still exist. Ms. C (@stillateacher), a high school teacher, went viral for her perspective on the high school cliques she comes across while teaching and revealing what she appreciates about each of them.

She dissected a few classic high school cliques, presenting some startling views from a teacher's point of view. She captioned the video clip, "Something loveable about every clique" while uploading it on TikTok. "Here's what I enjoy about teaching each of the high school cliques," she says. "Are cliques a problem? Yes. Do they still exist? Yes. Are there genuinely great, sweet kids in every clique? Yes. So this one's all love, no slander."

She first spills the beans about the classic "goth" group. We might perceive them to have a tough exterior and a dark persona but they aren't all that they seem. While explaining that they are actually really sweet, Ms. C says: "When I was in high school, I was scared of goth kids, so I didn't talk to them. Now that I'm a teacher and I talk to everyone, I've realized that goth kids can be so nice. A common interaction between me and a goth kid is throughout class, they're just kind of like giving me a death glare, but it may just be the way their eyeliner is drawn on. And then after class, they just like linger around by my desk and I'm like, ‘Hey, what's up?’ And they'll just like lightly knock over something on my desk and be like, ‘You're a really good teacher. This is my favorite class,’ and then just walk out. And it means a lot coming from that really hardened exterior. You're like, 'I know you mean this.'"

She then talks about theatre kids. "They really don't care what anyone thinks," she says. "When kids are like, 'What are we listening to?' They're just like, 'The best musical of all time!'" They also tend to have really strong literacy skills from reading and memorizing all of these plays. They can just like, quote Shakespeare off the cuff. Oh, and if you ever need anyone to read aloud something in class, they'll like to go up to the front of the room and do a dramatic reading. It's great," she explains.

Depending on the sports students play, she explains that there are sub-cliques within the jock clique. Ms. C claims that when one of her pupils has a helpful coach, her relationship with that student is better nurtured. She also attributes her enthusiasm to jocks. "A lot of the kids are just like die-hards for whatever sport they play. That keeps them coming to school consistently. It keeps them having something to do," she adds. 

The video went viral with more than 800k views and on viewers' demand, she also covered band kids, art kind and overachievers. She talks about how band kids can make themselves comfortable anywhere, how art kids have showered her with many art creations and how she receives brilliant answers in class from the overachievers.

According to viewers, she was on point. "Love this!! All of them - so true! One year the entire baseball team walked in day 1, shook my hand and said, 'I play baseball; please don’t fail me,'" commented @tiffdub3. "In middle school, I was the only goth kid... Parents hated me and school staff loved me because I was the polite quiet kid," shared @discountadult3.14. Ms. C also proved that people belonging to cliques go beyond their stereotypes.