HIGH SCHOOL NOTES ELBERT C. WEAVER1 Bullreley High Schwl, Hartford, Connectimt
The CONSUMER ASPECT of CHEMISTRY TEACHINGz ELBERT C. WEAVER1 Bulkeley High School, Hartford, Connecticut
Consumer interest i s commanding increasing attention today. Evidence of this interest i s reJlected i n more emphasis on the practical or functional side of chemistry i n secondary schools and decreased stress on the more formal aspects of chemistry. Early textbooks stressed applications of chemistry (1806). Later the academic trend predominated (188090). I n modern times increased emphasis i s again consumer-mrd because (1) many modern products need interpretation, (2) they need intelligent consumers, and (3) they rely on adwertkng to create a demand. Industries are codperating luth educational institutions, but advertising agencies for general goods ore lugging i n accurate representation of the products they would sell. A modern course i n chemistry uses consumer interest for motivation, but sh0u.M not neglect fundamental c h e m k l principles.
+ + + + + +
T
HE rise of the cooperative movement; the success of consumer-interest bureaus; the success of publications such as their buU&ins and "1,000,000,000 Guinea-pigs" which emanate from their activities; new food and drug laws, designed to protect consumers; and a consumer-conscious attitude on the part of producersall these are evidences of a phenomenon of our times, namely, a general consumer interest. This growth of consumer-centered activities is reflected in a renewed emphasis on the practical side of chemistry. More strongly than ever today comes the demand that high-school chemistry should be functional and not something set apart from the reality by the covers of a book. Secondary-school pupils ask continually, "What's it good for?" and teachers and recent textbooks go to great pains to supply an answer. In tracing back the consumer theme in chemistry textbooks, one finds that chemistry was introduced into the curriculum of the secondary schools a t an Presented before the Division of Chemical Education a t the ninety-seventh meeting of the A. C. S., Baltimore, Md., April 5. 1939. 2 Present address: Polytechnic High School. Long Beach, Cal.
early date. In those days before industrial specialization the home was by necessity self-sufficient. Ashes were leached for lye which later found its way into soap. Meat was home-cured, vinegar home-made, also beverages, candles, cheese, medicines, insecticides, and in some cases dyes, molasses, and salt. The practical aspects of chemistry in the schools of the day may be seen from the title page of "Plain Discourses on the Laws or Properties of Matter, containing the Elements or Principles of Modern Chemistry with more particular Details of those practical Parts of the Science most interesting to Mankind, and connected with Domestic Affairs, Addressed to all American promoters of useful knowledge." This book was written by Thomas Ewell, M.D., of V.ir@nia, and appropriately dedicated to the great democrat, Thomas Jefferson, in 1806. The "Chemical Instructor," fourth edition, was brought out in 1833 by Eaton, with this interesting preface which reveals that then, ,as today, a conflict of methods in presenting chemistry was possible. "It is a curious fact, that most of our learned professors in the modern sciences seem inclined t o keep them aloof from ordinary citizens. They seem to view them sr tao elevated for any hut the initiated rauanr. " 'You cheapen these sciences,' says my learned correspondent, 'by making them familiar things;- felt and handled by the merchant and the hl8cksmith.' "Chemistry must then be embarrassed by chlorides, iodides, brokides, etc.. to obscure them and to discourage the mJgis communis. Mere mites in science, of no practical use, clothed in mystic language, must be made t o occupy a large space in our books, to intimidate learners, lest the Farmer and Mechanic, and even women, should trespass on the sacred arcam of the learned professors. My seventeen years of hard labor are to be set down minus; because my efforts have been directed t o a had p u r p o s e t h a t of making the farmer, the mechanic, the cook. and the spinster intelligent companions."
No information is a t hand to reveal the success or failure of this effort. A random examination of several textbooks written in each decade of the last and the present century reveals this general tendency. The consumer aspect is apparently a strong feature in some early textbooks.
