Common Core political conundrum

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For people who claim there is no application for the Common Core approach to mathematics, I feel the need to point out you are wrong. In fact, all you have to do is take a look at our current political process to see its application. Never before has our nation had such a great opportunity to see our educational approach play out at such a high level.

As a retired teacher, I thought it might help if I were to show readers just how much sense (mostly nonsense) common core math is and what it might all add up to come November.

Problem: Take 22 adults, have them all run for the same political office and determine who wins.

Factor in the Following:

1. Only four candidates at the start of the campaign are known by more than 10 percent of the voters.
2. Over half of the voting population are female so how many female candidates are there?
3. Nearly 90 percent of the voters distrust, dislike, or are sick of Washington DC insiders. How many candidates claim to not be part of the establishment? How many actually are part of the establishment?
4. There are two political parties represented by the candidates. Divide the candidates into two parties and then explain how the more liberal party only has white candidates while the more conservative party has more minority candidates and an equal number of female candidates as the liberal party.
5. Which political party will rely on “Super” delegates to ensure their preselected candidate moves forward and which one will wish they had?

Now write out detailed explanations to the following questions and explain the math that supports your answers.

1. Explain how the conservative candidate that is leading in the early elections can have more than half of the delegates when he/she is only averaging 33 percent of his/her party vote?
2. Explain how the liberal candidate can lose every state with 40 percent of the popular vote and still win his/her party’s nomination?
3. Which candidate is the choice of God and is he/she a U.S. citizen?
4. Which candidate speaks Spanish, the Cuban born in Canada, the Cuban born in Miami, or the white guy married to a Mexican woman?
5. If 55 percent of one party’s voters support candidate A and if 33 percent of another party’s voters support candidate B, how come almost 60 percent of all voters hate both of them?
6. If each of the first 94 debates were considered the most important debate ever, why is the 95^th one more important? Why is it even necessary?
7. Please explain how someone who finishes in third place in a primary is labeled a winner by the media but someone who comes in second is a loser?
8. If a candidate wins a non-prime time debate that is not televised, does he/she matter?
9. At what temperature does a person feel the Bern?

Extra Credit: U.S. workers out produce European workers. European workers take far more vacation days than U.S. Workers. Explain why it takes U.S. citizens nearly two years to elect a new leader when most European nations only take six weeks?

Extra Extra Credit: Once the presidential election is over, should the electoral college toss out the results and find us a better president or should it be like all other colleges and offer citizens free tuition?

James Moore

Jim is a life long resident of California and retired school teacher with 30 years in public education. Jim earned his BA in History from CSU Chico in 1981 and his MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University in 1994. He is also the author of Teaching The Teacher: Lessons Learned From Teaching. Jim considers himself an equal opportunity pain in the ass to any political party, group, or individual who looks to profit off of hypocrisy. When he is not pointing out the conflicting words and actions of our leaders, the NFL commissioner, or humans in general, he can be found riding his bike for hours on end while pondering his next article. Jim recently moved to Camarillo, CA after being convinced to join the witness protection program.