TE 818 Concluding Post: An Open Letter to My Students

Dear students,

     We are hiking today. We will be hiking together several hours each week during the next few months of the school semester. You will also be hiking alone for a few hours each week. Some of you will like hiking with me better than others. Some of you will like hiking but not this kind of trail. Some of you may like a few things you find along the trail, a view here or there, a special tree or piece of nature; but overall you may come to realize that you do not care for hiking at all. And others may discover that this is exactly the trail they’ve been looking for all along.

     My hikers are students from all walks of life. Many of you are young and either right out of high school or within a few years from high school. Many of you are working adults and parents who range in age from 20 to 80 years old with most of you in your 30’s and 40’s. All of you are community college students seeking more attractive tuition rates, smaller classroom sizes, more teacher attention and specific courses and programs linked to specific career paths and college transfer programs. You have varying backgrounds and skills as well as varying learning styles and personality preferences. All of you want to do well and maximize your investment of time and money. All of you have chosen to be in my classroom and on the trail with me. College is a choice, and you have made that choice to expand your academic record and go for a better life.


     I first discovered this type of hiking when I was in college. I was searching for meaning in my life and trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life and what I might be good at doing. I considered which courses were easier for me and which ones were captivating. I also took note of which courses seemed difficult, boring or pointless. I was especially fascinated by one type of course which was both challenging and attainable. I had to work at it, but when it all worked out, the process and struggle was worth it to arrive at balance and completion. I also had good trail-masters who guided the way for me and provided support and challenge in my search.

     Now I am the hiking guide, and it is not necessarily because I am any better than you; but simply because I have hiked this type of trail many times before. I have come to love this particular trail and this kind of hiking. I have many suggestions for you to help make it a better experience, and I have many insights to share on what we will see and experience. It is important to remember, though, that I am no better than you. I am simply at a different place in life at this moment and have some experience with this trail and am here to help and share my experience with you. William Schubert would describe my curricular style as hybridized. In some ways, I am an Intellectual Traditionalist. I want to inspire you and expose you to a variety of activities and problems to get you thinking and working. I am also a bit of a Social Behaviorist in that my manner is quite informal and the heart of the matter is your behavior and thinking process. We want to tap into the thinking process needed to conquer our trails. I am also an Experientialist. I wholeheartedly believe that you must do it and experience it for yourself. It is not enough to watch me or listen to me. Nor is it enough to watch others or read about it in books. Certainly not. It is imperative that you experience it yourself and work through it yourself. Experience is everything, and experience will be our teacher on these trails.

     We will learn both explicit and implicit hiking skills. The explicit skills have to do directly with our kind of hiking and our kind of trails. With the study of accounting, we will be focused on mastering the use and understanding of the accounting system complete with transaction analysis, journal entries, posting to accounts and summarizing in reports. These explicit skills will be critical to all of our work through the accounting curriculum. However, there will be implicit skills to master as well. These implicit skills include asking questions, collaborating with others and thinking in deeper, more analytical ways. The implicit will facilitate the explicit skills, and the explicit skills will sharpen the implicit skills. They work together and weave together to form a collection of skills and new ways of thinking with a new kind of subject.

     Some parts of the trail will be unbelievably easy. Because you have hiked before, you already know about some of the tools and skills needed. Of course, you need appropriate footwear and clothing as well as the right kinds of supplies and food. There are certain tools and supplies that will work especially well with our trail, but you already know a bit about hiking in general. There will be some days that are easy and unremarkable. All you really need to do is show up and keep walking. The weather will be nice, and the trail will be calm.

     Other parts of the trail will be very difficult and trying. There may be days when you want to give up and days when you can’t seem to motivate yourself to keep going. There are many things that can help keep you going. Some of it is simply the discipline and the personal resolve to keep going. I will encourage you and remind you that you can do this. Another aspect is planning and commitment. You will need to plan for our adventure and fully commit. This includes your time, your finances and your attention. Another key aspect to what will keep you on track is each other.

     We will work together in so many ways. While the goal is for you to be able to hike independently and even lead others on our trail, much of our time will be spent working together. Communication and respect is essential. Since there are many of you and only one of me, you will get to know each other in small work teams. Lean in to these times to get to know each other and learn from each other. So much in life also functions in this manner. There are times to go it alone, and there are times to lean in to each other. Your interactions with others may be the deciding factor in what keeps you on task and in line with your commitment.


    Some might say that we should just use a map of the trail and skip everything else. Do we then really need a hiking guide? Do we really need each other? Let’s just use the map! In our study of accounting, we will encounter many maps or examples or guides for our work. Why not just use the guide and copy the logic all the way through? As Dewey says, “The map does not substitute for a personal experience. The map does not take the place of an actual journey”. It takes you and your mind to complete the journey or the task for yourself thinking through how it works and why it works. There is no substitute for your intellectual path and conclusion. The map may serve as one type of impetus, and it some cases, it may be an essential guide; but the work is our own to accomplish and master.

