The Rally Call Blog

Note: This story was submitted to the Rally Call Blog through the Center for Civic Engagement by Ivy Tech student Allison Martin. This might be a good time for us to state that the opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana - Bloomington and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Dinnertime in my home has become much more manageable now that I have installed the new vote-o-matic machine. Let me explain how things were before the vote-o-matic:

“What does everyone want?”

“I dunno. Whatever.”

“I want pizza and I won’t eat anything but pizza.”

“No! I will eat anything BUT pizza!”

“Ok, fine. How about hamburgers?”

No, I don’t really want hamburgers. I just won’t eat.”

“Let’s make a decision. What does everyone want?”

“I don’t know, but we are never going to agree.”

Now I have the vote-o-matic and life is much simpler. It says, “The choice for dinner tonight is chicken livers or cow tongue.” 2 out of 4 people vote for liver. 1 person votes for cow tongue. 1 person refuses to vote because he doesn’t like the choices. Liver it is!

Before the vote-o-matic was installed, we would discuss dinner options for hours, and never come to an agreement that pleased everyone. It was wearisome and we often went to bed hungry. Now everyone can formally express his/her opinion or choice and be recognized. Instead of sitting around talking about how awful this or that would be for dinner, we get up, go to the voting booth, and pick the choice that seems best. No one wins all of the time, but no one loses all of the time, either.

The vote-o-matic gives us all a sense that our opinions really do count. The non-voter in our family always loses out because his opinion is not heard or counted. He could have broken the liver/cow tongue tie just by voting for the least detestable food, but he gave up his rights. Oh well, his fate is determined by the rest of us.

Our choices for mayor, senator, or president aren’t always that great, either. The good news is that we can use the vote-o-matic to choose the least detestable government official, too. It’s easy, private, and confidential. No one ever has to know whether or not it was you who picked chicken livers. On the other hand, if you don’t vote, and we end up eating liver, I hope you get your fair share.

Note: This story was submitted to the Rally Call Blog through the Center for Civic Engagement by John Jalkanen. This might be a good time for us to state that the opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana - Bloomington and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Coke/Pepsi, Hershey/Nestle, Viacom/NewsCorp, Democrat/Republican. An oligopoly is much like a monopoly, only you can’t say you don’t have a choice.

The question before me today is: why do I vote? I often ask myself this question. To be honest, I really don’t know. A part of me thinks voting only gives unwarranted legitimacy to an otherwise corrupt and elitist enterprise. Lately, my cynicism is affirmed by the appearance of electronic voting machines with no paper trail made by corporations with a campaign contribution history that clearly favors one party over the other, the creative realignment of voting districts to favor the party that happens to be in power when the lines get drawn, and, of course, the fact that lobbyists outnumber congressmen by something along the order of 65 to 1 in Washington, DC. As citizens, our choices for representatives are poor at best. We’ve all heard the metaphors: Tweedledee and Tweedledumb, the lesser of two evils, etc. It seems to me, the two parties are pretty much the same aside from “hot button” issues, like abortion, gun rights, and gay marriage. During election debates, they may sound quite distinct. But, get them in office and their performance is pretty much the same: do whatever the corporate backers want.

I often tell myself that I vote because I can, because in some countries citizens aren’t that lucky. Elections don’t equate with freedom, however. A vote is only as good as the representation it awards you. Compared to the 24/7 legalized bribery (a.k.a “lobbying”) going on in Washington, how does one or two voting days a year stack up? Quite frankly, it doesn’t. One day out of the year devoted to being a citizen is not enough to change the tide of corruption that constantly floods over our nation’s capital. Voting, to me, is the least one could do as a citizen. The other 364 days a year ought to be used for non-violent “grassroots” democracy: protests, marches, citizen (as opposed to corporate) lobbying, writing letters to your representatives, and anything else that you can think of. Now, of course, when the bills have got to be paid and the cost of living is increasing while the wages stay stagnant, it is simply not possible for all of us to be camped out at the White House gates (not that they would let you). And you better believe that is precisely what the politicians are counting on. They’re hoping we will be overburdened with staying afloat or, failing that, just too distracted by the sports and entertainment industry to keep up-to-date on all the issues being decided in our name. And their strategy is largely working. The more you begin to understand how our system works, the more voting just seems like a cheap way for a leader to gain legitimacy. Still, we (and by “we”, I mean half of all registered voters) keep up The Great Charade.

