letters Open Letter to a Burned-Out Teacher [1994, 71,7391 First, my condolences! I have been where you are, or near enough as makes no difference; I know and hear your pain. Second, pay no mind to those who either celebrate your agony or "there-but-for-the-grace-of-god" you. Their attitudes are very much part of their problems. Third, know that a s angry and depressed as you are, there are ways out of your private jungle. If you wish to salvage yourself, your career, your experience, and expertise and turn them to the uses you originally envisioned when you took u p teaching, t h a t i s yet possible. If, of course, you do not wish such, you are as lost as youimagine your students are, and perhaps early retirement is the best for all concerned. Assuming this latter is not the case, assuming that your mutterings are a cry for help, not a professional suicide note, I would urge you to listen to, and think about, some of the experiences of those of u s who have been through what you are experiencing and have emerged on the other side. 1. Perhaps your anger, depression, dissatisfaction result not from the faults yon find with your students, per se, but from the exhaustion of your trying too hard, ineffectually. I t is hard not to blame the students, but you cannot control who they are. You can exert some control over who you are, if you choose to. I have found that some of the changes advocated i n this Journal, and on the education networks, such a s CHEMED-L and PHYS-L, have made startling differences i n my effectivenessin a very short length of time. For me, the real barrier to be overcome was getting me to try some of them. 2. The students have changed. Your descriptions, sans the attributions, are reasonably accurate. But this i s not a new event, historically. At Berkeley i n 1960-61, I listened to W. F. Giauque chastise a graduate thermodynamics class after a particularly disappointing exam result: "Well, it took B's or better to get you into this place; I suppose I'll have to give you B's to get you out of here .. whether you have earned them or not!" I t was his last run or so a t teaching, himself; I remember most about him how sad and embitered he sounded. Mv t the students having " ~ . o i n is: - changed, - does i t add better to vour clii~ctivc~less to rail against those chmgus, or deal with differences? As a good srientisr, you urc sure to come u p with the correct answer. My guess is that there are two basic problems here: 1. you would prefer to continue to do your teaching as you always have, as you imagined you would when you took up University teaching 30 years ago; and 2. that is not a practical or viable alternative given the present student cohort.
Who is more likely to, or capable of, change? Surprisingly, us old dogs with a little wit and circumspection retain the capacity to learn a new trick or two ...not because we want to, but because that i s what is required to get the job done. You have a body of experience and expertise i t would be shame for the youngergeneration, students, and faculty, not to be able to benefit from, simply because yon are disappointed your experience has nodturned out the way you fantasized i t might when you were choosing your profession. Life has a way of surprising everyone. Use that creative imagination and energy, which you devoted to assem-
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Journal of Chemical Education
bling your mntterings, to sorting out among the armatorium of educational techniques those you are willing to try in the battle against the evils of ignorance and intellectual lethargy you so vigorously document. You would he surprised how simple some are to adopt; how downright pleasurable the results can be. Take heart! Your career need not be dismantled quite just yet. But you do have some serious tinkering to do to keep i t functioning. Best wishes to you, your charges, a n d colleagues. Frankly you need each other. J. N. Cooper
Buckneli University Lewisburg, PA 17837 The Hydride Ion and Its Loosely Bound Outer Electron To the Editor: This letter refers to the article on atomic two-electron systems by M. J. ten Hoor [1991,69, 1971. Towards the end of the paper, the author suggests that the physical picture of the hydride ion as "an almost unscreened hydrogen atom with a very loosely bound extra electron" is a n "incorrect conclusion". In pointing out this "incorrct conclusion", the author cites our note on the helium sequence [1987,64, 1281 a s a n example and a reference. We would like to make some comments concerning this ~ o i n t . ~ i ; s t of all, we wish to reiterate that the foregoing conclusion was drawn bv S. Chandrasekhar IAstro~hvs.J. 1944, 100, 1761, which we have pointed out in ok"note. Chandrasekhar's work on H- is also quoted by H. A. Bethe and E. E. Salpeter