     There will be hiking days that are messy and unexpected. Even hiking has its controversies! We will face these controversies and think through them together. Ethics and fraud, in particular, plague the field of accounting with endless news reports and stories of abuse. We will stay informed of these types of stories and events in our home community as well as big national stories capturing the major news outlets. We will take time to examine human nature and consider the context of these events. We will ask questions and we will search for reason. We will all face ethical dilemmas in our careers. This is our time to think through the concepts of business ethics while the fire is not hot, so that in the event that we do face the flame face to face, we will have considered our own personal ethics and the requirements of our profession.

 

     We may encounter inclement weather. It may strike the entire group, or it may strike only one member of our group. Group members are especially susceptible if they veer off and go it alone. All kinds of things can come up to isolate, distract and overwhelm. It may be your other hiking commitments in your other classes that pull you down. It may be your loved ones who don’t quite understand your need to hike and grow and improve your life. It may be personal issues, health issues or family issues that get in the way. Some hikers will dig in even harder to honor their commitment to our trail. Others will become overwhelmed with these very challenging circumstances. It is always a sad day when one of us cannot or will not continue with us on the trail to the finish. Some trail guides don’t seem to mind, but I don’t want to lose anyone.


     Even after all of these years, I still enjoy these trails. I enjoy using my mind and solving puzzles. And, I especially enjoy working with hikers. You see, these hikers have crossed my path at a special time in their lives. They are taking the risk and stretching themselves to learn and grow in pursuit of a certain kind of life. They want good things for themselves and their loved ones. They are willing to work and sacrifice to get there. It is a privilege to get to know these brave hikers and be a part of their journey. That is the best part to me. It’s not necessarily the hiking or even the trail: it’s being a positive part of someone else’s journey. That is why I keep at it. I keep looking for better and better trails, and I keep looking for better and better ways of guiding and facilitating my hikers so that they can become master hikers themselves.

   

     In what we do, there will be an end. Life represents a series of trails or rather a series of learning experiences. We will learn in school, we will learn on the job, and we will learn in life. If we’re lucky, there will always be a new challenge around the corner. Of course, some corners come too quickly; and other corners seem to take forever to arrive. Each trail represents a layer of learning, growth and mastery. This web of trails and experiences forms who we are. Some trails will be academic, some will be occupational and some will be entirely personal. Each trail experience has something to teach us. But, each trail will have its end. Our trail together will be marked with a grade and the end of an academic semester. Each ending is bittersweet for me. I am more than pleased to see the culmination of effort and conclusion of our task, but I am sad to see you go. I wish you the best for the next trail, but I will miss you.


Sincerely yours,

Suzanne

What does a good school look like?

There is a place where children and adults live and work together in harmony. It all begins with the family, all sorts of families. Big families. Small families. Two parent families. One parent families. Mommies and Daddies as parents. Mommies and Mommies as parents. Daddies and Daddies as parents. Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles and all sorts of caring adults as parents. Children are desired and valued and cared for from birth. There are opportunities for learning and growing surrounding the child every minute of every day. It all begins with the home.


At home, children are held, listened to, gazed at and read to. While there are outside programs to bridge gaps and fill holes, the majority of learning takes place in the home with loving adults. Reading and literacy skills are modeled every day. Children are read to every day. Reading surrounds the child and the family. A good school looks like a happy, healthy home with caring parents.

Early childhood education encompasses a three year period of time including ages 3 to 6 employing a half day schedule of Kindergarten-like activities based on play, exploration and individuality. The emphasis is on creating opportunities for learning but not in a structured, timed or forced manner. The curriculum is flexible, yet consistent. Mathematical concepts and math “manipulatives” are introduced. Writing and drawing are regular activities. Just as in the home, reading and literacy activities flow in and around all activities. Children grow and learn at their own rate and in their own time through a mastery learning type of approach. A good early childhood education school looks like a vibrant and expanded Kindergarten.

Primary school encompasses ages 6 to 10 for about four years and includes a combination of structured core competency courses such as English and Math interspersed and interwoven into a rich web of expanding learning opportunities into the arts, hard sciences, social sciences, languages, etc. A mastery learning approach continues with the goal of all students achieving basic minimum standards in English and Math while also receiving maximum exposure to other subjects and fields. A good primary school looks like a ying and yang of core subjects balanced with specialty subjects.

Middle school extends for about 4 years from ages 10 to 14 and marks the beginning of choice and specialty matched to each child. While the core competency courses continue, it is to a lesser degree, while areas of specialization begin to take hold and dominate. Exploratory sessions are planned to open children up to their potential and possibilities. Is it languages? Is it music? Is it teaching and helping? Is it planning and strategizing? Is it innovation and creation? Is it caring and healing? A good middle school looks like a collection of labs and exploratory experiences designed to motivate and inspire children to find themselves, be themselves and develop themselves.

Secondary school represents clear choices for students depending on their personality, talents, interest and goals for ages 14 to 18 for about four years. No area of interest or skill set is better than another. No area of interest or skill set is off limits or discouraged. Clusters or tracks might include:

• Entrepreneurship and small business economic development with an emphasis on innovation supported by entrepreneur coaches

• Supporting and Assisting including computer and organizational skills necessary to serve others and facilitate success

• Technology and Innovation including computer engineering, design and security

• Classic Apprenticeship in fields such as carpentry, electrician, mechanic, hair stylist, massage therapist, computer technician

• Blended Apprenticeship and Education in such fields as teaching, nursing, accounting and most professional modern fields

• Extensive Education and Credentialing in such fields as medicine and law

A good secondary school looks like an active, dynamic part-time school combined with a network of organized work and apprenticeship experiences.

