Taking It Into Accounting

I have a feeling that good things lie ahead for a young man from Friendship, MD by the name of Elijah Bowen.

Elijah just started freshman year at Anne Arundel Community College, and he's taking an accounting class.

Already, he is smarter than I.

And then the first test of the year comes along, and his instructor, Reb Beatty, tells the class that it's ok to bring some notes on a "3 x 5 card" for the test.

You know what he meant, one of those index cards like your mom used for her Sauer Beef and Dumplings recipe that she got from Thelma down the road in 1967.

But our man Elijah, he took this thing literally, and showed up with notes all over a card that was 3 x 5 FEET!

Beatty had to admit that the youth got over on him, but at least they got to be internet famous, with a few thousand social media shares and views.  

"Today, a student shows up with this. Sure enough it is 3x5 … feet," Beatty wrote on Facebook. "As precise as I am, apparently I never specified inches and therefore yes, it was allowed. Well played and lesson learned for me."

For Bowen's part, he said, "I figured it would be a win-win either way to study and fill out the entire card. I had a backup 3x5-inch card just in case he didn’t let me use it."


Beatty says that he sees the card (whatever size) that students bring for the test not as a test aid, but a preparation tool.  And really. Elijah made that giant card, and then he made the pocket version just in case he was denied use of the first one, and you have to figure, all that writing, times two, means he learned his lessons well. 

And he didn't need the card - big or little - all that much. He says he only referred to it a time or two, and he got "a high B or low A."

So yeah, I think Elijah shows the sort of thinking that will serve him well through life, which can be navigated quite easily if we just take advantage of what loopholes and shortcuts are legally available.

My former co-workers will recall a harsh, authoritarian chief who rammed through a dress code that spelled out in detail everything down to whether your sweatshirt could have words on it (it couldn't) but he forgot to specify that the pants he was so worried about had to be long pants. So we had guys showing up for work when it was about 10° degrees outside and wearing short pants.

There's no accounting for that.