Frank Kogan

Well one thing Eckert says in her book is that almost all the students would state adamently that they were against categorizing people, but then it would be the students themselves who brought up time and again the jock vs. burnout split (which apparently was quite visible to anyone who looked at lunchtime, since the jocks always sat in the school cafeteria and the burnouts always hung out in the courtyard, even in cold weather). What I think is that the students are recognizing that the categories are real enough to have power in the school environment, but that no one necessarily "fits" a category completely (i.e., no one is devoid of characteristics beyond and potentially at odds with their social category).

cis made an interesting point in one of the Department Of Dilettante Research threads, which is that the roles themselves are somewhat expected (maybe owing to their appearance in movies and TV shows, though my experience is that the movies/shows don't match up very well with actual school life; but this doesn't mean they can't influence actual school life).