In my indulgence in writing, I find this to be my school utopia fantasy. It all begins in the home, and it is sustained in the home. The next monumental question is how a culture or society can somehow encourage or shift to a culture where children are desired and cared for especially including educational issues. I don’t know that any amount of money or social program can replace a loving home life full of learning opportunities such as being read to on a daily basis from infancy forward. Studies seem to have shown that such pervasive and popular programs as Head Start is not making a difference even though we have spent over $100 billion dollars over 40 years on this noble experiment. We are wrong as a culture and society to opt out, turn away from our children and let a social program try its best to replace loving, interested parents. If we can somehow learn to collectively love and care for our children, a renaissance in learning could take place. This is an immense social problem, not an education problem.

As a college educator, I see the faces and meet the individuals behind the statistics showing that about 80% of students arriving at community colleges are not prepared for college work, meaning that these students do not have basic reading, writing and math skills. By basic, I mean middle school level skills such as writing in complete sentences and being able to work a simple algebraic formula with an unknown x factor. From time to time, I wonder about these students…what happened between middle school and adulthood? Either they never learned these basic concepts in the first place and/or their learning stopped and receded at some point. These are also students who are lost in the world with no idea of who they are or what they might be able to do to take care of themselves financially. By forcing students into a “one size fits all” K12 system, we do a great disservice to our children. Something more individual and meaningful to students would be much better.

“A good school for anyone is a little like kindergarten and a little like a good post-graduate program – the two ends of the educational spectrum, at which we understand that we cannot treat any two human beings identically, but must take into account their special interests and styles even as we hold all to high and rigorous standards.” (Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas, 2002, pp 48-49)

Deborah Meier is right. We need something more personal. As it is now, many, many students check out with some leaving and dropping out of school but many more staying in school with nothing going on in their minds. These students move through the public school system like zombies, marking time and doing only what they must do. This is because school sucks as Louis CK points out in his FX show. Why are we continuing to push forward a public school model that isn’t working? For many students, school is not interesting or useful. It is merely a mandatory social obligation. These students do not see the other side that I see as a community college educator. What will these students *do* to work and make a life for themselves? These students do not know who they are, where they could go or what they could be good at doing.

Another travesty are the current modern ideas of No Child Left Behind and the more recent Michigan Merit high school graduation requirements. It is not a level playing field, and all students do not all have the same goals.

“Many will fail in schools because they are forced to do work they hate and deprived of work they might love.” (Noddings, The Aims of Education, 2009, pg 429)

Why are we compelling all students to take 4 years of high school math? If all students are going to go to college to become dentists and accountants, then perhaps this ruling is appropriate. What about all of the students who are not going to pursue a professional field requiring college math courses? Why are we forcing students to take classes they hate, classes that have nothing to do with who the student is, their strengths and their goals. Is it any wonder that so many students check out?

“Today, with recent changes in social thought and massive changes in technology, it is more important than ever to consider why we are promoting certain goals in schooling and why we continue to neglect education for personal life and for happiness in our occupations.” (Noddings, The Aims of Education, 2009, 437)

It’s not just that school should connect children all the way from birth or “Cradle to Career” or college; it’s that school should provide a way for each individual to connect with who they are as a person and where in life they want to go. It is not up to the state to determine that each person is going to get a college degree no matter what. It is up to the individual to set that goal, if desired. And, it is up to the individual to achieve that goal. The truth is that not everyone should go to college. Yep, I said it. It is also true that not every profession should be turned into a college program. A loving home life, strong core competency courses, self-awareness and choice combined with appropriate curriculum and apprenticeship are the keys to what a good school looks like.

All of the Above

I have been thinking about the question of curriculum off and on for years. What should we be teaching our kids? Who is to say what is and is not taught and included? Curriculum is such an all-inclusive concept. It is astounding to think of just how important and far reaching the K-12 curriculum is in terms of developing the hearts and minds of our children. Curriculum legend Ralph Tyler offers this description: “…educational objectives are essentially changes in human beings, that is, the objectives aimed at are to produce certain desirable changes in the behavior patterns of the student…” (Tyler 1949) What should we be teaching our kids? How should the curriculum be created?

One could argue that teachers shouldn’t be involved in setting overall curriculum, because they are overly involved in the education process and lack perspective. They are the soldiers in all that is the work of education. We need the general of the generals to set curriculum. Teachers are too wrapped up in all of the idiosyncrasies of their subject areas to be of any help in overall curriculum design. Each teacher will fight for their subject and their field to be included and represented. If nothing else, a survival instinct will lead teachers to make sure that they continue to have a job. Teachers are biased toward their fields, their students and their needs.

