EDITOR'S OUTLOOK
R
EPORT OF THE A. C. S. COMMITTEE ON HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY. I t is to be honed that future develonments will eventually indicate the report of the Committee on High-school Teaching of Chemistry, unanimously adopted by the Council of the A. C. S., to have been one of the historically significant documents of the Kansas City meeting. Save for the acute poverty of space under which we labor, we should have sought permission to present that report in full in our pages. It is, however, available in the April 20th number of the News Edition of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry [14, 147-8 (1936)l. For a summary of the findings of other organizations which have previously studied the problem of high-school instruction, and of other sources of information consulted hy the Committee, the reader is referred to the complete report; the recommendations of the Committee, endorsed by the Council, follow. "In view of the foregoing your committee recommends that the American Chemical Society go on record as endorsing the following views originally recommended by the Committee on Required Courses in Education of the American Association of University Professors. "1. 'There is no reliable evidence that professional requirements have resulted in an improvement in secondary instruction a t all commensurate with the amount of the requirements.' "2. 'A considerable lowering in the requirements would result in economy and would not lessen the effectiveness of instxnction in the high school. There is, in fact, reason to believe that, on the average, teaching would be improved through a possible increased knowledpe art of the teacher. of the subiects he " on the teaches or of related subjects.' "3. 'A maximum of twelve semester hours is ample to cover that part of professional training which can be regarded as essential for the beginning teacher who has a bachelor's degree from a standard college or university, and who qualifies for teaching an academic subject. The training should involve practice teaching and methods, the methods course being closely integrated with the practice teaching. Courses in psychology or educational psychology, when these are required, should be counted towards the requirement.' "In addition to these recommendations, your committee further recommends: "4. That the American Chemical Society go on record as advising that the sequence in required 'professional' or 'teacheratraining' courses be so arranged that the entire sequence can be taken by advanced science students within one academic year.
"5. That the American Chemical Society pronounce itself as opposed to 'unrestricted certification' of highschool teachers, by means of which teachers are at present teaching subject-matter courses in which they themselves have had no previous training, and in favor of 'restricted certification' whereby only those persons who have had a specified amount of collegiate training in a particular subject-matter field will be permitted to teach in that subject-matter field in high schools. "6. That the American Chemical Society go on record as emphatically asserting its belief that a prospective instructor should be required to present evidence of an adequate background in subject-matter courses before he or she is eligible for assignment to teach in that particular subject-matter field in high schools. "7. That the American Chemical Society express its belief that for such 'restricted certikation' the minimum amount of collegiate course credit in the specific subject-matter field should not be less than the minimum amount of course credit which is required in 'professional' or 'teacher training' courses, and that for certification to teach chemistry a minimum requirement of courses through organic chemistry (because of its importance in life processes) is essential."
This month's cover Picture, entitled "Tools of Murochemistry," shows Charles G. Van Brunt at the microscope. The pkture illustrates a recent educational release froin the News Bureau of the General Electric Company. Among the described applications of microchemical technic to industrial problems, the follcm-ing is representative. "The serious scaling of certain chromium-alloy heating units on test at red heat was traced, through the aid of microchemistry, to improper rinsing of the lubricant i n the original manufacture. Traces of sodium, an extremely destructive agent when heated with chromiumalloy materials i n air, were found i n the surface of the heating units. It was finally learned that the lubricant used contained a form of combined sodium which had broken down chemically to form a powerful alkali when the units were rinsed to clean them. The trouble was remedied by a change of lubricant-a cause of difiulty that might not hawe been discovered without microchemistry." 252
