Statistics Should Not (If Mom's Right) Be Required For Everyone...

My mom claims that Statistics is required for everyone (even non-math, non-psychology, and other liberal-arts-and-sciences-- e.g., political science-- majors) at every four-year college or university. Well, Statistics shouldn't be required for everyone. Not everyone is skilled or talented in mathematics. Not everyone (including everyone in political science) wants to be pollster or other type of statistician. Not everyone is going to use μ, σ, or other statistical letters. Not everyone is going to need to know or calculate even one mean with a standard deviation.


I could go on, but you get the point: if nothing else, require only Fundamentals in Statistics for liberal-arts-and-sciences majors. Otherwise, don't require statistics for anyone but the hard-math and hard-science majors.

When Math Is the Matter, the Calculator Is My Best Friend...

I'm from the lingual, political, and other mostly-right-brained side of my family (and you have to be at least little creative to be lingual-- since languages, such as verbal conjugations, don't just happen overnight; and political-- since governments don't just happen overnight, and an example of a creative type was the multi-talented Mizrahi Jewish Thomas Jefferson. He was a musician and revisionist Biblotique for goodness' sake-- and you have to be a little creative to come up with a seemingly-plausible alteration of the Bible).

Other relatives, on the other hand (or in the other brain), are left brained-- cousins Shelley and Rob, and granduncles Jim and Tony, for example. They're in the medical, financial, computer, and similar fields. I didn't inherit their passed-down math skills-- and I honestly don't know who passed the math down to them.

I know that their grandparents (and Shelley's and Rob's great-grandparents) Julian and Alexandria were creative types; that's for sure. They did an excellent job of posing as Polish-Lithuanian Roman Catholics, at least on the surface and to the untrained Census and Immigration-Naturalization officials. I mean, for example, inconsistencies and other material on the Census and Immigration-Naturalization records should've stuck out-- e.g., "Czornecki"/"Czarnecki" in 1910, "Chernetski"/"Chernetobe"/"Chernitcki" in 1920, "Czarnecki" in 1930-- come on. And Great-Granddad being three when he came over must've learned perfect English from somewhere besides school and English speakers outside of his home.

So, here I go studying for my math test. Wish me b'tzlacha and buena suerte, and rogen por mi and 'im tefilot. Todam v'/y gracias.

How To Use Blogger To Do Schoolwork

As I was sitting there and about to save one of my Introduction to Corrections essays for home, a proverbial figurative lightbulb went off: I could use Blogger to draft the essay, then finalize it at home and in Microsoft Word. As my piano professor said, study and practice in spurts throughout the day-- like taking small meals-- instead of huge timeslots. In the same way, I could use a for-right-now hobby (which could become a career) to study and make use of time that could've been otherwise procrastination or eventual boredom.

I wrote my first draft of my reflection, take-home essay on Blogger (and wergild is still a hard word to remember how to spell). Using Word, I double-checked "wergild" before replacing "weirgald" with it. By the way, I've similarly done at-home Sociology assignments on Blogger.

In conclusion, I used social media to make the grade and share knowledge with both my professor (so that he can see that I learned in class) and with the world and fellow people who are only in (and not of) the world (to prove that, while I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch, I'm not the dullest bulb, either).