One could argue that parents shouldn’t be involved in setting overall curriculum either for similar reasons. Parents are selfish and naturally biased about their own children. Each parent wants what is best for their child(ren). Damn everyone else’s kids. The parent of a special-ed kid wants millions more in funding for special-ed research and programs. The parent of a talented sports player wants more funding and emphasis on physical education resources and sports programs and fewer academic requirements and restrictions. A highly religious parent may demand certain subjects be included in the school curriculum (intelligent design) and other topics be strictly excluded from the school curriculum (human sexuality). Parents are biased toward their kids, their talents and their needs.

One could argue that community representatives including school board members should not be involved in setting the overall curriculum due to their distance from the teaching and learning process. Business owners, community leaders, and professionals all have other more important, more pressing things on their minds than school curriculum. School curriculum may be something thought about and considered for a few hours per year. For many of these folks, being a school board member is one of many things to do on a long list of obligations. Their hearts, minds and experience aren’t genuinely interested in kids and education. The state of the educational process is a passing obligation or passing interest. For some, it may truly be an area of interest or even a passion. But the truth is that for these community representatives, their experience and knowledge of educational matters is very limited. “It is the most crazy-making thing to sit there and watch a dentist and an insurance salesman rewrite curriculum standards …” (Shorto, 2010) Community representatives are biased toward their own individual business matters and severely limited by lack of knowledge and exposure to education issues.

One could argue that politicians should not be involved in setting and making curriculum decisions and choices. Politicians may be as far removed from the educational process as compared with any other group on my list. Politicians also may wield the most power. Here in the State of Michigan, our schools are limited and weighted by the MEAP exam, NCLB standards and the coming Common Core mandates. Well-meaning politicians and work committees create layer upon layer of standardization and regulation for our schools. We never seem to replace standards but instead add and add and add. My local school district recently devoted a two week block of time for standardized testing. Two weeks! This is two weeks lost from learning, exploring, experimenting and growing. The coming onset of Common Core Curriculum standards has many on edge and concerned about another layer of requirements and mandates. “The overuse of standardized tests for high-stakes decisions has shortchanged students, teachers, and our education system in too many ways for far too long,” says NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “We’ve lost sight of the reason tests were designed: to help gauge students’ comprehension and progress.” Others, such as parent, blogger and political science professor Nicholas Tampio, directly question the reach and impact of the Common Core in “Do We Need a Common Core?”. As the saying goes, “the tail wags the dog”. In our US K-12 culture, political education workgroups are the tail wagging the US K-12 educational system as the dog.

And finally, one could argue that university educational experts, such as university PhD’s and EdD’s should not be involved in setting and making curriculum. These are the researchers and big thinkers. These experts are seemingly the most qualified of the bunch to make curriculum decisions, yet, this is also another group extremely far removed from classroom activities and realities. What works for a small town in Japan may be an outstanding, innovative idea; but it may not work scaled up across the entire US K-12 system. Research and theory is one important piece of curriculum work representing innovation and the sharing of key research studies. However, practice and implementation may be more important and more powerful to curriculum work. Thinking and working through what works and why it works may be the most important piece representing both the daily work of classroom teachers as well as research efforts by university education professionals.

The truth is that all of the above categories of individuals should be vigorously recruited, encouraged and supported in taking part in local, state and national curriculum decision making. There is no single expert on overall curriculum decisions. If any of these groups do represent a leading opinion, it is the teachers who are closest to the teaching and learning process that should take the lead. Just as Salman Khan found, teachers are hungry for new approaches to course materials and open to radically different teaching methodologies such as “the flipped classroom” concept. This teaching idea originated with Woodland Park Colorado high school chemistry teachers and was popularized by Salman Khan’s online math lessons and is documented in The History of the Flipped Class. There is no limit to the positive insights and curricular developments that can arise from a truly collaborative effort of teachers, parents, community, politicians and experts.

I didn’t sign up for this. Or did I?

I didn’t sign up for teaching controversial topics and have little desire for gut wrenching classroom debate. I am an accounting teacher after all. Due to the way classes at my school rotate from building to building, sometimes my college accounting classroom happens to be next door to a classroom discussing controversial topics such as human sexuality, political differences, LGBT rights, etc. When I catch a little of these lively discussions, my stomach flips a bit, and I think to myself that I’m lucky that I don’t have to hold these kinds of difficult, messy conversations in my classroom. In our readings for this week, I felt that same awe and relief. Especially when viewing Joel Burns’ remarks at the Fort Worth city council meeting, I was moved to tears. The articles and readings by Eckholm, Thornton and Silin as well as my time exploring It Gets Better all compelled me to believe that yes, certainly our K-12 schools should be doing something about bullying, HIV/AIDS awareness and acceptance of LGBT lifestyles. I was caught up in all of it and then gradually relieved to allow myself back in my comfort zone of not believing that my college accounting classroom has anything to do with these issues.

However, the truth is that controversy finds its way into all fields, all topics and all classrooms. My classroom may not be the most effective place for casework and discussion on LGBT lifestyles, but my classroom is absolutely the right place for other controversial discussions related to my field, as is the case in all teaching areas. There are a number of off-textbook controversies to discuss in college accounting classrooms ranging from greed and personal ethics to public policy and tax structure. When working on the job, accountants will find themselves in all kinds of precarious positions and under all kinds of pressure to “make the numbers”. The business owner or the CEO wants and needs the financial reports to look a certain way and tell a certain story. There may be tremendous pressure to bend and yield a bit in how and when financial transactions are recorded and reported.



