The Adolescent Society of the High School

Abstract

Canadian high school youth act in a conventional manner and are bearers of a conventional culture.² This point of view seems applicable to our Canadian high school society and appears to have validity in the light of recent studies. The high schools are the common stamping- grounds for this segment of the youth population. The deviant or the rebel in the adolescent society, like his counterPart in any society, is rejected, and eventually withdraws or drops out of his peer group. Thus we would expect to have at least two sub-groups within the adolescent culture, and we should look for these in order to understand the adolescent social system better. One would be the group which remains in school; the members of this group represent the ultraconservative, traditional, and conforming members of the adolescent society. The members of the second group are out of school and represent the more non-conforming and rebellious members of the total adolescent population. It is with the former group that I wish to deal. The members of this group are easily identified; and for my Particular purposes of observation and study, they were easily accessible.

No claim is made for the universality to Canadian youth of these statements, for they are based upon observations made and data gathered from a group of senior high school students in but one city, Saskatoon. The bicultural nature of Canada prevents generalizing on a national level. Nor can the data be generalized to all adolescent youth; rather, it must be delimited to the members of the high school society.