Jocks and Burnouts- Eckert
This project took place between the years 1980 and 1982 in a high school in Detroit and then one to two months in four other suburban schools in Detroit. This study analyses the cultural differences between two social groups typically found in all high schools. These are referred to as 'jocks' and 'burnouts'.
It is important not to get confused with the colloquial definition of 'jock'. Most people believe that this word means someone who has a lot of popularity in high school and abuses that power. However, in this case, the word 'jock' is defined as a school-oriented community of practise who is middle class. On the other hand, the word 'burnout' is defined as a locally-oriented community of practise who is working class. This project suggests that these are the two cultures young people identify themselves with in high school.
The high school used as field work for two years was called Belten High and opened in the 1950's. Around 2000 students came from solid working class backgrounds up to high middle class backgrounds. The idea of a jock in this case is someone whose life is entirely encompassed by school. They would go to school all day, do their homework and then do extra activities at school once the normal day has ended or would volunteer to help their teacher. Nonetheless, the theory of a burnout out is quite the opposite of a jock. Burnouts would be rebellious and would skip class and smoke cigarettes round the corner of the school.
Additionally, the upbringing and social background of the jocks and burnouts have a strong impact on their lives. Children reproduce their parents experiences so if their parents went to school then they would be more likely to do the same. This is significant as jocks have middle class backgrounds so in their culture they would be encouraged to do well at school and go to a higher form of education. However, less people of working class have completed higher levels of education so therefore, if burnouts were to copy their parents, they would not try to improve their education.
The split between jocks and burnouts is immediately clear due to the layout of Belten High and the territories jocks and burnouts keep. Burnouts hang out in the industrial parts of the school while jocks stay in the cafeteria or around the sports facilities. The jocks and burnouts do not eat lunch near each other; the burnouts sit in the courtyard and the jocks admitted to going the long way round in order to avoid the courtyard because they were scared of being teased. The jocks look down on the burnouts because they smoke which is shown through the anti smoking campaigns the jocks run in the school.
The jocks wear brightly coloured and pastel clothes whereas burnouts avoid colours altogether and wear very dark clothes. Burnouts refuse to wear nice clothes even if they could afford them and stubbornly wear clothes which are about 5 years out of fashion. Alternatively, jocks always wear clothes that are the latest fashion and perm their hair.
Jocks look down on burnouts due to the language they use which is often not grammatically correct. For example, they would often use double negatives such as "I don't know nothing". They also use a lot of drug related slang which jocks view as negative. Furthermore, jocks tend to use short greetings like "hi" whereas burnouts say "how ya doing?"
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