American Institutions

      For the past few months, our family has been preparing to move to another home.  We sold our home in South Jordan, and have been researching and reviewing information about other areas in the Salt Lake Valley.  Knowing the basic skills of calculating mean and medians, calculating percentages; and understanding data as presented in tables and charts have been very helpful in making an informed decision about where we would like to call home.  We have enjoyed residing in South Jordan and knew we would enjoy living here, but if we could not find land to build on, we would need to look at another city. 

Understanding the demographics of an area, and knowing how to compare them with other cities makes the decision more informed.  I knew that in comparing South Jordan to other cities would help me know if the other cities are different or if they are similar.  One comparison that I did was to look at South Jordan and Draper.  I searched both of the City Websites, and I was able to see that the population for South Jordan was 50,418, and I was able to see that the population for Draper was 42,274.  I was also able to understand that these numbers were from the 2010 census, so I could estimate that to the growth, the population is probably a bit higher now.  I was able to compare the median incomes of both South Jordan ($91,119) and Draper ($89,871), and then compare those median incomes with Salt Lake County which is $58,004.  Knowing how to look at median incomes helped me to know that Draper is similar as far as income with South Jordan.  I was also able to compare how many households there were and what the percentage of children was in the households. 

I like being able to understand that the median incomes were not the average, but were the middle value of what households earned.  I feel knowing this definition helps in knowing that in regards to finding the median for income that it is probably more accurate than if we were to calculate the mean.  However, I would be curious to what the mean is with the multimillionaires that you see scattered around.   Really, I would like to compare the mean and median just to see how different or how not different they would be from each other.

            Knowing all of the basic skills is also very important as we are involved in local, state, and national politics.  We are able to understand what others are reporting and to comprehend the information that is shared.  As we attend school or city meetings, it is nice to have this basic understanding.  I love listening to debates in politics and know that with the basic knowledge of means, medians, percentages, etc., we can use that in understanding what candidate we like better, and have more sound facts and reasons as to why we like them.  We can also know if the facts they are sharing are correct, or if they are just trying to sway us by emotions instead.   

There are so many times these skills are discussed in the media and in politics.  Every time I am watching the Fox News Station, or am reading news articles online, you hear these terms, or you read about them.  So many graphs are used especially after elections to break down the results of a Presidential Election.  It is fascinating to study those and gain more of an understanding as to who voted for what candidate and why.  Prior to the 2012 election, I found it very intriguing to listen to media news reporters and analysts try to make an educated guess with how the Electoral College would swing for either candidate.  There was so much research, percentages, central tendencies and content analysis that was utilized in coming up with why they thought each state would be either “red” or “blue”.    

Right now in our current community that we are getting ready to move from, our home owner’s association is getting ready to expand our clubhouse.  They had to use many graphs, charts, and gather community information to figure out what our needs are for the club house expansion.  We attended a meeting that discussed the different options and the affect each one would have.  Instead of accommodating to the current numbers of the younger children in the neighborhood and installing a fun and exciting splash pad for them to use now, they are going off of what the mean age for children will be in 5-10 years, and are instead going to install a 2 lane lap pool.  I found that an interesting conclusion to come to, and wonder how they came to such a conclusion.  You would think that they would want to put in an item that is timely now, and then look at possibly changing it in 5-10 years if there needs to be a transition.  However, I do not think the proper research was done since they did not put into the equation the 40+ homes that will be built during the next year and a half and not knowing the ages of those families. 

This home owner’s association decision is an example of how a small community is negatively affected by a group of 5 men that are not thoroughly researching all of the information to have the correct solution.  This also helped us in our decision as we looked for a new neighborhood, and to find a community that did accommodate to younger children and middle-aged children. After all of our research, we were able to buy a lot to build on in Draper.  I am glad that we were able to learn more about the basic skills that everyone should know about calculating mean and median; calculating percentages; and understanding data as presented in tables and charts.  This is helpful as we become more involved in our local, state, and national politics and definitely in our own personal day to day lives. 

POLS 1100

“Reflect on how you thought about the American political system before you took this course and how you think about it now that the course is over. Have any of your assumptions or understandings changed? Why? What assignments/activities/readings were influential in this process? How will you approach politics differently?”

            In October of 2004, my husband and I had our first child.  He was barely 3 weeks old on Election Day

November 2, 2004.  This day was also my birthday.  I was very excited to vote for George W. Bush, and felt very

passionate to make sure I voted.  My husband and I went to the voting location by our home, and we were very

impressed with the turnout.  The line was extremely long, and wrapped around the building.  I loved seeing the

many neighbors and residents there to cast their vote.  I felt that even though we had a very young newborn, that

there was no excuse to not be there that day. 

            Taking this class, I feel like my thoughts about the American Political system have grown from the love I

have had for Presidential Elections, to a love for the whole process, specifically wanting to become more involved

in local politics.  I attended my very first city council meeting because of this class, and it was exciting.  I enjoyed

hearing about what was happening behind the scenes in our great city.  In my first reflection, I discussed that we

are moving to Draper, but through the process, my husband and I have felt that South Jordan is our home, so we

will still build in South Jordan.  There is a great connection with the good things about the city, and I am excited to

attend more city council meetings and to get to know the city council members more, and realize that it is our duty

to communicate with them if there is anything we would like to voice our opinion about.  I saw it in action the

night of the city council meeting.

            It is interesting that the extra credit assignment ended up being the most influential part about this course.

Maybe because I already had a basic understanding of the class going into, and not being right out of high school

probably helped that.  I am one of the “older” students.  I am grateful that I completed the extra credit assignment

and hope other students did as well so they could see our great cities in action.  I hope every student also

progressed during this course, and would recommend it to anyone at Salt Lake Community College.