Correspondence
I 1
DIFFERENTIATED CHEMISTRY FOR GIRLS To THE
EDITOR:
I am not only much interested in hut highly approve of Mr. Humphrey's letter on Making Chemistry a Required High-School Subject, published EDUCATION. in the February JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL In this connection, may I put in a plea for more differentiated chemistry for girls? Girls, as a rule, care nothing about a discussion of the manufacture of sulfuric acid but are vitally interested in how to take out all kinds of stains on clothing and household fabrics. The oxy-hydrogen blow torch arouses their interest but little, while the hydrogenating of cottonseed oil to a white, solid fat so useful in the kitchen, gives them all the thrill of a romance. The testing of the caloric content of coal has little appeal for the girl, but a discussion of the burning of coal without smoke leaves them gasping with delighted hope of the future and a t the same time fills them with indignation that they have fought the demon dirt for even their few years, because of the ignorance and carelessness of men. The metallurgy of metals interests the average girl very little, but they are all glad to learn of the chemical action of the metals used in the home; why diierent metals are used in various places (such as in cooking utensils, the garbage can, water pipes, drain pipes, bath room fixtures, table ware, kitchen cutlery, etc.), and how and why each metal is best kept clean and bright. Food chemistry, closely linked with physiological chemistry, in a class to themselves with no boys to disturb their frank discussion of domestic problems, is a fascinating subject to the average girl. A place to make a real chemical study of the diierent kinds of sugars, to observe the different steps in the breaking down of starch and to work out practical applications of the chemistry of the carbohydrates to the selection and preparation of food. A laboratory to study the chemistry of fats and their relations to the diet and to the cleaning problems. A workshop to actually study chemically (not make a few superficial tests on) representative protein foods, such as meat, milk, gelatine, cheese, eggs, ice cream, drawing practical applications for use in daily life. Then, a study of the chemistry of the secretions of the human digestive tract and their action on the various classes of foods, bringing home to them that what we feed people makes them. These are but a few of the hundreds of units of chemistry (inorganic,
organic, food, and physiological) which can be made vital to the girls in our high schools today-in classes to themselves. It seems to me that every girl in our country should have some such specially worked out course in chemistry sometime between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. It is deplorable how little women of my own generation, who are mothers and directors of homes, know of chemistry and all its valuable helps. If they studied chemistry in high school or college, they invariably tell me that they hated it and got nothing out of it but their credit. I t seems to me that we must right' this situation by properly preparing our next generation of women in high-school chemistry. AGNESP. JAQWES 3212 PLEASANT AVENUE, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
I have just read with interest the April number of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION, and particularly the editorial, "The Inarticulate Scientist," and Dr. Bancroft's article, "Pandemic Chemistry." Perhaps you may not have noticed it, but there seems, a t least to me, quite a close bond of union between these two articles. After reading both of these, the question occurred to me, "Why not assign the lectures which Dr. Bancroft enumerated to the students and have them report upon them to the class?" During my regency a t John Carrol University, Cleveland, Ohio, I assigned topics to my students and had them report upon them. My reasons were several. The students would thereby acquire a facility in expressing their thoughts in writing and an ease in speaking before a group of people. Again they would learn how to use magazines and various books of reference and lastly they would take an added interest in chemistry. I am glad to be able t'o report that, without an exception, the results which I anticipated were obtained. I regret that I did not then have such a splendid list of subjects as I now have after having read Dr. Bancroft's article. In looking over this list, I notice that there are some topics which the student could not handle. In such instances I would suggest that the teacher develop these subjects. As to the time when these lectures could be worked in; it would depend upon local circumstances. In some places an extra hour could be added provided the Dean were willing; in other places the time could be taken
