History of a Public Controversy Brainstorm

One idea for the History of a Public Controversy Project that our group came up with was the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the process by which we elect the president of the United States every four years, requiring an allotment of at least 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538 to win the presidency. The controversy of this system stems from the fact that the winner of the electoral college vote can differ from the winner of the popular vote, occurring most recently in the 2016 election of Clinton vs. Trump and the 2000 election of Bush vs. Gore. Many people believe that the Electoral College system is unfair in this way and that the person who wins the most votes should be the president. The system was created centuries ago and was originally formed because leaders believed that regular voters weren’t informed enough to give them the full power to pick the president. Nowadays, however, many argue that voters have much more resources and knowledge to be informed about the candidates and that we should switch to a system of having the popular vote decide the president. I think this topic is super interesting and there is so much more to say about its controversy if we do decide to pick this as our topic.

Another idea our group had for the project was the controversy of teaching foreign languages in schools. More and more we are seeing foreign language classes in schools declining. Colleges are dropping foreign language requirements for students or even dropping full language departments, which schools like West Virginia University and the University of Wisconsin recently did in an effort to cut costs. Personally, I see great value in learning another language, and I think it should be a part of the curriculum at all schools. Some simply don’t see the benefits of receiving a foreign language education, and with teacher shortages and budget limitations in schools, it is an uphill battle for foreign language departments around the country.