Ah, school

I'm sitting in my managerial accounting class listening to the professor talk about Actual, Normal and Standard Cost Accounting. It all goes back to the accountant joke:

A CEO is looking for a new accountant and has three interviews set up. The first guy comes in and the CEO asks him "Whats 2+2?" The accountant answers "4". The CEO says thanks and has the next guy come in and asks him the same question "Whats 2+2?" and again he gets the answer, "4". The last accountant comes in and the CEO asks the same question "Whats 2+2?". The accountant answers "What do you want it to be?" The CEO reaches out and shakes the accountant's hand and says "When can you start?"

I know that I could do really well in this class but I don't really have much desire to do much. As my dad told me the first time I asked him to help me with my accounting homework a few years ago, "I don't know, I just have the accountants do it". I'd much rather focus on Negotiations, Entrepreneurship and Finance which are all classes I enjoy. Speaking of classes I don't enjoy I finished my business communications class last Friday. We've had this class for 4 Fridays each semester for 4 hours a pop. It gets painful. The teacher isn't great, is always mad, teaches us about what a paragraph is, how to tell stories, how to walk and talk during a power point presentation, and has us do the same sentence correction exercises that you do in second grade. Basically we haven't gotten anything out of the class that we will use later in life. For our final project in the class we had to come up with a "Persuasive Proposal" (propose a change to something) and present it in class. I realized that a present had been dropped in my lap. In the week I had before I presented I made a survey for the class to take and came up with my proposal. My proposal: We shouldn't have to take business communications if we don't have to or want to. Now I understand that some people need help writing and public speaking but I took classes in both of these subjects in my undergrad and can do both quite well. I presented in a very objective manner, only saying that the class format needed to change, but the numbers from the survey told the truth without me saying anything. They basically said "This class sucks and everyone agrees."

Now why would I do this? I'm not out to hurt my teacher's feelings, I just figure that if I'm paying $1,400 for a class and giving up work/study/free time, it should be worth my while. Fortunately for me, 70% of the class agreed, someone just needed to speak up and say it. Now you're probably thinking "You're an idiot/jerk. You told the teacher that her class doesn't work". Yes I did. And I've actually gotten alot of compliments from other students for having done so. (My teacher is still going off on different types of accounting. I think he's repeated himself a few times already.)

The real reason I did it is because of Ghandi and Einstein.

The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
- Albert Einstein

Be the change you want to see in the world. -Ghandi

Can you imagine if, lets say Erwin Rommel had given a persuasive speech in 1939 before Germany invaded France. Hitler would have given him the same look my teacher gave me from the back of the room and then sulked in the corner.