Making the grade: The 25 best high school movies of all time
Clockwise from top left: The Breakfast Club (Universal), Fast Times At Ridgemont High (Universal), Grease (Paramount), Superbad (Sony), Carrie (United Artists), Bring It On (Universal)Graphic: AVClub
Few things are more nostalgic than a high school movie to bring back all those frightful and fraught memories of cliques, crushes, mean teachers, dressing for gym class, and nasty cafeteria food. Whether your high school experience was painful or pleasant, we can all remember the emotions and situations we went through as teenagers.
Movies about high school have been a Hollywood staple for decades, covering pretty much all genres from comedy to musical to horror. And with hundreds to choose from, we did our homework and narrowed down our picks for the 25 best high school movies to titles that hit us in the feels or the funny bone. From John Hughes’ 1980s classics like The Breakfast Club to modern comedies like Booksmart, we give you a chronological look at genre-defining high school movies that made us laugh, cry, and cringe—sometimes all at once. Consider it your new must-see syllabus.
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I still get excited with the first day of school — and with all of life’s firsts | Opinion
First days are magical in their promise. They are thresholds and entryways, tickets to the litany of all the other days that follow. I know this because I’ve enjoyed several. First day of school. First day at work. First day as a wife, mother, grandmother.
This broiling month of August has seen plenty of firsts, most notably witnessing my grandkids march into their first day of school with so much excitement. From the fashion conscious high-schoolers to the excited-about-my-lunchbox 4-year-old, the enthusiasm was contagious.
New teachers! New classrooms! New clothes! New notebooks and duo-tang folders!
I remember well the prep for this annual end-of-summer rite, my own and my children’s. While no one looked forward to the early morning wakeups then (or now), there was still a joy and an anticipation to this seasonal beginning. Anticipation braided with anxiety and sprinkled with suspicion, but mostly anticipation.
“I like all my teachers except one,” reported one of the twins after her first day. Then she paused, as if thinking over her words. “And maybe that teacher’s not so bad. It’s only the first day. Maybe she wants to make sure we all do what we’re supposed to.”
By the time you get to 10th grade, you’ve learned how to judge the personality of a grownup in charge. You know something about mood management and making the best of a tough situation. You’ve also discovered that nothing lasts forever, including your time with a yeller. Besides, on the first day of school anything is possible.
About a week later, on the eve of her new academic year, the fifth-grader ticked off her class schedule and goals with confidence. These goals, by the way, had nothing to do with school, but the start of school apparently had inspired her to come up with a plan. She would do a variety of daily stretching exercises in preparation for dance competition season. After we hung up, she sent me three videos illustrating these gravity-defying poses in case I might want to contort myself in ways I never thought possible.