Why There is No Breakfast Club in Mauritania

Last week, Lindsay and Alex convinced me to read "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Piccoult. Generally, I think she's terrible, but they swore by this book, so I caved in. The book is about a school shooting, and basically how the social fabric of high school life, the "popular kids", the teasing, and the cliques drove one boy to shoot up his cafeteria. The book is a little different in that it gives a really in-depth look at the shooter, his family, and his life. Of course I was disturbed by the shooting itself, but what disturbed me more is the hell that these kids put this boy through in the years preceeding. Unfortunately, everyone can relate to this book. I can't think of a single person who didn't sell their soul to fit in in high school, whether it was with the popular kids or with some other social clique. In Severna Park, where I went to high school, there were at least 3 tiers of popular kids, followed by the athletes, the drama kids, the goth kids, the skaters, the punks, the band kids, etc. Everyone tried to hard to fit in somewhere, and once you had your nietch, you fought like hell to keep it. High school, while having its high points, was a crucible of humiliation, stress, insecurity, and pain. And why? What for? Because everyone wanted to be one of those popular kids that treated everyone else like dirt. The backstabbing, the rumors, the teasing... everything.
This is not meant to be a disillusioned reflection on high school. What really killed me about this book was how not a single Mauritanian student could relate to any of it. As a college teacher, I spent the majority of my time with Mauritanian teenagers. I teach what would be the rough equivalent of 8th- 11th grade. If I were a teacher in America, I would be faced with the same old eveyday, the cool kids, the geeks, the cliques, the drama. In Mauritania... nothing. My students generally all kind of hang out together, with little exception. Of course, there are some pretty strict divisions. Boys and girls don't socialize because it's socially unaceptable for unmarried men and women to spend any significant portion of time together. They flirt innocently during the 10 o'clock break, but that's about the extent of their social contact. Likewise, Moors tend to hang out more with Moors, and Pulaars with Pulaars. However, because Lexeiba is so mixed, you will find Moors and Pulaars hanging out at school. Apart from that, everyone is kind of on an even plane. The boys all go behind the school to smoke during break, even though their meeting spot is not limited to smokers. Everyone goes back there, regardless of age or race. The girls sit under the trees, sometimes divided by ethnic group, but more often, just kind of mixed together. There are NO cliques here, so the kids just talk to whomever they happen to be sitting next to. There is no pressure to impress, no pressure to act a certain way. Some kids are "cooler" than others, but that tends to be because they are the "bad" kids. Ely, for example, is probably the coolest guy in my 3rd year class because he is decent looking, he wears tight t-shirts, smokes cigarettes, and listens to Shaggy (I know, Shaggy, right?). However, that doesn't actually mean to much. As far as I can tell, he doesn't prefer to spend time with any of the boys in his class over others. Also, there is no dating here, so that whole dimension is just gone. Even if you make an idiot out of yourself in front of that guy you like, who cares? You're still going to marry someone 15 years older (or younger than you, if you are a guy) because your parents tell you to do it.
The weird thing is I was totally oblivious to all of this until I read "Nineteen Minutes". I mean, I remember high school, but Mauritania and the social structure here has become such second nature to me that I didn't even realize that none of this stuff existed here. I think what it comes down to is this: this is a VERY collectivist society. The collective social happiness of society will always trump over individual happiness. There are no individuals here, but rather members of families, tribes, towns, ethnic groups, etc. The social hell that exists in American high schools could never happen here because of the animosity and hatred it would create. These identities that we carve for ourselves and the boundaries and rules they create, they just do no exist here. On the one hand, this is why my "Expressing Your Opinion" lesson is always a nighmare. On the other hand, it makes high school a much more enjoyable experience, which is probably good, because these kids have enough to distract them from learning. They don't need any added social pressure.