When I was in high school, I watched the show Degrassi Junior High whenever I was able to catch it on PBS.  I was kind of embarrassed, because the show’s characters were younger than I was.  The theme song was ten kinds of lame, too.  But I guess one shouldn’t necessarily judge a show by its theme song.  My favorite character was “Spike,” whose real name was Christine.  One of the things I liked about the show was that it was realistic.  The characters looked like real kids I knew, not beauty queens or movie stars.  They were involved in realistic plots that I recognized from my own school.  For instance, Spike got pregnant and had a baby as a teen.  I knew girls in school that this happened to.  Characters tried drugs and alcohol.  It was a good show.

One day in class, I no longer remember how, one of my students mentioned the current incarnation of Degrassi.  I knew there was one, because I don’t live in a hole, but I had not seen it.  I mentioned to my students that I watched the 1980’s incarnation and mentioned Spike.  My student excitedly told me that Spike’s daughter Emma was a character on the current Degrassi, and so was Spike.  I decided I’d have to check it out when I got a chance, but my thinking was that I was too old to be watching stuff like this.

I got a chance to check out Degrassi this morning when I woke up at 4:00.  I have been going to bed around 8:00 the last two nights, which is unlike me.  It also means I have been waking up at about 4:00.  Anyway, it’s pretty good, and to my way of thinking, a lot like the version I watched when I was in high school.  One of the things I like is that the show is honest.  It is about real kids, who look like real kids and have the problems real kids have.  Maybe I’ll watch it more regularly.