(November 23, 2004) — Clear skin. Check. Flawless hair. Check. Non-repeating wardrobe, lack of curfew, sweet ’67 Mustang. Check, check, and check. Do any of these descriptions sound remotely familiar? Well, they should, but not because you witness these things every day at school, but because you probably watch those cheesy teen shows that are on every channel, every night. Supposedly, shows like the O.C, Everwood and One Tree Hill accurately recreate teen life in an accurate teen environment—in this case, high school. But do they really? First off, many of the characters portrayed in these shows as “average” high school students usually are older than 20 in real life. Second, our heroes all tend to live in communities where the average income is $65,000 or over. Third, cliché activities like the prom/pep rallies/big game always result in another sort of cliché outcome: teen pregnancy/gang confrontation/death of the all-star quarterback. All occurrences that indeed are entertaining to our interest-less teen lives, but surely must be inaccurate in their representation. Next time you sit and watch, ask yourself, “When have these things ever happened at Clark?” Though I am glad none of the aforementioned outcomes have never occurred, I am still confused as to why students like us don’t dismiss these semi-interesting plot “twists” as pure television garbage, much like we do (or should do) with reality television. So who, in the end, is wrong? Is high school not living up to the standards television has imposed, or do television executives need to start concentrating on the real high school issues? Therein lies the problem; neither can really live without the other. Television needs high school to base attractive shows that will acquire high ratings, while high school needs television to base pop culture and trend. Now I won’t say that high school lacks real problems. There are many schools, especially in regions with low incomes that definitely deal with problems that for some reason are never discussed. These are issues that really affect teens in interesting ways. Issues that occur everyday and repeatedly cause them to rethink how they go about their lives. But just because they reside in poor regions, television has decided to neglect this subject. The wealthy high schools portrayed in teen shows practically never undergo such dramatic events as in the real world. As long as it entertains, right?