Many social class and divisions are apparent in many places and institutions in our society. The place where many of these divisions are most obvious to me is in our public school system. When the children enter middle schoolssocial groups begin to form and separate from each other. Later these divisions change and morph to reflect the social needs of their members, and they become more solid.
When I was beginning seventh grade I moved to a new town and a new school system. This gave me a perspective on the social system that was taking shape in the school that few people had. I was an outsider and came on to the scene with a clean slate. Even at a young age it was very apparent that a social structure with distinct lines that be crossed by a select few. Like everyone else I quickly fell into one of the many groups that existed in the school.
A segment of a social network
English: Mccall middle school
Ellenville Middle School, Ellenville, NY, USAAs time passed many of these clicks faded away and the lines blurred between the groups, but the main difference in the social makeup of groups in high school and middle school was that in middle school it was clear that one group was higher in status than another. This left more conflict to exist in and between groups. In high school the ability to fulfill the need of every human to connect and express themselves with others became easier to meet. So the social groups became more of a label of if someone was a redneck or not than an actual determination of social status.
What would make this ability to distinguish one group above another at such a young age important? The easiest way to analyze this is to look at the social structure from the three sociological perspectives...