Relationship Culture:
How Blake's small, intimate atmosphere affects dating
November 8, 2021
Student Body Survey Reveals Dating Indifference
Lacking experience, interest affects opinions on relationships within Upper School community, little preferences prevail
Blake is a small community, with grades only having 120-135 students. With that comes a small pool of dating options and everyone ends up knowing each other, which can lead to hesitancy when it comes to dating. However, many students have no preference about dating because they haven’t had any dating experience. Below are statistics taken from a survey with 133 responses.
84%
Of students who have been here since Pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten are fine with or don’t have a preference about dating other lifers.
81%
Of students who were new in their freshman or sophomore years said that they don’t have a preference about dating people at Blake.
71%
Of responding students are not currently in any relationship. Even though students do not have a dating preference, a vast majority of the respondents are not in relationships.
56%
Of the respondents have never dated anyone. Thus, the results are more nuanced because individuals may not have developed set dating or relationship preferences yet.
62%
Of the respondents who have broken up with someone from Blake reported that it was just a little awkward afterwards.
Student Perspectives Enlighten, Support Survey Results
Lacking preferences and slight preoccupation with drama, gossip impacts opinions on dating
I think it’s cool, it’s pretty wholesome, I don’t see a lot of aggressive make-outs in the hall, which is good. No complaints from my end… There’s definitely a difference in the smaller class size. But, otherwise, I don’t have many problems with it.
— Johnny Perry '22
What’s hard… Is that everyone finds out about everything going on in your relationship… Gossip spreads so quickly… It can be kind of risky because then if you end poorly, you still have to see them around. It’s not like we go to a huge school where you can avoid people.
— Mina Rossi '23
Inter-Blake Relationships Find Challenges, Successes
Small community can strain, pressure relationships, however couples find ways to balance in-school, out-of-school relations
Because Blake is a smaller sized school, news spreads around fast when it comes to drama, rumors, and gossip. As a consequence, being in a relationship at Blake can be difficult due to the amount of attention it gets from peers.
The heightened interest around other people’s lives may cause those in relationships to act differently in school causing them to spend less time together, or having to alter the way they interact with each other which can impact the relationship in a negative way.
Despite all of this, being in a relation- ship at Blake is not all bad and can be successful. The most important thing is to find a good balance between sharing details and keeping things private. Keeping some things personal can lead to healthier relationships because it prevents mis- understandings. This does not mean that a relationship has to be completely secret, though. Ultimately, the most important thing is to not let other people influence a relationship that is not their own and to determine one’s own decisions.