4 Life Lessons Anyone Can Learn From Degrassi: The Next Generation
If you’re a 90’s/00’s kid, you probably watched Degrassi: The Next Generation as a child. The show was filmed in Canada and aired on Noggin/The N/TeenNick; it was like a soap opera for teens, full of drama, suspense, love, and teen issues that are still relevant to this day, such as: teen sex/pregnancy, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse, rape, sexting, violence, bullying, sexual predators, bulimia, anorexia, drugs, self-harm, the list goes on and on. There are a lot of takeaways and life lessons you can learn from this show, and I’ve compiled 10 lessons anyone can learn to help them in life. Most of these are obvious, common sense lessons.
Lesson #1: Stay Safe and Don’t Overshare Online. (You Never Know Who You’re Talking To)
In the two-part pilot episode, titled “Mother and Child Reunion,” one of the main characters of the show (Emma Nelson played by Miriam McDonald) has been chatting almost nonstop with her online boyfriend, Jordan. He has led her to believe that he is a 16-year-old, and says he is coming to Toronto for a school field trip, then asks her if she would like to meet him for the first time. Her friends, Manny Santos (Cassie Steele), J.T Yorke (Ryan Cooley) and Toby Isaacs (Jake Goldsbie) warn her of the potential dangers of meeting somebody she only knows from the Internet, and tell her that he could be an internet stalker, pointing out that schools do not take field trips in the middle of summer. However, Emma is undeterred, convinced that Jordan is just a normal boy with whom she shares the same interests.
It turned out that Jordan wasn’t really 16, but a middle-aged man in his 30’s/40’s. Near the end of the second part of the pilot, Emma visits “Jordan” at his hotel where she meets his teacher, Mr. Nystrom (Jeff Gruich). He takes her up to Jordan’s hotel room but as they enter, Emma sees that it is completely empty except for a video camera which has been set up. She immediately becomes suspicious and tries to escape but Nystrom blocks her access to the bedroom door. She locks herself in the bathroom, and comes to the startling realization that Nystrom is Jordan. He apologizes and tells Emma he will let her go, but when she comes out of the bathroom, he grabs and restrains her, and tells her that if she makes a noise, he’ll tape her mouth shut.
Unable to get in contact with Emma, Manny tells Toby and J. T. that she is afraid that Emma may have gone to meet Jordan. They hack into Emma’s email account and realize that Jordan has told her a number of lies. After discovering which hotel Emma is meeting Jordan at, they rush to the school to inform Spike. As Nystrom attempts to rape Emma, Spike (Emma’s mother) and Snake (Emma’s future stepfather) arrive just in time to save her. Emma manages to break free from Nystrom and rushes out of the hotel room. Snake restrains Nystrom until the police arrive to take him away.
The moral of the story here, folks, is be very careful online, and make sure the person you’re talking to is who they say they are. Emma learned that lesson, and so did all the kids who watched that episode.
Lesson #2: Drugs Are Bad (Duh!)
In the fifteenth episode of season one, titled “Jagged Little Pill,” Ashley Kerwin (played by Melissa McIntyre) and her stepbrother Toby Isaacs’s parents are going away for a little while, and they allow them both to invite one friend over each. But, knowing how teens are, both of them end up inviting more than one friend. Ashley invites Paige, Terri, and Hazel. Toby invites J.T. and Sean so they can get Manny and Emma to come over. When J.T. brings ecstasy that he bought from his cousin, Sean takes it downstairs into the kitchen to ‘cut it’ but instead switches the pill with a vitamin, giving the real pill to Ashley to throw away. However, Ashley, who was told by Paige to be more cool, decides to take the drug. Big mistake, Ashley!