Similarly, in the markets, with analysts and brokers, there is constant pressure to perform and excel. Our human desire for wealth and success can negatively affect our decision making and ethical standards. As Gordon Gekko famously remarks in the movie Wall Street, “Greed is Good”. At what cost do we follow our human desires for wealth and success? In the movie Margin Call, Jeremy Irons as John Tuld, CEO and Chairman of the Board of a large unnamed Wall Street investment back remarks that “…there will always be fat cats and starving dogs…” no matter the behavior or personal ethics. It doesn’t matter how we act, or how despicable we are, because the markets will always be changing, what matters is winning and being the fat cat. Business ethics are a pervasive controversial topic to be addressed and infused into all business courses including and especially in accounting courses. There is no limit to possible sources for class discussion from prepared cases to notorious international news stories and local embezzlement new releases.

Another pervasive and highly controversial topic for accounting classrooms is tax policy. Is the US tax code working? Is it fair? Is it sustainable? Some would say that those US citizens who have done well for themselves with their amassed wealth should give more back through increased taxation of the rich. Those who are doing well question whether giving back over 60% of their earnings in taxes is proper and fair. Does a 50-90% tax rate on the rich degrade the American dream? Celebrity pro-golfer Phil Mickleson is one who has recently questioned the cumulative individual income tax rates in California.



Another way of looking at this is “The Tax Parable” or in this blog “Barstool Tax Policy”. Time permitting, I encourage you to read it and ponder it for yourself. In the parable, a group of 10 guys go out for beer every night after work with a $100 bar tab each night. Each man pays according to US tax policy with the one rich guy paying $59 of the $100 total bill. How much is enough? Should the rich guy sit idly by and keep paying for more and more beer for other people? Should the rich guy pay for all of it and pay for everyone else’s beer? Or alternately, should each person pay for their own beer to the best of their ability? What is a fair and just tax system in our post-modern world?

And what of social programs such as the US social security program? Many people do not realize that federal income taxes did not exist until 1913 and social security did not exist until 1937. In “A Brief History of the IRS”, you will learn that individual income tax became the law of the land in 1913 through the 16th amendment of the US Constitution granting a flat tax of 1% on gross earnings over $3000 with an additional 6% on gross earnings over $500,000. Social Security, aka OASDI or The Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance Program was passed in 1935 through President Roosevelt’s signing of The Social Security Act. Employees only were initially taxed in 1937 at 1% of gross earnings. Then employers were added to make it a double tax in 1951 with each paying a portion for 3.75% total coming in to the US government. And finally, during the President Johnson’s great “War on Poverty” in 1965, the HI, Health Insurance or Medicare program was added bring total employee and employer social security taxes to 10.35% of gross earnings. Current 2013 rates are 15.3% combined. Taxable base is another issue. In 1937, the first $3000 of gross earnings is taxed at 1%, as compared to $113,700 taxable today at 15.3%. How much social security is enough? Who should be paying for whose retirement standard of living? Like ethics, taxes represent another pervasive, highly controversial topic to be acknowledged and considered in business classes, especially tax, payroll and accounting classes.

In considering the idea of controversy in the classroom, as teachers we should not cave in and hole up in our comfort zones. We should carefully and thoughtfully consider those issues which press against us and against our fields of study. We can identify topics and issues that merit discussion and analysis. We can encourage and model analysis and reflection on these deep matters. How all of this takes shape will vary from classroom to classroom as student ages and course contents will vary. Controversy may in fact be one of those key pieces that contribute toward making our classrooms relevant and engaging.

Summer in Spain

When I was 19 years old, I spent a summer in Sevilla, Spain as a student at The Center for Cross-Cultural Study. What first crossed my mind as a lark and a desire for something different to do with friends over the summer in the end became one of the most rich, learning experiences of my lifetime. None of my friends in fact enrolled. When I tried to back out, my father insisted that I still attend. I officially went to fulfill my foreign language requirement and pick up a few humanities credits. Instead or furthermore, I learned more about myself than I could have imagined possible.

I traveled alone from Michigan to New York City, and then on to Madrid and Sevilla. At each stop, I clustered with other American students in the program. By the time we arrived, I had a new best friend and travel buddy also from Michigan. Each student lived with a family in Sevilla, and no one is these families spoke any English. While on school property, we were strictly forbidden from speaking English. The commute to school took anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes, whether using the public buses or walking. I had intense headaches during the first few weeks as my brain was overloaded from language immersion.

Standing in the Alcazar castle overlooking the city of Cordoba, Spain

The explicit curriculum included 3 courses that summer: two language courses and one on culture, history and politics. We were required to read the local newspaper every night and be prepared to discuss current news events and articles in class every morning. We were tape recorded, and we performed skits. We attended school every weekday from about 8 AM to 12 PM. It’s hard to say where I learned my Spanish, whether in the classroom or on the street. Both were powerful learning forces.

