Psycho

Lately, I have been working my way through the top 100 movies of all time. Last night I watched The Silence of the Lambs and it was absolutely phenomenal. Tonight’s movie was #29 on the list, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Psycho is a classic black and white horror/suspense movie that was made in 1960. It is considered to be one of Hitchcock’s greatest works and is widely known for bringing a whole new level of acceptable violence and sexuality in films. Even though it is claimed to be one of the best movies of all time, I saw it very differently.

I thought Psycho was extremely long and it offered very little excitement. The movie spent an incredibly long time building up this exceptionally captivating plot, which I did enjoy till the movie killed off the main character ruining the entire plot. I went from being so wrapped up in this stunningly crafted story to feeling that I just wasted the past hour of my life. From there on the plot drearily dragged across the screen till the very end where it revealed the somewhat shocking twist. I should’ve been stunned at the sudden turn of events, but by then it was already too late.

On the flip side, I was impressed by Psycho’s musical score. It not only was a great addition to the movie, it was also able to increase the intensity of many of the scenes. This film also helped guide the movie industry to places it has never been to before. So while I didn’t enjoy the movie, I can respect how it has helped change the world.

Teaching to the Test

I came across this cartoon by Daryl Cagle which originally appeared on MSNBC.com that depicts a potential job employer interviewing a recent high school graduate. The interviewer asks the high school graduate how high school has prepared him for this potential job he is interviewing for. The high school graduate’s response shows a picture of a standard test answer sheet with the answer circles filled in.

I personally feel that this cartoon is trying to express that most public schools are not successfully preparing their students for the real world. This is because too often teachers have to “teach to the test” in order to get the funding that their school needs. Basically if the teacher’s classroom grades aren’t high enough, the funding from the government significantly declines. So to stop this from happening, the teachers teach the students exactly what is going to be on the test. Often times this causes the students to know what an answer is, but not fully understand the topic from where the answer came from. This is a horrible practice to allow. In the real world you aren’t allowed to just know an answer; you have to be able to understand the topics behind them. This practice causes students to have a deficiency of critical thinking skills which are necessary for future job employment. In my opinion standardized testing needs to be stopped. There are no benefits that students receive from it and the only benefit that the school receives is bragging rights over having the “smartest” students.