The cultural aim of business courses is consciously kept in mind by the makers of curricula for colleges of liberal arts and sciences which permit a rather free choice of electives in the department of Economics and Business or of Political Science, according to the departmental organization of the institution. Here, of course, we find Economics, which bears to practical business much the relation which Philosophy bears to active life in general. We find also courses in Money and Banking, usually offered from the historical and descriptive rather than the technical point of view. Recently, however, colleges have included in this field of election practical courses in Accountancy and Commercial Law. The tendency is in the direction of including more and more of the practical and technical courses, although the historical and philosophical courses are retained. Nevertheless the cultural value is undiminished, unless one were to maintain that nothing which is exact can be cultural.
Methods of teaching
The field of business is so wide and embraces so many subjects that the methods of teaching giving the best results will be varied and used in different combinations with different subjects. Those subjects which are practical and largely habit forming, such as stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, and the manipulation of mechanical and labor-saving office devices, are of course taught by some method of training which will insure quick reaction. In these courses the object is to cultivate habits of manual dexterity and habits of orderliness and neatness. Here we find that exposition is reduced to a minimum, lectures are few, recitations do not exist to any great extent, but that practice,
1st, to secure proper form, and
2d, to secure speed,
is the controlling aim of the method. The teachers show their ingenuity in devising exercises which will give accuracy of form and then develop speed without sacrifice of accuracy.
In colleges these courses are reduced to a minimum because they are usually cared for in lower schools, but for students who come directly to the commercial college without them, preparatory courses of this sort are often conducted.
Among the technical subjects the one which calls for the most practice is, of course, Accountancy, first for the single proprietor, next for the partnership, and finally for the corporation. Various methods of presenting Accountancy have been suggested. Very few teachers employ extensive recitation work in this field. It is found most desirable to have periods of at least two hours' duration, so that the teacher can give such exposition and lecture work at the beginning of the period as he may see fit, and the class may then take up practice. In some schools it is customary to have one course in theory, another course in practical accounting, and another course in problems of accounting. However, the tendency seems to be in the direction of making these three aspects of the work mutually helpful, and the course is offered as a course in Accounting, Theory, Practice, and Problems. The theory is set forth in a lecture, practice is given with typical situations in mind, and then related problems are taken up for solution. Many excellent texts are now appearing and can be used in the customary manner. Assignments in these books tend to make unnecessary many long or formal lectures, but there still remains the need for classroom talks and quizzes. As the course progresses, the problems become more and more difficult and complicated, and the final problem work is exceedingly difficult and calls for a considerable power of analysis, clarity of statement, and care in arrangement on the part of the student.
A complete course of this sort usually covers two and a half or three years. At the end of the first year of general accountancy, special subjects may be pursued parallel with the general course. The order in which these specialties are introduced is usually Cost Accounting, Auditing Systems, Judicial or Fiduciary Accounting, and then other special branches such as Brokers' Accounts, Public Utilities Accounting, Foreign Exchange Accounting, etc.
General Accounting is very important both as an instrument for the business man to use and as a training to insure the grasp of general business organization. It is the opinion of the writer that whether a business man expects to become an accountant or not, he should have a thorough and technical grasp of this subject. In these specialties it is necessary to depend upon lectures rather than textbooks, not only because textbooks here are few and other works are not well adapted to teaching use, but also because the subject matter must be kept up to date and in keeping with changing practice. The lecturers should be practical experts in each particular field as well as acceptable teachers.
Closely related to Accountancy is Commercial Law. Commercial Law should, of course, be understood by every business man, not because he expects to become a practitioner of law but because he wishes to avoid unnecessary disputes and to shape his course wisely from a legal standpoint in dealing with his employees, his business associates, and his customers.
There are various methods of teaching Commercial Law. The one which has been in vogue thus far has been the textbook method, in which the principles of law of interest to the business man are set forth. Lessons are assigned in the book, and recitations are held. The lecture method also is advocated. In some universities which have both law schools and schools of commerce, the commercial students receive lectures in the school of law in such subjects as contracts, agencies, insurance, etc. It seems to the writer that neither of these practices is desirable but that the proper way to teach Commercial Law to the commercial students is the case method, in which the principles of law of interest to the business man are developed from an examination of actual cases of business litigation. We may very likely look forward to the publication of case books which can be used either alone or in conjunction with textbooks on legal principles. Lectures on law to commercial students should be reduced to a minimum, and then they should confine themselves to very broad principles which need no lengthy exposition or to fields in which the students may be expected to have a general grasp but no very detailed knowledge. But such subjects as contracts, agency, bankruptcy, sales, insurance, negotiable instruments, and forms of business association should be taught thoroughly to the student in the classroom through the case method, in which each case is fully discussed by the class and from which discussion legal principles are evolved. It is interesting to note that the states which stand highest in the matter of Certified Public Accountancy licenses are requiring very thorough preparation in law. To meet such requirements a course in law covering at least three semesters, three hours a week, with a case method is certainly necessary.
The modern languages taught in schools of commerce should be by the direct method, and always with the vocational end clearly before the student. Actual business transactions, such as selling to a foreign customer in the foreign language, correspondence, newspapers, catalogues and other documents of business, should be the supplementary reading and exercise material of the class. Facility in conversation and writing should be developed as rapidly as possible, and the grasp of the methodical rules should follow. It would probably be presumptuous to take a strong position here on the question of teaching modern languages, but experience with commercial students has clearly indicated that greatest progress can be made if the language is taught by a conversation or direct method from the very start, and if paradigms and rules of syntax are evolved after some vocabulary has been developed and some facility in speech has been acquired. We may say here, incidentally, that it seems wise to teach the spoken language for a while before taking up the problem of the written language, especially where the foreign language assigns different phonetic values to the printed symbols from those assigned in English.