For most people, high school is a coming-of-age experience, yet, not all the same. With each decade comes its own challenges and advancements at the high school level.

The ‘80s

High school in the late 1980s was a vibrant picture of neon colors, big hair and advancing technology. Students navigated a landscape defined by both self expression and social dynamics, with one element missing: distractions of technology as accessible as smart phones.

For English teacher Doug Gerber, technology wasn’t necessarily a challenge when it came to balancing his academics and his personal life.

“You had the radio in your room. My phone was attached to a cord in the kitchen and downstairs. There wasn’t much privacy when it came to telephone calls,” Gerber said.

Gerber continued by reminiscing on the hair and clothing styles he observed in the late ‘80s.

“[There were] the preppies, you had punk…[there was] feathered hair. [Guys] parted it down the middle and then tried to brush it to the side.. [For] girls, it was big hair. There was a lot of hair spray and a lot of destruction of the ozone layer in our high school,”Gerber said.

The ‘90s

Sean Conroy, an English teacher, talked about the pop culture experience in the early ‘90s.

“The most popular genres of music were hip hop, R&B, house music, and stuff like that. And I didn’t [listen to those genres],” Conroy said.

In later years, there was an increase in interest in grunge and alternative rock. This became a way to brand your own identity or aesthetic, according to Conroy.

Kedric Greenawalt, a science teacher, also recalled a rapid switch in the music scene.

“Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’, Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’, some of the biggest albums of the entire ‘90s were released in a 40-day stretch of time,”Greenawalt said.“Later that year, what came out was also Dr. Dre’s ‘The Chronic’ album, which kind of blew the doors off the hardcore rap scene and made it very mainstream.”

For math teacher Megan Geltner, the ‘90s were memorable not just for the music, but also for the trends shared among her classmates.

“Grunge [clothing] kind of came into play. People would [also] wear Z Cavaricci pants and I.O.U. sweatshirts,” Geltner added.

The ‘90s also marked a technological revolution that fundamentally transformed life for high schoolers.

Greenawalt recalled from his later years of high school the use of Microsoft products in school.

“In terms of technology, the biggest thing that I remember [doing] was typing more papers later on in high school. Computers were used before, they just weren’t mainstream in the classroom,” Greenawalt said.

He continued by describing his personal experience with the introduction of computers into the classroom.

“I started taking my first typing classes with Microsoft word. Those were things I learned as a senior that nobody was taking as a freshman,” Greenawalt said.

The ‘10s

Rachel Campbell, an English teacher, recalled when the internet became more advanced, with the beginning of technology we know today. This includes the creation of Vine and watching vlogs from the earliest influencers on YouTube.

For Campbell, one of the most memorable things was “planking,” the trend where people would lay flat down in a random location and take a photo.

“Vine became a thing…just like the TikTok trends today, [there was] ‘planking,’ and we were just planking on random things,” Campbell explained.

The ‘20s

Fast-forwarding to today’s high school experience, Noelle Leja (11) expressed what it is like to be a teenager in 2024.

“I’m always on my phone during homework, so that kind of negatively affects how I get my homework done. But I also do use it to listen to music, which helps me during homework time,” Leja said

Touching on the social scene today, Leja expressed the challenges faced due to technology, and how smartphones make it difficult to create real-life connections.

“I feel like back then it was easier [to make friends]. You didn’t have technology as a distraction. That’s the biggest challenge [of today], just being social,” Leja said.