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The Accounting Review Vol. 26 No. 1 1951

THE TEACHERS CLINIC.

S. Paul Garner; Frank S. Kaulback1; Joseph E. Lane2; Paul Kircher3

1 University of Virginia. 1 · 2 University of Alabama 2 · 3 University of Chicago 3

Abstract

The elementary course in accounting, as it is taught in most instances today, is specifically designed to provide a base upon which to build a structure of accounting knowledge. This base consists to some extent of the broad principles of accounting, but often, to a much larger extent, of detailed methods of technique and procedure. At the outset several questions are bound to arise concerning any changes in the elementary course. It has been the writer's experience that sixty to eighty per cent of the first year accounting students are merely fulfilling requirements for a degree and have no intention of taking additional accounting courses. If such is the case, the needs of so large a majority cannot be reasonably ignored. Students often have no intention of taking more than the minimum of accounting until they have completed the first year course. Thus, students taking the non-accounting major course frequently find an interest kindled which leads them on to the advanced accounting courses. The elementary course, however taught, is not sufficient to make the student an expert accountant. It does provide him with the basic mechanics of recording, classifying and summarizing the usual transactions of business. It does not provide him with an adequate basis for interpreting and analyzing the accountant's work.

DOI
10.2308/tar-7070145
Volume
26
Issue
1
Pages
102-111
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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