They paid Kenya Mejia $1,800 to say "I love you, Jake Minor!" in her actual graduation speech, the idea being that she would say she was inspired to call out her crush by seeing the same thing done in this movie, I Love You, Beth Cooper. Then the video of this would "go viral," supposedly. Let us count the ways in which this plan failed.

1. The movie bombed. "Even Ms. Mejia hasn't seen it." Return-on-investment fail.

2. The Fox-produced-but-supposedly-just-amateur YouTube video the company posted of the stunt barely has over 2,000 hits. Why would anyone care? They would not. Viral fail.

3. The school district is pissed. Education fail

4. This "Jake Minor" character that Kenya called out as her crush is not even her boyfriend. Although her boyfriend supposedly "endorsed it," hopefully for a hefty cut of the check. Furthermore, Jake Minor has a girlfriend of his own. His assessment of Kenya: "She's pretty quiet." Love connection fail.

Let us never try this again.

[WSJ]

"If a student is learning how to make a robot, he or she needs to see or touch the materials and computer right in front of him or her rather than just imagining how to make it."

"If a teacher is showing a student how to make the robot and the student suddenly is confused, the teacher makes sure to go back to the place the student stopped understanding and re-teach that point."

"In addition, NVA teachers make sure children understand the meanings of all of the words related to each lesson whether in math or in music, or as in the robot example - all of the words related to making the robot."

"Similarly, if the student is learning how to program the robot and comes across a word that he is unfamiliar with, the student must look it up in the dictionary or have the word explained by a teacher."

What the fuck is going on here? Has Will Smith learned nothing from starring in I, Robot? Here he is hell-bent on making these kids build robot after robot, yet he knows full well that they will rise up against humanity one day. Talk about irresponsible. I'd rather send my kid to the Scientology Celebrity Centre!

• New Village Academy

Television is the "primary medium of our time," said Byron Hudson, a student who wants to participate in "cultural dialogue." He described his pitch as "a 'Northern Exposure'-esque character-driven dramedy." Because movies are getting dumb and dumber, he said, television is where he can "push the envelope."

Sebastian Matthews hopes to create a groundbreaking series like "Lost" or "Heroes." "There's something very special about telling your favorite stories to 14 million people at once," he said.

As he sat at a table with friends waiting for class to begin, he said he suspected that more than a grade might be at stake that evening. "It's a big opportunity," he said, referring to the panelists who would be judging his idea — a story about a ladies' man who runs a business to help less successful guys win the girls of their dreams. "If I put myself in the shoes of an executive and I'm here amongst creative young people and somebody has a great idea ... then why wouldn't I keep in touch?"

Of course, the class's midterm pitch sessions are not an accurate simulation of real life, as the students are afforded an entire six minutes to sell their ideas to a panel of professionals; eager learners like the ones above won't learn the cold realities of the TV business by having their spiels cut off abruptly after mentioning Northern Exposure ("Do we look like we're in the business of quirky and low-rated?") or hearing a development exec they thought they'd connected with not even waiting until they're out of earshot to tell their assistant, "Burn the business card of that guy who's trying to sell me Hitch."

• You have 6 minutes. Go sell it. [LAT]