The practice of public accounting, and the preprofessional education for certified public accountants, have both been subject to considerable controversy and change recently.

The controversy stems largely from unprecedented litigation against public accounting firms and from concerns raised by accounting firms that the traditional accounting curriculum is not aptly suited to train students for the complex decisions confronting audit practitioners today. In response, two pivotal documents have been published by the Big Six public accounting firms and by the Accounting Education Change Commission (a blue-ribbon commission sanctioned to make recommendations about changing from a rules-based, lecture-driven curricula to a timeless, active learning curricula):

• Arthur Andersen, Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marwick, and Price Waterhouse (The Big Six). The Public Accounting Profession:

Meeting the Needs of a Changing World (1991).

• Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC). Objectives of Education for Accountants: Position Statement Number One. Torrance, CA: Accounting Education Change Commission (1990).

Required:

Prepare a report that:
1. Documents the key recommendations of each report, 2. Explains whether you believe the AECC report is necessarily responsive to the Big Six report, and 3. Compares the substance and tone of each report with the substance and tone of the following article about Ronald S. Cohen, Chairman of the AICPA: Brachel, J.
Von, "AICPA Chairman Lays the Foundation for the Future," Journal of Accountancy (November 1995),