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.