So, why do I vote? For many reasons, I suppose:

I vote because I am culturally pre-programmed to think it is the right thing to do.
I vote because I’m tired of my country having a lower voter turn-out than most third-world nations.
I vote because less evil is better than more evil.
I vote because I want to believe the lie and sleep better at night, when I tell myself I am doing my part to be a citizen.
I vote because democracy isn’t perfect, but it is the best we have as people who will be ruled over, one way or another.

However, voting is only the first step to being a citizen. And until we are prepared to sacrifice our tailgate parties, TV shows, and rock concerts, we can expect the power in this country to shift further and further away from “we the people”.

Note: This story was submitted to the Rally Call Blog through the Center for Civic Engagement by Academic Skills Advancement Mathematics Instructor Jodi Pope-Pfingston.

During the last three years as an Academic Skills Advancement (ASA) mathematics instructor at Ivy Tech Community College, I have searched for methods to help my students achieve a higher level of confidence, experience, and positive feelings about mathematics and their education in general. Many of my students are new to the college environment, and quite often are the first members of their family to even attempt to go beyond high school. For this reason, I felt that anything I could do to help encourage and support them during this crucial period would have long-lasting positive results. I felt that an appropriate service learning project would meet these needs perfectly.

In the Fall 2006 semester I formed a partnership with Cindy Creek and Mike Love, the two team-teachers of a combined-age first and second grade class of approximately forty-five students at Rogers Elementary. Together we worked out plans to have the students in one of my Math 044 sections work alongside their first and second grade class to create a Math Fair which would be attended by all 350+ students at the school.

Mike and Cindy visited my class near the beginning of the semester to discuss the needs of Elementary math students and their goals for the project as well as to answer any questions my students had. With this information in hand, my students went on to create activities for the math fair, consisting of booths which they would run with the help of Mike and Cindy’s students.

The end result accomplished all of my goals and more. My students were excited and pleased to rise to the occasion, and all of them gained confidence, valuable experience, and a new perspective of the value and importance of mathematics and education. Perhaps more importantly, they had fun learning and teaching math to others while contributing something valuable to their community.

At the close of our project, each of my students was asked to respond to a handful of questions about their experience. The following is a selection of quotes from those responses:

1. “It makes me proud to be a student who helped contribute to such a great cause.”

2. “I feel this experience helped me better understand that math is truly important. I also felt that I learned some fun ways that in the future I’ll be able to teach my kid fun ways to learn math so they won’t get the idea that math isn’t important.”

3. “It was good to see that I could explain the math problems and concepts in a way the children could understand. This made me realize that I do understand the concepts we have been learning in class well enough to educate another person.”

4. “I enjoyed being on the teaching side of mathematics. It was definitely an experience that I will not forget.”

5. “The math fair helped me realize how important math skills really are, and also how students are learning them at such a young age. It was surprising to see that some of the students were extremely intelligent and could get the answers to math problems faster than I could.”

6. “Math is something you will use for the rest of your life and learning it well as a child is better for the future. The project has changed my view on being a student, because before I thought school was boring and not fun. The children in the Creek/Love class showed me that learning never has to be boring.”

For further information on this project or the plans for the Second Annual Rogers Math Fair, e-mail jpope@ivytech.edu.

-Jodi Pope-Pfingston
ASA Mathematics Instructor
Ivy Tech Community College - Bloomington