On the Other Side of Transparency Street
A brilliant classmate at Northwestern University on his way to medical school used to break into “On the Sunny Side of the Street” every once in a while. I don’t remember exactly why, but it’s a wonderful memory.
And I’m not sure why that comes to mind now, but there’s probably a cognitive relation among the ideas I’m pondering about transparency and understanding. The hackneyed metaphor of sunlight as a disinfectant and my time at the SEC are probably related.
Ever since deciding to study journalism at NU nearly three decades ago, a big idea in my life has been that transparency is a good thing. By transparency, I mean the availability of reasonably useful and accurate information to decision makers.
Transparency is vital whether the decision maker is a consumer making a buying decision, a voter making a voting decision, an entrepreneur making a business decision, an investor making an investment decision, a lawyer making a decision about what advice to provide, a church making a decision about where to focus its service, a judge making a judgment, a policy maker making a policy decision, or any of an infinite number of examples. Now I take a step toward understanding transparency from the other side of the street.
Transparency, for all of its power, depends on our ability to use the information available to us to make decisions. Many of my Facebook friends and I were extraordinarily fortunate to have teachers in our lives like Gary Geivet, Jan Palmer, Bill Roberts, Chuck Jurisch, and scores more who helped us use the information available to us to make decisions in our lives. Now, instead of focusing on how information is disseminated, which was a big part of my career as a reporter, on the Hill, at the EEOC, and at the SEC, I’ll be focusing more on how information is consumed.
I’ve completed the prerequisites for San Diego State University’s School of Teacher Education credential program. I’ve started classes in teaching theory and learning technology the past few days. (Or is it learning theory and teaching technology?) This afternoon is my first class in English teaching methods. I was fortunate to pass California’s tests to teach English and Social Science, which includes history, economics, and geography. Eventually, I hope to teach several subjects.
In a world where technology is changing things faster than many of us prefer, but where it also holds the promise of revolutionizing education for the better, I’ve been fortunate to stay in touch with people from all stages of my career. Thank you to everyone for their support as I contemplated this transition!
To the extent possible, I hope to continue to kibitz and advise and consult on things like CLOUD and XBRL and providing transparency. However, the limited number of hours in the day will necessitate a considerable reduction in my availability. So far, everyone understands that my students must come first. As I make the transition from focusing on the availability of information to focusing on the understanding of information, I expect to gain more insight into what happens on both sides of the street. So far, both are getting sunnier!
