Sunday, July 3, 2022

Doc. ACCEPTED-Unconventional School Broke Rules to What End?

The doc. ACCEPTED, follow students and Mike Landry, founder of TM Landry school in LA.  Trailers show the exuberance of gaining Ivy League admissions shared by students, peers and Landry.  These viral videos boast TM Landry school with 100% college admission and 30% admission into top Ivy league schools wound their way into top TV spots, spouting triumphant work ethic proving a success story. The sanctioned news exposes exposed fraud and abuse used to gain access.  Landry proves to have an Icarus mentality which has landed him in hot water.  More damning is the collateral damage to hard working teens whose dreams became deferred.  Four former students in the class of 2019 chose to leave before graduating with the four other students from their class.  Those departing students were interviewed in Dan Chen's documentary.  The euphoria of the school dissipates quickly when these young people give credible testimony to their experiences and glimpses into their lives.  Mike Landry is a wanna be minister and reveals himself to be a sinister Svengali.  Landry has the students chant back, "I am somebody!" This is representational of the racial protests of the 50s when black men wore signs,  "I am a man."  The students respond by rote, "I love you" in the foreign language Landry calls out.  More impressive would've been Landry's speaking using correct grammar.  A pithy complaint in comparison to the hardships faced by these students.  Especially, those and their folks who put their faith, and limited means into Landry's pricy and misleading promises.  Landry avows fear tactics and humiliation as motivational tools.  He forewarns of poverty, incarceration or early death.  Currently Landry is charged with battery by a former student and under federal investigation for fraud. "I'm only interested in winners," Landry says, interrupting a student trying to share her struggles.  It appears the ends justify the means.  Falsifying transcripts, fraudulent activities and subjects and embellished bios are alleged as typical ammo used to appease admittance boards.  This unconventional school has no set schedules and no homework.   School days are from 9AM to 7:30AM.  No video was taken in classrooms or from teachers.  This class year coincided with celebrity parents being charged with using bribes or false test scores to gain acceptance for their privileged progeny.   Affluent parents' criminal behaviors tilting an unbalanced playing field more in their children's direction is heinous.  Mike Landry's actions fester like rotten meat.  What happens to these students whose dreams have been deferred.  How do those who got into the Ivies vie?  What will happen to Mike Landry and his school?   

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