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.

Looking forward to TE 818

I am pleased and surprised to re-discover my blog from 2010. I must admit that I am a bit enamored with the idea of blogging and do follow several blogs on a regular basis. I love reading and thinking and reading and thinking some more. Blogs are great.

My journey with the MSU MEAD program began several years ago. I am irresistibly drawn to some reflection on my studies and coursework in the program. When I created my blog here in 2010, I was in the midst of my 2nd of 10 courses and a bit on edge with each new journey into uncharted technology from blogs to podcasts to moviemaker. I am now beginning my 9th of the 10 courses. Of all the things I find attractive and interesting about the description of TE 818, I am most drawn to the ideas of working with and wrestling with big, really big, messy questions about education. I have a feeling TE 818 will challenge me into these gray areas of thought and writing.

I take one course at a time while working full time, working several, varying additional projects and running a busy household full of teenagers. I find that I can completely immerse myself in each course by keeping each one separate and sacred. Sometimes I get lost in the research and reading in the most delightful manner of being lost. I especially like those courses which combine reading with visual examples such as TED Talk lectures, interactive websites and movies. What began as a pragmatic goal to acquire graduate credits has evolved into a passion for research and writing. I have re-learned who I really am and have achieved a taste of my capabilities. There is more for me beyond these courses and beyond my current employment. There is more to come, and I look forward to many challenges in the unfolding of the next chapters of my life.

CEP 800 Storytelling Project

The Story of the Origins of Learning
(Daniel and the Tuba)

This was an interesting experience working with my son, experimenting more with technology and considering deep thoughts about the origins of learning. I never imagined that I would be taking sides with Plato! After finding Emily Bear and then listening to my son describe his learning process, I knew that was my angle. Yes, indeed, in some cases, knowledge is truly innate. Suzanne McKee

Click Here: CEP 800 Podcast Project MCKEE

Suzanne McKee's Podcast Project is complete! This was an interesting and challenging project. I struggled with Audacity, downloading it, using it and exporting it. In the end, I accomplished all that I was trying to do and more. I have been curious about using podcasts in some of my courses but have been hesitant to give it a try. This project has immersed me in Audacity and given me a wonderful introduction into creating podcasts.

Technology Steps:
Download Audacity (make sure it’s the right version for the operating system used)
Work in Audacity in WAV format
Download converter to be able to use WMA audio and convert to WAV
Save as WAV in Audacity
Download LAME
Export from Audacity to MP3 using LAME
Create a webpage account at box.net
Load the MP3 file to box.net
Link the webpage at box.net to the blog
Post the blog to the class in Angel