School CliquesThe sounds of laughter and excitement resonate throughout the courtyard on a bright, sunny day, typical for classes of elementary school students, during recess and the hurt feelings of the "popular" girls " of the class, because they called another classmate's clothes ugly. What gives these girls the privilege of destroying another person's feelings and self-esteem belongs to one word: cliques. This word can bring fun, joy and happiness, or sadness, low self-esteem and depression in students of all ages. A clique is a formation of people, a kind of army, a leader and followers. The problem with cliques is that they promote fun and excitement while deep down they also destroy followers and viewers. A clique may seem cool, but a person can survive without it, because sometimes they do more harm than good. Cliques have been a part of school life for generations (Johnson 89) and as the years go by they seem to get worse. Cliques are, fundamentally, friendship circles, whose members tend to identify each other as mutually connected (Adler and Adler 56). A person can see how a clique relates to an army by having a leader and followers, and how cliques have power over others in rank, the same way an army has power over a country. A clique functions as a body of power within the rank; incorporating the most popular individuals, offering the most exciting social lives, and generating the most interest (Adler and Adler 56). A clique is made up of a leader, the one who is in control; followers who do what the leader says; and the wannabes who would do anything to be part of the clique. Researcher Laura Sessions Stepp, who wrote Our Last Best Shot, Guiding Our Children...... middle of paper... the early signs are that many nine-year-olds do not yet have the emotional equipment to manage waste and small torments (Adler and Adler 90). Friendships are destroyed and ruined when one friend is accepted and the other is rejected. Eva, a 12-year-old attending school in New York, said: “It's not worth being popular if you're not happy. It's better to be yourself” (Johnson 90). That's what life is about too, being yourself and being happy, and if a 12 year old knows that, we should have seen that too. Works Cited Adler, Patricia M. and Peter Adler. Power of peers. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998. Johnson, Beth. "Back to School 2001: The Trouble with Cliques." Good Housekeeping August 2001: 89-90. Meltz, Barbara F. "Middle School Cliques: A Common Challenge." Boston Globe 27 September 2001, section. H: 8.