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
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