I.93
It drops to a minimum a t about 1880 or 1890. Changes in the life of the people and in the character of the secondary school may account in part for the rigidly academic character of textbooks of the eighties. The "machine age" of specialization has started, and industry is no longer centered a t homes but in factories. The academy has become almost exclusively college preparatory, and chemistry courses are given for the sake of chemistry as a preface to more chemistry. Not all books were uniform then, however, any more than they are today. A textbook dated 1887 and written by Dr. Ira Remsen contains over twice as much practical material as some of its contemporaries. But consumer interest had its sharp limitations in those days. Professor Remsen's book mentions bread, but no butter. In the course of the years a change of emphasis on consumable objects is noticeable. Flints for fire-lighting in early books are replaced by a description of matches. Then as their use becomes popular, safety matches are also described. Today both types of matches and the cerium-steel flints for cigar-lighters may be included. The modern situation presents a third aspect of the problem. The secondary-school chemistry course is a terminal course for most of the pupils. Further, the multitude of consumer goods made by chemical methods is ovenvhelming. Adequate knowledge. of the commercially available synthetic plastics, for example, is already beyond the scope of most chemistry teachers. This leads to another feature of modern consumer goods, namely, they need interpretation and they depend upon advertising to create a demand. Directions aren't necessary with an old-fashioned bar of soap. Everyone knows how to use that. Directions are necessary, however, for effective use of soap flakes, soap granules, water softeners, or soap substitutes, and advertising is needed to sell them in a competitive market. The need for an intelligent public to consume its goods has led industries to join fortes with educators. This cooperation may be witnessed by a readiness on the part of industrial leaders to allow school children to visit their plants where practicable, by providing non-advertising moving pictures for classroom use a t cost of transportation, and in supplying samples, charts, pamphlets, and other materials suitable for classroom use a t low cost or gratis. Industries are also carrying on independent educational campaigns. In order to understand the need for ethyl fluid in gasoline, for example, the public must be educated to the lore of compression ratio and its effect. These campaigns may develop horizontal organizations such as those represented by the several institutes, the U. S. Beet Sugar Association, International Tin Research, or the Ethyl Corporation which, for example, cuts across all dealers in gasoline who use their product; vertical organizations, represented by the Research Laboratories Section of the General Motors Corporation; and independent organizations such as the Alumi-
num Company of America and many other companies which now make goods unfamiliar to people a generation ago. These educational campaigns should be capitalized by chemistry teachers. Contacts with these agencies, visits to shops, samples from industries, and modern textbooks crowded with the practical side of chemistry all furnish strong motivation to pupils. Such activities help take chemistry out of a textbook and articulate i t with daily life. The chemistry teacher battling against the advertising agency and its misrepresentations which are supported by the most subtle psychological approach is a classroom spectacle which our pupils must enjoy. Recently, newspapers in a well-known chain sent marked copies of a nationally known magazine to all the teachers in their localities. The editor of the magazine in person wrote a preface to an excellent series of articles which glorified modern advertising. In this editorial he makes the remarkable statement, ". . . more, the efforts of self-discipline in a modern business had gone far to eliminate such tricky deceitfulness altogether from modern advertising." Since much of modern advertising is for products which use the resources of science, and advertisement writers do not hesitate to state "Science says. . .," let us examine the next three advertisements which follow the editor's statement. We object, as chemistry teachers, to having our pupils make incomplete comparisons in the classroom. We do not give credit to them for knowing much about chemistry if they say, for example, ammonia is lighter, or that substances burn betterin oxygen. Yet the first advertisemeht, one for a' popular low-priced automobile, contains five of these meaningless and incomplete comparisons. The car is lower in price, bigger, longer in wheelbase, but the reader is not told whether the comparison is with the cars of competitors, former models of the same car,.bicycles, freight cars, or a combination of them. The second advertisement would have you take something into the stomach because it "helps Nature counteract acidityw-a new angle on the stomach's function, according to most information. The last member of this trio would sell a certain brand of whiskey to its readers because "It'll warm you up." The magazine in question appeared during cold weather, but all during the previous summer we were informed by advertisements to keep cool with another brand of this versatile beverage. Happy is the chemistry teacher who can discern where pure informing stops and propaganda begins. Some newspapers employ a science editor to check the accuracy of their science news. There is a definite and obvious need for the same supervision of advertising which bears the name science. A danger exists in presenting a course in a reference frame of marketable products and calling it chemistry. Chemistry consists of much more than a description of
isolated substances and materials. We fail in our duty t o the pupils who come to us unless we can show them the principles of the science, applications of the scientific method of problem solving, and, more important in these days of subsidized indolence, a wholesome zest for, and appreciation of, the hard work that goes into science-a work which finds its security in adventure and personal initiative, rather than in legislation. I n consumer education the school can conduct a constructive piece of work. One-fourth of the business
of the country is chemical in nature. This sets a challenge to teachers to keep informed of new developments, to interpret changes, and to sift facts from falsehood. Educational campaigns conducted by industrial interests should be used to further classroom activity while a scientific and critical attitude is maintained. In undertaking consumer education as a part of the chemistry course, chemistry teachers have a t once a large responsibility and an opportunity to revive popular interest in the study of chemistry.
