1. Can you tell me what you remember about being in ninth grade?
2. What did students wear to school?
Students wore polo shirts with jeans and sneakers. Turtle necks were in style and the clothes were baggy. Big earrings were in style, gold beaded necklaces.
3. How would you describe attitudes towards teachers? Was there much misbehavior in classes? If so, how was it handled?
Most students were nice to teachers, however, when someone misbehaved they got a detention.
4. Do you remember any groups or cliques in your school? Describe the people in the different cliques and their attitudes.
There were cliques like the snobby girls, the jocks on the football team, soccer players, druggies, and nerds.
5. Tell me about extracurricular activities at your school. Which were the most popular? Did many students participate?
Sports like soccer, football, cheerleaders, softball, basketball, field hockey, tennis. Language clubs, health club, drama club.
6. Was it important to your parents that you get good grades? If it was, what did they do to make sure you kept up your grades?
Yes, they didn’t do much because I was a good student and I studied myself.
7. Did you think it was important to graduate from high school and go to college?
Absolutely.
8. What kinds of jobs were available to students who graduated from high school? Did many of your friends go to work, join the military, or go on to college?
Most of my friends went to college, I don’t know anyone who went into the military. During college there were jobs such as: waitress or working in local retail stores.
9. Tell me about the kind of friends you had in high school. Did any of them ever encourage you to get in trouble?
No none of them encouraged me to get into trouble, my friends were nice and not selfish.
10. What kind of rules did your parents have for you on curfews, dating, and helping at home?
I had to be home at 10 o'clock, couldn’t talk on the phone after 9, and dating was 16.
11. What ways do you think kids of today are different from the kids of your generation?
Kids today are better with technology. Back then we had no face book or MySpace. We only had telephones. Most people had more respect towards adults.
12. What advice would you give to teens today about getting through the teen years?
Be yourself, not to worry about what other kids say and not to care about others' opinions. The people's opinions that do matter are the people who really care about you.
13. Do you remember any world events that had an impact on you as a teenage student?
The world event that happened was the accident of the space shuttle.
14. How did you spend your summer break in your high school years?
We went back to Europe for about a month.
15. What were your hobbies and interests as a teen?
I liked music, dancing, gymnastics, and fashion.