The implicit curriculum included ongoing, relentless communication and interaction with my Spanish family and the community at large. Rarely did I have a few moments of peace and quiet to myself. Family members were constantly in and out of the home. Meals were a major event, and my presence and conversation were expected. I was a full member of the family. Every day and night included endless opportunities and challenges to experience the language and culture on the bus, in the street, in restaurants, at clubs, in stores and at home.

Considering what to teach, experience is as powerful a teacher as books and traditional school contexts. As Dewey extoled, life is the teacher. Let’s bring life to the classroom. Experience, internships, projects, volunteerism, service learning, apprenticeships are all examples of how we might go about this. The building blocks of what to teach must include both traditional core requirements as well as other pieces unique to each student, each region and each goal. As Hirsch states, why can’t we mix the two and allow flexibility for both a set core curriculum and options for more personalized learning?

“One can think of the school curriculum as consisting of two complementary parts, which might be called the extensive curriculum and the intensive curriculum.” (Hirsch, 1988, pg 127)

At the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, core classes include all types of courses in Spanish language and culture. In a traditional setting, the core classes could include subjects such as math, science reading and writing which are identified as “Command of Fundamental Processes” in “The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education”. Beyond the core, my options in Spain included additional courses at the CCCS in Spanish dance, conversation and fieldtrips. I participated in all of the school sponsored fieldtrips including visits to Cordoba, Granada, Rondo and Torremolinos. Outside of the school sponsored trips, I also traveled on weekends with other students to Madrid and Portugal. In a public school setting, we could similarly require and encourage professional internships, job shadow assignments, fieldtrips to businesses, extended clinical work experiences and apprenticeship-type work such as student teaching assignments. My thoughts float back to Dewey…doing and living are just as important as classwork and homework assignments. Both present tremendous opportunities for learning.

Assessing student progress is a tricky task to say the least. Tests and exams provide a timed snapshot of student learning. The ultimate assessment is far more vast, persuasive and personal. While schools can and must have their standards, perhaps we could also allow students to create their own standards. My ultimate goal from my summer Spain experience was to be able to communicate freely and move with ease throughout Spanish society with only 9 credits of college Spanish. I would rate my success as mostly complete. It seemed that the more Spanish I learned, the more I realized that I needed to learn. I was successful with my Spanish courses. I was able to communicate at a basic level in all contexts with my Spanish family, with shopkeepers, bus drivers and new Spanish friends. I was able to travel and explore with some degree of confidence in my ability to get around and return myself safely to Sevilla every Sunday evening. What if we allowed our college students to set their own ultimate learning goals? For some students, it might be a steady job with good benefits. For others, it might be mastery of a professional credential and entrance into a professional field. For others still, it might be regular work and engagement as a paid, professional in the arts. Why is it that we do not ask those that we serve…our students? What is it that they want to get out of their educational processes? Couldn’t assessment also share in the dual nature of extrinsic and intrinsic? Couldn’t there be specific, extrinsic assessment as in standardized tests and a national curriculum? Couldn’t there also be individualized, intrinsic assessment set by each student?

More resources…more thoughts…

Scroll down for Jason Barney’s “We live in a culture of Peter Pans”. Jason is a K-12 Latin teacher at a charter school in Illinois and a strong proponent of traditional curricular values.

“Too many citizens of our country today are, in Cicero’s terms, forever children. If knowledge of the past matures the soul, it is not something we can afford to marginalize or sideline. Unfortunately, the hard work of gaining knowledge, eloquence, and wisdom is all too often skirted by teacher and student alike. Because we have neglected knowledge of the past and the great tradition of historical understanding, we live in a culture of Peter Pans, flying free in Neverland with no past and no future, only the ever-present game, the mock battle against pirates or Indians.”

http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp


In “Experience and Education”, James Neill describes John Dewey’s view on education and curriculum as needing both a societal purpose as well as needing a purpose for the individual student.

“According to Dewey good education should have both a societal purpose and purpose for the individual student. For Dewey, the long-term matters, but so does the short-term quality of an educational experience. Educators are responsible, therefore, for providing students with experiences that are immediately valuable and which better enable the students to contribute to society.”

http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/SummaryJohnDeweyExperienceEducation.html


The website “Engines for Education: created by Roger Schank acknowledges and takes issue with Hirsch.

“Hirsch goes so far as to propose that schools should have a split curriculum. He calls the half of which is aimed at imparting the facts on his literacy list the "extensive curriculum," and the half which is aimed at imparting skills and abstract schemata the "intensive curriculum." Of course, when one gives two goals to an already overloaded system, it may well turn out that only one of them will be attended to. Hirsch makes it clear that the halves of the curriculum are not meant to be equal for him. The so-called "extensive curriculum" is really what is important to him.”

http://www.engines4ed.org/hyperbook/nodes/NODE-101-pg.html


A 2013 Lumina/Gallup Foundation pool shows that adults want and expect a higher education system that includes course credit for work outside of the classroom.

“Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they believe students should be able to receive college credit for knowledge and skills acquired outside of the classroom.”

http://www.luminafoundation.org/newsroom/news_releases/2013-02-05.html

What is curriculum?

What is curriculum? What should curriculum be? Curriculum is the collection of topics and subjects, units and modules, imposed upon students from the uber-young early childhood education years of pre-school programing all the way through secondary schooling as well as the uppermost reaches of post-secondary schooling. The funny thing and the paradox for me personally, is that even though I am curiously fond of schooling for myself and for my students, upon honest reflection, I must admit that my own schooling has been of questionable use to me. In other words, the curriculum which I have experienced over 40 years of my life has not been exactly helpful or useful. I feel a bit downcast admitting this, but it is true.

I first earned a bachelor degree in accounting with a minor in music from Hillsdale College as a very traditional aged, young thing. I felt enormous pressure to select a major, get a good job, get on with my life and prove myself to my parents and to the world. The courses contained in my bachelor degree accounting program were tightly selected with little flexibility for electives or personal choice. The accounting curriculum still used today in my own classroom is remarkably similar to what I experienced as a student 20 years ago. The principle difference being the big shift in the use of technology in how accounting work is performed. The curriculum itself is virtually unchanged. By curriculum, I mean the choices of courses required as well as the set objectives, topics and tasks to be covered in each required course. The idea was and is that a solid accounting education prepares a student for a career in accounting and a successful score on the CPA Exam. Even though I was a very strong student with a 3.8 GPA, I did not experience either expected benefit.

Hillsdale College is very much an Intellectual Traditionalist type of teaching and learning environment as William Schubert would say. A classic liberal arts education is emphasized with a robust general education component. Lecturing is viewed as an art and a key component of college life. Education itself is viewed as one of life’s finest, most treasured accomplishments. At Hillsdale College, academics are described as a liberal education…

“A liberal education at Hillsdale College entails the study of things inherently worthwhile—things good, true, and beautiful...Students refine their intelligence, furnish their understanding, and acquire the abilities and wisdom necessary to lead full, humane lives.”


Even this beautifully crafted curriculum and educational experience was not enough or was not what I really needed to genuinely understand how an accounting system really works on the job. It was also not enough to get me through the rigors of the 1990 era CPA Exam.

Years later in my late 20’s/early 30’s I completed an MBA from a well-known Michigan university. At this point in my life, I knew that I was a teacher at heart, and it seemed that the best fit for me would be teaching accounting at the college level. All related job postings required a bachelor degree in the field, professional work experience and an MBA. And so, off I went to complete an MBA. With the exception of my Forensic Accounting course, I have never used any of the curriculum from my MBA in my professional teaching career now as a college accounting teacher. One could say that it was completely useless and unrelated. It was a required credential and nothing more. How many of our students feel the same way? Assignments, courses and whole programs are meaningless other than being the gate-keeper to a chosen profession. I especially wonder about the formerly popular, ever glitzy MBA degree. I know a handful of folks with MBA’s that can’t get jobs. You can even read a book about it in Sonja Landis’s “My Master’s Degree is Useless?!?!”

When I was in my 30’s and my boys were young, I was constantly on the look-out for good babysitters, daycare and pre-school programs. I came across a local place in town called Happy Hearts. It was a Montessori inspired kind of place providing a range of pre-school and after school care programing. The place was a treasure trove of activity areas loaded full of rich, interesting objects, books and supplies. The founder of the school was an aging grandfather who handled the early morning shift when I dropped off my son with his daughter and others coming in later to handle the bulk of the school day. I would frequently open the door to hear classical music playing and paints set up in the kitchen area. He and I often picked up fascinating conversations about politics, the arts, education, anything and everything. I didn’t want to go to work! I wanted to stay and paint and be. One of my favorite features of Happy Hearts was the “wild woods” as the kids called it. The property included a fair amount of acreage in the back including all kinds of trees and trails and foliage. There were many, many times that my son was too dirty and muddy to load into the car at the end of the day. I learned to keep a towel and a change of clothes with me for those days. Happy Hearts reminds me of Summerhill in England. Learning is directed by the child and curriculum is so loose that most education specialists would chafe at the lack or structure. All traditional subjects are included such as reading, math and science but they are interwoven into activities and events that capture the children’s attention. If you don’t know about Summerhill, it is an amazing place William Schubert would describe as Experiential and Dewian. It turns out that I was a Dewey fan before I learned about Dewey!

