THIRD SESSION HOW SHALL WE TEACH BUSINESS PRACTICE? By PROFESSOR D. E. BURCHELL The term business practice has several meanings according to the connection in which it is used. In the business colleges for the past fifty years it has applied to that department known as the offices. The work in the offices was pursued by the student at the end of the course, and it was here that he was taught to put in practice the theoretical work which had preceded. These offices represent wholesale houses, commission houses, insurance and real estate offices, banks, etc. The idea being to give the student practice in office routine and so far as possible accustom him to the atmosphere and habits of business practice. This practice has not extended much outside of bookkeeping processes. In the stenographic department similar practice has been given in correspondence, quite as good as that in the offices, although not given the name of business practice. In the commercial department of high schools the term business practice has come to mean the same as in the business colleges and to a large extent the same meaning applies to the courses in business practice being introduced into the colleges and universities. However, to the business man, the term business practice has not such a limited meaning, but extends rather to all phases of daily business activity. I shall discuss this broader meaning later. The business colleges for more than fifty years have been training young men and women for clerical positions, and they, too, have been the principal means of instructing in stenography and typewriting. Hundreds and sometimes thousands have been sent out from the business colleges annually to take positions in the offices of business houses. While many have never risen above mere clerkships, others have used this small beginning as a stepping-stone to something better. Many of the most prominent men in the country date their start in life to the day they left the business college. A couple of years ago a sign on 125th Street, New York, read something like this,—“Roosevelt knows a good thing, his private secretary, Mr. Cortelyou learned stenography in this college." I suppose if you were to pass there today the sign would read,-"We make cabinet officers, Cortelyou began his career with us." Other business colleges might make similar statements because, until recently, they have been the only means by which a young man or woman could get a start in the business world without beginning at the bottom. If we were to have a list of men who have attended business colleges it would surprise us to find among them so many prominent and successful men. All credit is not to be given to the courses in business practice, but it is in this particular department that the greatest competition has arisen and wherein the most prosperous business colleges have excelled. It is this phase of the course that they have emphasized most in their advertisements and printed matter, claiming in this particular to give young men and women "actual business practice. It has been an open criticism for years that while such courses in business practice are good as far as they go, they are much too narrow, and train only for clerical duties. It is for this reason that we should not follow the definition of business practice as outlined by the business colleges, but rather should undertake to grasp the business man's meaning and extend it to all phases of business activity. In other words, courses in business practice should not only include practice in bookkeeping, correspondence, commercial papers, and business forms, but they should also include the science and art of funding operations, buying, advertising, selling, credits, collections, cost accounting, auditing, systematizing, organization, management, etc. To a certain extent these titles are considered in courses in economics and private law, but in each case there is a phase that is peculiar to business administration and can only be treated from that standpoint, which is the standpoint of the business man and not that of the economist or lawyer. The emphasis is on the art not so much the science or law. To the educator it may seem mercenary, but the business man is not in business for his health any more than the teacher, preacher, or lawyer. And the teaching of good principles and practice in business should lead to wholesome results by training young men for honorable business careers to be in the van of progress, and the backbone of the nation. The business colleges devote about eight hours a day for ten weeks to business practice. This gives a total of nearly five hundred hours, which in University time is about two hours a week, with preparation for three years. But, as has been shown, the business colleges do not include more than a quarter to a third of the courses that should be taught. In other words, the larger course we have suggested would run throughout a four years' course, five hours a week, with preparation. It is impossible to thus give one-third of a college course to business practice. This time must be cut down either by eliminating the suggested courses or working on a different plan. We should not omit any of the titles suggested, for, in general, they are coördinate. This necessitates introducing plans and methods which provide instruction in the various subjects, and within reasonable limits. A second limitation to be mentioned is the complete lack of books suitable for college texts. Texts are not needed in the advanced courses, but are a necessity in the large classes of the first two or two and a half years. The books on bookkeeping, etc., are made for the business colleges and high schools, and are too long drawn out for college work. The books on other subjects in the business series now being issued by several publishing houses are written for high schools and popular reading and in general are not suitable for work of university grade. The results are that the instructors in business practice have to spend too much valuable time cutting, splicing, and modifying to suit the conditions. The methods of teaching which I shall consider in a moment will doubtless work most instructors to death, but will enable the few who survive to get out some books suitable for college texts in business practice. The third and last limitation which I shall consider is that of equipment. At present it is quite impossible to secure room and furniture to equip a department of business practice similar to business offices and where the various duties could be experienced by a large body of students. In progressive universities there is a constant clamor for floor space and furniture to accommodate the increase in students and instructional force. With office accommodations for upwards of two hundreds of students, as is the case in the courses in business practice at Wisconsin, it is easy to imagine the magnitude of the problem. As much care should be exercised in installing a laboratory for business practice as for physics, chemistry, or engineering. It is not only the question of furniture, but also of office equipment in general, such as adding machines, loose-leaf ledger systems, card systems, filing systems, various forms and bindings, copying devices, etc. It is as important