Political Science

I had my first class in Political Science yesterday. I feel very good about the professor, who seems to be exceedingly knowledgeable and most importantly, charismatic and entertaining. The first class lasted for about two and a half hours, which is pretty long for being the first class. However, the time went fast thanks to interesting topics.

We covered a lot of history of the American government yesterday. We learned, among other things, about the 3/5 rule and how the voting system was established. Learning about these things really helps students to get a perspective on the politics of America.

It is easy to form opinions while reading newspapers. Unfortunately, these opinions are far too often based subjective and untrue statements. To know the reasons and facts about events, will definitely help me to get an advantage in arguments and debates.

The 3/5 rule was quite fascinating. Naturally, states wanted as many of their habitants to count as possible so that they had more votes in congress. Those states that allowed slaves wanted to be able to count these people towards the size of the state. However, those states that did not allow slaves thought this was unfair.

The 3/5 rule was established based on this issue. Basically, one slave would be worth 3/5 of a person. Or, out of five slaves, only three would be counted towards the population. Learning about things like this is particularly interesting, especially as an international student.