i n their book Quantum Mechanics of One- a n d %o-Electron Atoms [Academic: New York, 1957: p 1561. Reading the relevant in the book indicates that the authors are i n ameement with Chandrasekhar. In any event, we are not the originator of the conclusion. Second, we wish to add that we also agree with Chandrasekhar's conclusion. The statement quoted above does not imply that one electron is a t all times farther away from the nucleus than the other. Rather, it means that a t one instant, electron 1is the outer electron; a t another instant, i t becomes the inner one. When ionization takes place, i t is the outer electron that is ionized. Since this outer electron is loosely bound, the ionization potential is very low. Such a ~ i c t u r is e consistent with the idea that the two electrons in H-are equivalent to and indistinguishable from each other. Thev make the same contribution to the total enerw -" of the sys&, a s pointed out by ten Hoor in his paper. Wai-Kee Li The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong A Reversible Blue-and-Gold Reaction To the Editor:
A very interesting catalytic reaction has been published recently by M. C. Shermann and D. Well ( I ) . Although my kinetic and potentiometric investigations cannot shed light on the authors'questious, a number of interesting results have been obtained. The reaction between potassium sodium tartrate and hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by copper sulfate can be studied a t 30 "C, too, by increasing the copper tartrate concentration. The color of the precipitate depends on the [tar-
tratel/[H2021ratio and changes from orange to green in case of high and low concentration ratio, respectively. The orange precipitate is presumably a copper(1)-peroxo-tartrate complex, rather than Cu20. (Note that the precipitate formation was inhibited by phosphate and chloride ions.) The reaction time (e.g. the time until the beginning of precipitate formation) increased by increasing [Hz021 and temperature and decreased by increasing [tartratel and [CuS041.Contrary to the cobalt-catalyzed reaction (21, the reaction rate of copper-catalyzed decomposition decreased by increasing the pH. The most exciting results were obtained by potentiometric measurements, made under unbuffered conditions: a nonmonotonic change in the pH and redox potential were observed. For example, in case of a high [tartratell[HzO21 ratio (18mL 1M KNaC4H406,2 mL 0.1 M CuSO4, 2 mL 6 % Hz02, T = 30 "C) three minima and two maxima in the pH vs. reaction time curve, and two maxima and one minimum in the redox potential vs. reaction time curve could be detected. These observations suggest a very complic r ~ t !so d called cxotic kinetic behavi& Exotic kinetic phenomena i c g . ollgo-oscillation and oscillation both in batch and contin~oushlowstirred tank reactors) have already been described (3-5) in some metal-catalyzed decompositions of H202. Detailed studies on the kinetics of the above reaction and the re-investigation of Co(I1)- or Fe(II1)-catalyzed oxidation of tartrate by H20zare in progress. Literature Cited 1. Sherman, M. C.; Well. D. J. Cham.Edue. 1991,68.1037. n t h . 2.;Liptak, L., unpublished resultr. O~ban.M. J A m Chem. Sac 198%.108,689&6898. 4. Beck, M. T.: Nagy 1.P: Szekely,O.Ini. J C h r n Khet 1991,23, 881496, 5 . Rsbai. Gy J Chern. Sm., Chern. Cornmun. 1991,1083-1084.
2. 3.
Zolthn T6th Institute of Physical Chemistry Kossuth Lajos University H-4010. Debrecen, PO. Box 7, Hungary Comment on: "The Problem with P. Chem." To the Editor:
The Provocatiue Opinion by Moore and Schwenz 11992, 69, 10011 is on the mark about the problems with the physical chemistry curriculum; however, the authors' proposed solutions to the problems are not realistic for all physical chemistry proerams and further divorces the stube& laboratory experience from lecture. Schoolsthat must serve chemical eneineerine maiors in " conjunction with chemistry majors are not capable of covering quantum chemistry first. The chemical engineering majors need thermodynamics a s a n important prerequisite for iunior-level enpineering courses. The only alternative would be to movequantchemistry to sophomore -year.. already heavily loaded with analvtical and organic chemistry. AS a practical alternative; the first te'm of physical chemistry could consist primarily of "bulk" thermodynamics augmented with statistical thermodynamics. Statistical thermodynamics can be successfully used a s a tool for understanding the concepts in "bulk" thermodynamics, namely entropy, which is conceptually the most difficult tonic in "bulk" thermodvnamics. I have found that by usmg only the principles of quantum chemistry learned in general chemistrv. students arc caoable ofobtalnine the ~ o k z m a n nand ~ a c k u r - ~ e t r o dequations e for entrop