When I was in high school, I found a used copy of “Summerhill” by A.S. Neill at a Goodwill Store. I bought it, read it and devoured it. I was fascinated, moved, attracted to and totally freaked out that such a place could exist. It seemed like a gigantic, risky, fascinating experiment. I wondered if the Summerhill kids would end up permanently deranged without a proper K-12 education. The irony is that maybe it’s the other way around in that our US kids may be the ones messed up by that proper K-12 system. I would describe Summerhill as an extreme alternative school. Kids are allowed to progress and experience academic and non-academic pursuits as their interests and desires allow. Summerhill founder A.S. Neill describes it as a place of freedom:

“We set out to make a school in which we should allow children freedom to be themselves. In order to do this we had to renounce all discipline, all direction, all suggestion, all moral training, all religious instruction. We have been called brave, but it did not require courage. All it required was what we had – a complete belief in the child as a good, not an evil, being. Since 1921 this belief in the goodness of the child has never wavered: it rather has become a final faith.” (A.S. Neill, Summerhill, 1960)

The kids are exposed to all kinds of subjects and possible activities, but the kids direct what they do, when they do and how far they go into each subject. Summerhill seemed like madness to me back then, but it hit a nerve, and I was fascinated. I think it left such a mark on me, because I was a sensitive, bright, artistic child. I wonder how I would have fared in a Summerhill or Happy Hearts type of school environment. School was a challenge to me, but I was determined to conquer it. If school had not been posed as a challenge but as something else, I wonder how I would have engaged it.

Now in my 40’s, I find myself wrapping up yet another degree with a questionable link to my chosen profession. I would describe the MAED program at MSU as Social Behaviorist in nature. I have learned a great deal about myself and have significantly improved my confidence as a writer. I truly do not know what the future holds for me. I have tried repeatedly to infuse and share the ideas I am learning at MSU into my current teaching environment only to find that new ideas and my offers to assist and help are not welcome. I will keep trying. I also have an eye on the world at large. There are many possibilities, many unknowns. It is too soon to say whether or not my MSU studies and the MAED curriculum have been effective and useful to me.

Let me pose it this way…what would have been better?...

It would have been better for me as a budding entry level accountant to spend most of my time working in accounting in an apprenticeship and much less time in the classroom. Many classes were not relevant and could be removed from the program with required courses spaced before, during and after several years of apprenticeship work.

It would have been better for me as a budding educator to spend time in college classrooms working with other teachers observing, team teaching and doing my own teaching. Again, some supporting coursework would have been beneficial with the majority of my credits and time spent in the classroom beginning to learn the craft and art of teaching.

It would have been better for me as a child to have spent several years in an environment similar to Happy Hearts or Summerhill. Instead of school as a struggle and an opposing foe to be conquered, school could have been a place to learn the basics of being a citizen as well as a time to learn about myself and my abilities and talents.

It would have also been better for Donovan to be in a Happy Hearts/Summerhill kind of place. It seems that Donovan would be better served by a curriculum which allows him to develop whatever abilities he does have whether artistic, emotional, communication, etc. It seems ridiculous to force someone for nearly 20 years to work on linguistics, for example, when the individual does not possess the ability to produce the proclaimed desired end result. Issues of bodily safety and emotional health seem more important in Donovan’s case than achieving set milestones in English, Science and Math. Perhaps the ultimate, proper and reasonable curriculum goal for Donovan could have been to develop as fully as possible into a functional member of society. This goal could be broken down into independence and personal care, communication and social interaction, and some kind of expression of intelligence, such as music in Donovan’s case. Curriculum is the ordered set of requirements leading to an academic credential. It can take infinite forms and expressions. Unfortunately, widely used, standard educational curriculums may not be effective at all, and in fact, may be causing harm.

Hello fellow TE 818er’s!

I am Suzanne Kiess, long time teacher girl and accountant. Now don’t let that bit about me being an accountant let you pigeon hole me. You could say that I am not your typical accountant. While the bachelor degree of my youth did lead me to my first career in public accounting, there have been many twists and turns along the way. You could say that I am not your typical accountant!

After a few years of working on audits with a CPA firm, I had to admit that I was a round peg trying to fit into any number of attractive square holes. It just wasn’t for me. I pursued many professional experiences in my 20’s ranging from professional musician to running a landscape company with my husband as well as staying home with my babies and a little adjunct teaching in accounting. It was the teaching that stole my heart.

I have a bachelor degree in accounting and a MBA that led to my teaching jobs. I have been teaching at a community college now for about 12 years in a tenured position with about 7 years before that as an adjunct instructor. I am an artsy-fartsy type and always seem to have a few artistic endeavors going. Right now, I am taking ballroom dance lessons and also weekly NIA dance and Zumba workout classes. I am practicing and learning piano music to accompany a group of high school band students at Solo and Ensemble competitions in February and April, which I have been doing every winter for several years now. Rehearsals will start soon. I also like to create things and have a few cross stitch and beaded Xmas ornaments in progress. And, I have come to honor myself as a writer with a few writing projects going, most importantly now my TE 818 blog experience.

I love working with college students, getting to know students and being a part of their lives during this critical transition time in their lives. While the logical-analytical nature of accounting work comes naturally to me, I am also quite drawn to the big picture questions of teaching and learning. Why do some of my students quit so easily even with so many resources and kind hearted people surrounding them? And why do some of my other students persist and excel even in the face of incredible adversity, financial devastation, criminal conviction, zero family support, zero history of academic success, etc.? Students fascinate me. As the years have ticked by, issues of curriculum have also come up. Does the lock-step undergraduate accounting curriculum truly align with what students and employers need in those first entry level jobs in the field? Why do we teach what we teach? I have read and read and read about teaching styles and learning styles and the like. I am ready for something a bit different in focus, a bit deeper in context. TE 818 looks like a good fit for this teacher girl.