Soon, Jimmy and Spinner come over with a few other people. When Emma sees Sean, she storms out of the house, prompting Sean to cry at the top of the staircase. When Ashley sees him crying, she leads him into her room to comfort him, but they end up making out. Jimmy walks up the stairs just in time to see Sean and Ashley leaving her room. Her hair and clothes are ruffled and messy, and Jimmy, realizing what happened, goes after Sean, but Ashley stops him. Meanwhile, as Sean leaves he notices Emma crying, aware of what he did with Ashley, which makes him feel guilty. Jimmy tries to get Ashley to sober up but Ashley begins to insult Jimmy, and when Paige tells her to stop being a hag, Ashley insults her harshly, leaving Paige to storm out of the house. Ashley continues to insult Jimmy to the point he decides to leave as well as everyone else except Terri.
Ashley ruined her relationship with her friends all because she took ecstasy, and they didn’t rekindle their friendship until the next season. Moral of the story: Drugs kill and can ruin your life.
Lesson #3: Never (NEVER) Have Sex Without Consent.
This goes without saying, or at least it should. In the two-part episode called “Shout,” Paige is sexually assaulted by Dean Walton, who goes to rival school Bardell. At the beginning of the episode, Degrassi beats Bardell in a soccer game, then at the end of the game, Dean invites her to a party. At the party, Paige flirts with Dean until a girl warns her about him and tells her she should keep her guard around him. Paige dismisses the warnings as simple jealousy. When she notices Spinner and Jimmy arriving, she asks Dean to take her somewhere private. Dean leads her to his room and the two proceed to get on the bed together. Paige is under the impression they were going to make out, but when he takes out a condom, she immediately says no, but due to the disgusting selfishness of Dean, she is assaulted.
Seriously, don’t EVER have sex with someone without getting their consent. EVER!
Lesson #4: Love Is Love.
There is a ton of LGBT+ representation in this show, in the form of Marco Del Rossi (played by Adamo Ruggiero), Riley Stavros (played by Argiris Karras), Adam/Gracie Torres (played by Jordan Todosey), and many more. Each of these characters have to overcome a lot of adversity to love whoever they want, or to be the person they want to be, whether that be their own self-hatred, unsupportive parents/family, fear of ostracization from their peers or alienation from their friends, fear of bullying/violence, etc.
Marco denied and tried to hide his sexuality for years, before coming out. He was afraid of telling his friends, especially Spinner, who ended up being one of the first to find out. In an attempt to hide the fact that he was gay, Marco decided to date Ellie Nash (played by Stacy Farber), who’d had a crush on him for awhile, but the relationship doesn’t last because of Marco’s feelings about his sexuality. His friend Spinner (played by Shane Kippel) made several jokes about Marco being a homosexual, to his great annoyance. Spinner even tried to set Marco up with Hazel, but Marco walks out in the middle of the date, making Spinner chase him to find out what’s wrong
Adam (named Gracie at birth) Torres is a female-to-male transgender teenager. He transferred to Degrassi with his older step-brother Drew to escape transphobic bullying at his old school. His parents have difficulty understanding and accepting his transformation, calling him “she” instead of he, and even forcing him to wear girl’s clothes whenever his grandmother comes to visit. This causes him a lot of emotional pain, which makes him burn himself with a lit hair clip. At Degrassi, Adam tries to keep a low profile at first, not even telling his friends about his transformation, but he develops a crush on Bianca DeSousa (played by Alicia Josipovic), but when he tries to flirt with Bianca, she makes physical contact with his chest. Bianca rips open his shirt to reveal a medical bandage around his breasts, thus forcefully outing him to her. Later, when Adam tries to use the men’s restroom, Fitz and Owen follow him in and harass him, which ends with Adam being thrown against a glass door.
And even though he’s been through a lot, he eventually finds that he can be himself and still have good friends, even a girlfriend, until his untimely death in season 13.
There are plenty more life lessons that Degrassi provides for teens/preteens, such as the effects of teen sex/pregnancy, sexting/revenge porn, murder, domestic abuse, bullying, racism, ethnicity, toxic relationships, cheating, etc. I hope this story encouraged you to watch the show. It really is like a soap opera for kids, and teaches them what NOT to do.
