ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y WALTER J. MURPHY, Editor
We learn by Doing WERE greatly disturbed during the recent meeting of the Scientific Apparatus ;\lakers Association to hear of the unfortunate trend in many high schools toward eliminating from physical science courses student participation in laboratory experiments. The staging of certain laboratory denionstrations by the teacher most certainly is part of a well integrated curriculum-experiments that are more elaborate than high school students in most cases can perform personally-but such performances obviously are no substitute f o i dctual participation of the student in supervised experiments. Apparently there are a number of reasons for the present tiend. One, of course, is the readily admitted shortage of teacheis adequately trained in the physical sciences. Another is a shortage of money in a number of communities, particularly in some of the most recently developed suburban areas. The third reason, we are told. is a strong belief on the part of certain groups \vho wield considerable influence that it is more important to impart an appreciation of science in high schools than actually to teach the rudiments. Joel H. Hildebrand, the outspoken President of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, on numerous occasions has criticized qeverely present trends in the teaching of the physical sciences in many of the high schools of the country. Robert E. Wilson, chairman of the board of Standard Oil of Indiana, in his address at the spring meeting of the ACS in Cincinnati, very succinctly summed up present conditions when he stated, “The emphasis appears t o be on how to teach, not on what to teach.” It will take more than the eloquence of a Hildebrand and a Kilson to stem the present tide toward mediocrity in our teaching standards. What is needed desperately is the active interest of parents in the type of schooling their children are receiving. This publication has more than 26,000 subscribers and, perhaps, two or three times as many readers. Many readers have children of high school age. These parents could have a very beneficial effect if they would but exert them
