Are american high schools like how they are on TV and films?

[Crumpets]

My high school (small private school) didn't have cheerleaders, and football wasn't really all that big for us, although people definitely still went to some games. Homecoming was a big thing, with a pep rally earlier in the week, a girls' soccer match followed by the football game with a dance in the evening. Nobody really wore their sports uniforms around school, but if you earned a letterman's jacket in any sport, not just football, you would wear that as part of your regular wardrobe.

And generally the cliques broke down something like this: Jocks, popular/sporty girls (would probably be the equivalent of cheerleaders elsewhere), introverted girls who like art and horses and stuff, drama nerds/hipsters, and computer/engineering nerds. I kind of jumped between the last two groups.

Honestly, the portrayal of high school that most matched my experience was History Boys except with girls and without the British accents and school uniforms. I'm guessing the way American high school is portrayed on TV and films is basically how we in turn imagine schools in California and Texas (see Beverly Hills: 90210 and Friday Night Lights).

[Crumpets]

Also, CrabCake, how do British schools compare to what we see of them on TV? Would you say your experience was more Inbetweeners or Harry Potter?

[Crumpets]

Cheerleaders didn't walk around like that all the time at my HS, but some days they would if they were practicing after school (or there was a game later on). A number of the jocks wore their jackets more often than not. I don't remember how many pep rallies we had a year though - at least a few. I didn't always go to them.

Knowing which films/tv shows you are thinking of would help because some overdo it or are straight up parodies while others may be based off of memories of a HS not representative of most.

I sincerely hope CrabCake doesn't have 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oESPRinas

Awesome comedy though it was. 

Clearly Danger 5 is the most accurate representation of American high school:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW9HdRjD4eo

[Crumpets]

Cheerleaders didn't walk around like that all the time at my HS, but some days they would if they were practicing after school (or there was a game later on). A number of the jocks wore their jackets more often than not. I don't remember how many pep rallies we had a year though - at least a few. I didn't always go to them.

Knowing which films/tv shows you are thinking of would help because some overdo it or are straight up parodies while others may be based off of memories of a HS not representative of most.

I sincerely hope CrabCake doesn't have 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oESPRinas

Awesome comedy though it was.  

Clearly Danger 5 is the most accurate representation of American high school:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW9HdRjD4eo

Loved that show. They ever go beyond a second season?

Not yet, but there's something weird going on that they delayed production of both season 2 and now season 3 because of - and this is an exact quote from the network - "unforeseen international news events and the recent ISIS actions." So if we want more Danger 5, I guess we're just going to have to... Kill Al-Baghdadi! How appropriate.