I attended this high school after the film was made but had never seen it before. My parents were in the education field and were personal friends of the vice principal shown in the film. For me it was somewhat of a trip down memory lane as I recognized some of the school population (teachers and such). I gradutated in 1971 and I think the filming was completed before I started attending in the fall of 1968. Not sure if they mention this in the film but it was a large 3 year high school (4000 students, my graduating class was over 1200) in Northeast Philadelphia. It is/was the same high school that Tony Danza taught at for his TV show. At the time when the movie was made the student population was almost all white and mostly Jewish (more than half and maybe as much as 75%) due to it's location in NE Philly. As such, I'm not sure if it can be characterized as typical of high schools across America at the time although I'm sure at least some of the issures were. I remember that girls were permitted to wear slacks to school (before that skirts or dresses only) as an example so yes, things were different then. Just about every film director is trying to say something so this one was able to select and edit the interviews for his message.