Hopefully, this will be the last word on the Academy Awards: get out of high school. The Golden Globes has grown into a slick TV show while the Oscars is still a high school musical. The problem with Oscar is he thinks he is the BMOC (big man on campus). But while he is waiting his college acceptance letter s to the top schools, kids like Grammy and Globe are kicking butt.

The biggest embarrassment this year was the banishment of The Hurt Locker producer Nick Chartier because he wrote emails to Academy members asking votes for his team and cited the unfairness of the other team’s (Avatar) giant budget for uniforms and equipment. Oscar punished him by banning him from awards night and not allowing him to collect his trophy on stage with the other kids..

Now doesn’t this sound like high school? Kids would call it pathetic. Parents and teachers would call it silly. Only at Hollywood High is this kind of behavior taken seriously. You can just hear the kids saying, “But Mom, it’s REALLY important.”

Ratings were up this year; proving turmoil and more nominees do make it more interesting. But the audience is fickle, and higher ratings might be a blip on the Neilsen graph. Here are some suggestions to make Oscar more telegenic. Produce an Oscar YouTube race where contestants vie for the amateur Oscar (voted by the Academy members). Interview Academy members waiting in Hollywood unemployment lines and hear how anger they are and how that effects how they will cast their vote. Organize and annual Academy versus Golden Globes softball game.

Once you leave high school for the real world, you’ve got to learn to compete or the next guy will get your job.