for a business man to know the possibilities and comparative merits of "bill and charge" machines, as for an engineer to know the workings of a dynamo. Neither may have occasion to operate the respective machines, but the knowledge of them is essential for general purposes, and it is simply this all-round knowledge that makes the college man better than he who simply learned his duties as one learns a trade. He may not be as skilled an artisan at the start, but he will excel the artisan in managerial ability. They may not be as good machinists or bookkeepers, but will make better superintendents, secretaries, or business managers. As to just how business practice should be taught, and even as to just what subjects should be considered, is a matter of opinion. The organizing of this course is only in its infancy and a great many plans must be tried before a settled method can be agreed upon. For some time to come the arrangement of the work will be governed largely by the training and experience of the man in charge. That of the man having only a college training must differ from that of the man who has added business experience. The difference will not be so much the quality, as the influence brought to bear upon the material, I method, and subjects emphasized. The outline I shall suggest presently bears upon the subject matter rather than the specific title to be given to the several divisions. There are many phases of business practice which are important, yet in the crowded arrangement cannot have separate titles and must come under some larger title and at such a time as best suits the general plan. Then, too, the order is a secondary matter, for most of the subjects are coördinate and independent. The whole matter must be left to the discretion of the instructors and made to fit the general scheme of college electives, etc. First, let us consider business forms and commercial paper. believe these should be mastered before beginning bookkeeping. The principle and practice of bookkeeping should not be halted at every turn by introducing new business forms and commercial paper. Let these be understood and put in practice. Procure a supply of a large variety of forms from business houses or have a supply printed. Show the various correct ways for filling these forms. Acquaint the student with the transactions in which the variations are used, discuss the significance of the variations, their uses and results. Then give the student typical transactions, asking them to prepare forms and commercial papers to suit the transaction. This work can be extended more than one might think at a glance, for instance, bills, invoices, statements, receipted bills, vouchers, voucher checks, simple forms of sales books, cash books, ledgers, various forms of notes, drafts, checks, acceptances, stock certificates, transfers, bonds, wills, deeds, time sheets, pay rolls, freight receipts, bills of lading, documented bills, etc., etc. In the meantime the student is getting familiar with the nature and meaning of many business transactions he never heard of before, and the interest can be kept at a good pitch by discussions and lectures touched here and there by legal points, many of which should not be omitted simply because a course in commercial law is to follow. If the latter is taught by the "case method" it will be much more profitable to the student and satisfactory to the instructor if the student has a general groundwork in law closely associated with related business transactions. When this general study of business relations and transactions is in hand, the principles of bookkeeping may be represented. Emphasis should be placed upon. analysis and thorough drill in journalizing. A student should be able to analyze all ordinary transactions before beginning bookkeeping practice. This will save time and avoid the necessity of drawing out the bookkeeping, as has been customary, by spending so much time on theoretical work that is of no practical use. The elementary sets may be cut out entirely if the preceding work is done well, and, after a couple of lectures on the fundamental purposes and uses of the books, special ruling, etc., students may begin immediately on a difficult set and do it well. This work should be typical and practical and accompanied by lectures. Instead of bookkeeping practice being a lot of dry mechanical work it should be supplemented by a complete yet economical course on the transactions and managements of the business it represents. With so much else to be done, the work in bookkeeping should be soon supplemented with accounting problems which bring into play bookkeeping of a large variety with a minimum of attention given to the mechanical work. Emphasis. should be put on such topics as cost accounting, statements, balance sheets, voucher records, new form of books, such as self-balancing ledgers, with their controlling accounts, etc. Much parctice should be given in opening and closing, realization and liquidation, transfers of ownership, changing from partnerships to corporations, etc. The material for these topics should not be theoretical and elementary exercises usually given in bookkeeping texts, but rather should be some of those given in English books on advanced accounting, those given in the C. P. A. examinations of the various states, or, still better, taken from actual business. These topics are These topics are very interesting, and although they represent some knotty problems, yet the students. like them and feel great satisfaction when one has been solved. These problems should be from various lines of business, such as retailing, commission, wholesale, real estate, insurance, transportation, manufacturing, banking institutions, etc., etc. Each business gives an opportunity for a general discussion of its nature and characteristics and affords great opportunities for acquainting the students with the particulars of its administration. Of the various lines of business studied, banking and manufacturing should be emphasized because they give the greatest variety of business relations with a minimum of repetition and bring under. consideration most of the transactions common to other lines. This is not only true of accounting, but of other phases of administration. The work in accounting, which I have outlined, should not occupy the student's whole time until finished, but as is convenient. Other phases of administration should be considered early in the course to allow the accounting to mature in the students' minds, and, too, much of the work is very complex and should be left until the senior year. Fortunately a great deal of material on accounting may be found in books. It is only necessary to resort to business concerns for current transactions and modern practice. This will be brought out later. Business practice in correspondence presents some knotty problems due to the deficient preparation of the student in English composition and penmanship. Possibly it is not so much the lack of preparation as it is the subsequent neglect and abuse. So few of the students carry the practice of English outside the class room and have no interest in the subject beyond the required courses; the teacher of business is therefore obliged to teach composition as well as commercial |