What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that the movie's premise involves students creating a "sham" university and lying to parents and authorities to make a facility for the classes they want to take (which include references to drugs). The made-up school's name is South Harmon Institute of Technology (you can guess the visible acronym). Characters frequently use this word (at least 40 times). The fake dean uses especially colorful language. Students drink beer, smoke cigarettes, and talk about drugs and sex (language includes slang for genitals and sex acts). Stereotypes abound.
- Families can talk about the pressures on college applicants to "get in": How might families work together to make this a less-stressful process? How might telling the truth be a more effective way for Bartleby to communicate with his parents? Families could also talk about the stereotyped portrayal of college life; what's it really like to be a college student?