A Great Surprise!

My students surprised me in the nicest way. The first time we tried the WSJ discussion, they hit a home run! The student I chose at random selected an article from the Science Journal entitled “Man-Made Mistakes Increase Devastation Of 'Natural' Disasters” (September 2, 2005, B1, Click here for WSJ.com link.) (Note: please see an earlier post for a full explanation of my assignment.)

The article was an interesting discussion of how the impact of natural disasters is greatly impacted by human actions and development. One example is the attempted control of the Mississippi and increased development have destroyed wetlands. The loss of wetlands results in increased the size of storm surges, resulting in increased damages.

The reason this student selected this article is because he is a science major also earning a business minor. He discussed how decisions that were made to increase commerce and development have actually caused greater damages from the hurricane. He shared some ripple effects to the economy, business, and financial statements from the devastation. He did such a nice job, especially given that this was the first time. Many of the students jumped in with amazing observations and additional ripple effects. Quite impressive!

None of my former sophomore classes had taken to the WSJ discussion so well this early in the semester. So after I complimented them lavishly, I just had to ask – Why are you so comfortable with the Journal? How were you able to think of so many interesting aspects of the issue? How did you come up with links to other classes (supply-demand-price from economics, for example)? Their answer – the use of the Journal in previous classes.

Wow! My job just got a little easier! Our students take this introduction to financial accounting course early in their business school curriculum, but many have introduction to business and economics before taking this class. In years past, I was one of the very few professors to require or even use the Journal in my classes. I would have to ‘break the ice’ so to speak. Now that most of our professors require the Journal, our students come to expect it as part of business school. It is no longer an unknown or a burden to them. So when they start my class now, they hit the ground running.

When a faculty uses the Journal throughout the curriculum in many of the classes, it raises the critical thinking skills and business knowledge of all students at each level. Whether you are the ‘lone wolf’ as I was for years, or part of a mass integration (my situation now), you can add to the professionalism and career potential of your students. I got to see that so clearly this past week. And that is precisely my goal as a professor!