math Archives – EzKool

My Gripe With College

I can’t believe I’m actually writing something negative about college only three days into my second attempt at college but, I guess there’s odder things to believe. This is going to sound like just another lazy college student moaning and groaning to some but, to others I hope to understand what I’m getting at.

So I started this semester off this past Tuesday with a total of five classes: Writing Comp. 101, Algebra 035, Public Speaking, Intro to Visual Art and Art History, and Intro to Mass Media and Communications. I planned to be out in two years and transfer to a four-year university to continue my studies so I needed to take five classes per semester; I was going to be very busy…or so I thought. I quickly dropped my Math class because, and I do admit this is my fault, I cannot mentally sit through a two-hour math class without wanting to go berserk and I’ve already completed a Basic Algebra class last Fall at William Paterson. Today I decided to drop my Intro to Visual Art and Art History because it’s not a class I have any form of interest in and just would do horribly in. Now after reading that I know I defiantly sound like a total underachiever but bare with me here.

If you go to any University/College you’ll always be made to take these “core” classes along with other required classes just because they say so really. I’ve never understood why I need to take classes under “Natural Science” or “Mathematics” when what I plan to major in, journalism, has nothing to do with either. The same has to be said for my time at William Paterson, I mean they put me in “Gender Lives and Studies” and the only writing related class I could really take was a basic Writing Composition class. I will never understand why I’m made to take classes that will not benefit me or my major even on the smallest sense; on top of it all, I doubt that once I walk out the door of any class I deem as “useless”, I won’t remember a thing past the times I need to be there and when I leave. Shouldn’t any College help me pursue my future and major instead of charging me an arm, leg, and first not even born yet child to take classes I don’t need?

Sigh…I think I’ve ranted enough. Now if you don’t mind me I need to go hunt for a class or two to fill my schedule back up a little.

Mitt Romney – All the Grits In The World Cannot Help You Win The South

Although he won some delegates in Mississippi and Alabama in yesterday’s primaries, Romney’s clear focus on “math” as his only way to winning the Republican nomination is quite frankly, lame. What we are witnessing before our very eyes is a Republican candidate who is proving time and time again, that he simply cannot win a majority of the Republican votes in southern states – something that must be done if he expects to come close to competing against President Obama in the general elections.

Given yet another chance to seal the deal and wrap up this primary process, Romney placed third with 29% of the votes in Alabama with Gingrich slightly ahead. Santorum came in first with 35%. The story wasn’t much different in Mississippi – Santorum 33%, Gingrich 31% and Romney 30%. For entertainment value, 4% of the Republicans voted for Ron Paul. But even with this problem with winning the popular vote in southern States on their hands, Romney’s campaign went on CNN to highlight that they managed to win some delegates in those two states, inching them even more closer to the magic figure of 1144 – the total amount needed to win the Republican nomination. According to a CNN tally, Romney has 489 and leads second place Santorum by 255 delegates.

But can math alone bring Mitt Romney a victory? Newt Gingrich puts it this way: “The elite media’s effort to convince the nation that Mitt Romney is inevitable just collapsed. The fact is that in both states, the conservative candidates got nearly 70% of the vote, and if you’re the frontrunner and you keep coming in third, you’re not much of a frontrunner. And frankly, I do not believe that a Massachusetts moderate who created Romneycare as the forerunner of Obamneycare is going to be in a position to win any debates this fall, and that is part of the reason I’ve insisted in staying in this race.”

If you’re the Republican candidate and you cannot get Republicans in Republican states to vote for you, then you have some serious problems. The math may work to get you the nomination, but at some point, you have to prove you can get the votes.

McKay Coppins wrote:

“…while the campaign’s slow, methodical approach to collecting delegates in obscure, boring, or otherwise un-noteworthy contests has served them well logistically, it hasn’t helped them win the argument. The rhetoric of strength and leadership that could give them momentum heading into the general has been replaced with a list of math-centered talking points that deal with delegate counts, percentages, and margins of victory.

Campaign in poetry and govern in prose, the old political adage goes. The Romney campaign, it appears, has chosen to forego words altogether and make their case with numbers. But how long can the party’s would-be standard-bearer hinge his entire campaign message on math?”