This week, the Simpsons episode “How the Test Was Won” was funnier than I had expected it to be. It was my first time actually watching a new episode on my own, for I had never been a fan of the television show in the past. The opening to the show was obviously the first thing that captured my attention, with its references to other popular TV families such as the Brady Bunch and what I thought to be the Cleavers from Leave it to Beaver. These are shows that I was familiar with, and it was amusing to see those connections being made.
The two main focuses of the episode are Homer forgetting to mail the family’s insurance check, and most importantly, Lisa and Bart facing the Vice President’s Assessment Test at school. The superintendent of the school is only concerned with getting a lot of money from the students’ good test scores, and the episode shows all of the drastic ways in which he tries to get the kids to learn facts. He even ships away Bart and some of the other “under-achieving” students on test day because he does not want them bringing down the school’s average score. The school principal is also tricked into being sent away with these boys, and after spending the day with them, he ultimately finds that the best way to learn is by being able to relate things to real life situations and people, and not just by drilling facts into someone’s head. I think this is the main lesson that the episode is trying to get across, underneath all of its witty comments and the bizarre and entertaining story line.
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I noticed all of the references to past shows throughout the opening segment. I don't really follow the show either, so I was excited to see that I could relate to it within the first minute or two. I agree that the main lesson that can be taken away from the episode is that learning can take place outside of a classroom, and that real life experience can be more educational and rewarding than a traditional educational setting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the whole learning is about experience thing. I picked that up as well as I was watching the episode and I find it reassuring that someone else picked up on the underlying message too. I like that you mentioned that you don't really follow the show because I don't either, but it was good to read that someone else who doesn't follow the show picked up on the same underlying message as me.
ReplyDeleteI also have not watched The Simpsons much and found it to actually be somehwhat amusing also. You mentioned that there was a major lesson of how you learn through real life situations and not by having facts drilled into your head. I agree that this was a lesson and that it also was making fun of and picking apart the no child left behind act which does not seem to work very well at all. I like that you also mentioned the principal being tricked also because that kind of points out how someone who may not have been a good tester ended up in such a high position at a school.
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