2+2=5

The Pensive Proofreader is really on a roll where confessions are concerned.  The latest?  I can't do math.  Then again, nor can many of my fellow journalism majors.  The good news is that I have the basics down pat.  It's the more complex stuff which confounds me.  Simple addition and subtraction is not an issue.  I can also multiply and divide with ease.  When I have a few dollars in my pocket, I enjoy counting it.  But after that, it's all downhill.  I've crashed and burned with algebra, geometry makes me twitch, and calculus does not even remotely exist in my universe.  And so goes my relationship with mathematics.

I have a much better relationship with journalism, which is why I majored in the subject in college.  Since elementary school, I've always had an aptitude for writing and knew that I would eventually parlay that ability into a career.  Throughout my school years, I was the school newspaper scribe, the literary geek, and the go-to student for help on English assignments.  When my mother was pursuing her own Bachelor's degree in Education, I used to proofread her term papers as a third-grader.  So journalism has always been my passion and my pen and notebook (now replaced by my laptop) my best friend.

As for math, I know I have a bad attitude.  I know I need to change my ways.  I should embrace mathematics -- or at least make the attempt.  After all, where would advanced civilization be without mathematics?  It's a lifeline for aviation, engineering, architecture, and accounting -- just to name a few fields.  Mathematics walks hand in hand with science, and as a result, plays a major role in gifting us with astronomy, physics, chemistry, and more.  It provides us with a means of quantifying the tangible, and allows us to group, deconstruct, split and increase.  Mathematics gives us the opportunity to construct buildings and railroads.  Because of math, we can study the stars and galaxies.  So why am I clearly in need of an attitude adjustment when it comes to math?

Perhaps biology is to blame.  Thinking my math-phobia might have something to do with the side of the brain I utilize most, I went to Google, my trusty go-to search engine.  Perhaps a little research on the subject would uncover my mathematical reticence.  I'm a creative person by nature, so rules, parameters, and boundaries are usually the enemy for me -- unless we're talking the rules of grammar, spelling or punctuation here.  (Naturally, I have no issue adhering to the logical parameters of the grammar rules, but that's another story for another day.)  Unfortunately, I got caught on my cyber-journey in the silky by-products of the spinnerets of the world wide web.  Turns out, there's a host of contradictory articles on the subject as there's quite the online debate as to which side of the brain belongs in the creative camp and which side of the brain belongs in the land of logic and quantitative reasoning.  Needless to say, I am currently back at square one with no mysteries solved -- just yet.

Since the brain thing didn't pan out, I decide to glean wisdom from a seemingly sage fellow blogger, Edward J. Delaney, who comes to us free of left-side/right-side theories concerning that which is contained within our respective craniums.  Rather than speculating on the bad hand biological science may or may not have dealt some of us when it comes to calculating, Mr. Delaney's 2008 entry, Why So Many Journalism Majors? (http://edwardjdelaney.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-so-many-journalism-majors.html), focuses instead on the growing number of college students signing up for a four-year tour of duty in journalism, a figure which really doesn't mesh well with the number of available jobs in the field.  Mr. Delaney speculates that perhaps part of the reason why there are so many matriculates to the major could be due to our shared mathematical ineptitude.  But because a person isn't gifted in math, is this really a valid enough reason to major in journalism? 

Mr. Delaney doesn't think so, and while I'm slightly digressing on the subject of mathematics here for a very brief moment, I have to agree with him for any number of reasons.  As he wisely points out, the onslaught of students joining the journalism throng is rooted less in an interest to seek out the truth through investigative newswriting and reporting and rooted more in narcissistic opportunity.  A lack of mathematical ability doesn't even remotely play a role as journalism has either gone to people's heads or has just plain gone Hollywood -- and not for the better.  Explains Delaney, "[The] numbers of journalism students grow, a number heightened by the influx of people who seem most interested in blogging as a way of posting (and boasting) about yourself, rather than about any real intellectual inquiry or desire to learn about the human condition; I see a generation who were inspired to journalism not by Woodward and Bernstein but by the “Sex and the City” girl sitting crosslegged on her bed writing about her romantic life, or the girls on “The Hills” working in “journalism” by going to Teen Vogue parties."

Ouch.  While I've always been proud of my journalistic accomplishments, Delaney's comments nearly inspire me to brush up on my mathematical skills.  Well, almost.  Now if I only had the interest and ability...