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