Division and Classification topic: School Labels

Thesis: Labels in school can pertain to a person’s physical traits, their personalities, or their

interests, and can be neutral, insults, or compliments.

1. Firstly, a person’s physical traits are commonly the first things that others see when they

observe a person. Thus, it’s very common for a person to be instantly judged at a

glance.

a. Unfortunately, there are altogether far too many insults in the average student’s

vocabulary. Words like ugly, fat, disgusting and crusty all serve to promote

negativity and deprecating feelings in high schoolers.

i. This could possibly contribute to the statistics of anxiety and depression

in high schoolers. 3 millions teens experienced a major depressive

episode in 2015, according to TIME magazine. This statistic is tragic, and

it’s not an unknown fact that labels are some of the most devastating

insults hurled about a school

ii. Beyond this, these negative labels about a person’s physical appearance

create lasting problems for most people. A lot of physical abnormalities or

“flaws” are unchangeable- mental illnesses are a prime example of this.

It’s impossible for most people with something like autism to change, and

thus these labels stick around and result in an exiled, sad, and likely

depressed teenager.

b. Neutral labels are often defined by those that one surrounds themself with.

i. Being skinny is often a term of envy for many, and sometimes people will

go to great lengths to become skinny- even becoming anorexic or bulimic.

 ii. However, being skinny can also be used as an insult, to say that one isn’t

muscular or fit.

c. Compliments about physical characteristics often are directed to those who’ve

taken the extra step to make themselves look extra good.

i. “Gorgeous”, “beautiful”, “handsome”- these terms are often slung around

during dances or other formal events, where people will intentionally

dress themselves up to look good for others

ii. Social media has also exacerbated this- look to places like snapchat, and

instagram, for people who’ve dedicated themselves to dressing up for a

camera and the likes and validation that come with doing it right.

iii. Getting drunk off approval has never been so easy.

2. It takes 1 minute to know someone and 1 hour to befriend someone. Personality is what Commented [1]: wowza this is irrelevant af
Commented [2]: deep wowza
most people look for secondly after physical appearance.

a. People these days will prejudice others in a way of observing one’s actions.

Assuming someone’s doings to be dumb, annoying or autistic.

i. Insults in personality not only makes students depressed but can serve as

a purpose of dehumanizing others.

ii. One example can be a mentally ill person doing an unreasonable action.

Others will easily assume the person’s personality in a negatively charged

way.

b. Same as physical labels, neutral labels are also defined by those that one

surrounds themself with.

i. Saying someone is a class clown can mean they are humorous. On

contrary it can also mean they are doing dumb things to make people

laugh.
 ii. Teachers pet can be a smart person that the teacher just likes a lot. They

can be positive, energetic, nice and even helpful that teachers in general

will take liking of. However, it can also have a negative connotation if the

speaker implies it in a way that is calling one a snitch.

c. Compliments on personality is rather dependent on social circles rather than

effort.

i. If someone is nice and happy to help others. People around the person

will naturally label the person with a nice and friendly tag.

ii. Doing good things for people isn’t necessarily good. Someone might do

bad things for someone that asked for “help”

3. Lastly, one’s interests can be a completely separate category from physical traits and

personality. Interests are unique to each person and are not something that can be

determined based simply on one’s physical or mental traits, so it often takes longer to be

able to judge someone based off their interests.

a. There are only a few truly negative labels based off of one’s interests. Druggy or

tryhard are prime examples.

i. It is a proven fact that most drugs are harmful to the human body. This

means that calling someone a “druggy” implies that the person is addicted

to drugs and is doing harm to their own body.

ii. Some people just enjoy being on top and trying their absolute hardest on

everything. Unfortunately, others may think that these people are only

trying to show off. In turn, the term “tryhard” was invented to give the

message that the person tries too hard on everything and is very boastful.

b. There are certainly some interests in the world that can cause much controversy.

It seems that the world will never be able to agree on some topics and whether

they are beneficial or not.

 i. For example, vaping is becoming increasingly common among teens.

People that are in friend groups where almost everyone vapes may call

each other “vapists” or mention the “vapenation”; these terms are used in

positive connotation in their eyes.

ii. On the contrary, people that are against the use of vape may call people

who vape “vapists” in such a manner that they may make the ones vaping

feel guilty or bad about their actions.

c. There are also lots of interests that people deem beneficial or good and strive to

make these their own interests.

i. The term “scholar” has been for centuries, and typically refers to a person

who loves reading and learning as much as they can. This is different

from “tryhard”, because this term has been around for ages and was used

as a symbol of respect and smarts.

ii. Many high schoolers also may call their friends who are excel at certain

subjects “gods” such as “Chem god” or “Bio god”. This is used in a

positive connotation as it commonly means many people go to them to

seek help or answers.