I Do Not Like the Movie Accepted

This movie does two things wrong:

1. It patronizes an alternative approach to education.
2. The climax is completely contradictory to the main theme of the movie. 

The movie is about a group of post-high schoolers who aren't accepted to any colleges so they make one up to trick their parents into thinking they did. And along the way they "learn" things about education and the system that robs kids of their ideals and passions. From my personal experience, this is completely untrue. If anything, my personal awakening of my talents and interests happened during college - which was at a fairly large state school. 

But the crux of the movie is that a traditional four-year college education isn't necessary and that an alternative education is just as valid and useful in the real world. I totally agree with that. But this movie took that idea and put it in the head of a fourteen year-old. So an alternative education means you learn about skateboarding and you build ramps and you lay by a pool and just talk about stuff. No, I'm sorry that is not an education. Alternative education doesn't mean you don't learn math, science, history, english, etc - rather it means the methods used to teach those subjects are different. This movie really discredits the idea of alternative education. And that's not a good thing. The modern educational system is very flawed, and it does rob kids of their creativity, but not in the way this movie describes it. The movie should have focused on the system's emphasis of "instructor appeasement". By this I mean that success in school is directly related to how much you satisfy a teacher's expectations. But no, this movie says that kids are robbed of their creativity because they have to study a lot and use energy drinks. Well folks, the truth is, if you don't study a lot in college, then something's wrong. 

The climax could have been fine if they cut it short by about two minutes. Justin Long gives a speech about how their system of alternative education is just as valid as a traditional education to the Board of Education (I think). And at the end he grabs the back of his chair, looks down, and finally says that he doesn't care about their approval. He claims that the board has already judged them by the way they look and that no matter what, they will always remember the ideals that were instilled in them at their fake college. The ideals being that they don't need approval from people of authority and that they're way of learning is just as good. So after he tells the board he doesn't need their approval, what does he do? 

HE FUCKING WAITS FOR THEIR APPROVAL!

He even throws his chair at them in disgust after his speech. Yet he waits silently for their approval. The movie should have ended with him and his posse aka the student body marching out of the court house or wherever it was and leaving triumphant if not a little self-righteous. But no, this movie completely turns it's back on what he was just saying. Because they waited and received approval from the board, they just became a part of the system. They aren't alternative in neither name nor practice. They are just self-righteous people who don't want to go to math class but want a college degree. I'm sorry but you can't have your cake and eat it too. 

Ok, I know what you're saying: "It's just a teen comedy, don't take it so seriously." 

And I wouldn't take it seriously if this wasn't also a message movie, but it is. If this was a movie where a bunch of kids made up a school because they didn't like math class, I honestly would be okay with that. But because this movie makes statements about the system of education, alternative education, and what those two things mean, I have to comment. I have to take it seriously because this movie talks about serious things. The fact that it's a teen comedy is irrelevant. On a side note, it really pisses me off that most people think comedies are free from analysis. Just because they make you laugh doesn't mean you can't discuss them. Not every comedy is just made to be consumed. 

This movie also sucks because you want to hate the villains (the crew from a traditional four-year college) but at the end of the movie, everything that they had to say was right. The fake college demeans real education and it makes a mockery of an alternative approach. 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot – it's not that funny either. 

The Shameless Ads on Facebook

I'm sure everyone knows that the ads that you see on Facebook are directed to you specifically based on keywords that you use on your profile, photos, etc. But aside from the CIA data-mining, this is not the worst thing Facebook does. For me, it's the most shameful ads on Facebook; these "Grant Check" scams and Google Ad money games that are bating college kids and people unfortunate enough to really suffer during these tough economic times.

I guess this blog is to warn those desperate folks out there who think it's legit because it is not. If you click on one of those tempting ads telling you how easy it is to make 5 or 10 thousand dollars from Google or from government stimulus checks, you'll notice a few things.

1. All the websites are exactly the same. It has a green header with some headline about how "Josh" or "Jake" or "Steve" or "Kevin" made $5,000 from Google or some stimulus check. They tell their story about how easy it is and how much their life has changed. It's a little suspect that all the sites look the same but it could be just a form of design congruence from the person who set them all up. But the thing that really sent me over, as I looked at these sites, were the comments – they too are all the same.
2. The checks are obviously photoshopped. You'll notice on the check photo they use that a) it's the same photo on every site, and b) the name on the check has been photoshopped (poorly at that) to match different people.
   
   
   
   
3. The actual people are fake. In one, Kevin Hoeffer is a firefighter and father of three and recieved a check for $5000 from Google. In another ad, he worked at a manufacturing plant and has no kids and received a check from the federal government for $12,000. And the same pictures of him are used. How stupid do they think people are?
   

It really pains me to know that there are people out there suffering from the fall of the economy. But it infuriates me to know that other people are somehow profiting off their suffering.