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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
NOVEMBER, 1925
N TRYING to determine why we are teaching chemistry to high-school
students and college freshmen we should not forget that our one course is all the formal chemistry the vast majority of them will ever get. With comparatively few exceptions they will not specialize in chemistry. When they leave school they will go into other lines of work; into the professions, into business, into the industries, into politics. They will be leading men and women in the community in spite of the opinion we may hold and sometimes express as to their natural abilities. We judge them without sufficientacquaintance with those others who never reach the high school or college, by comparison with whom we should have a much better opinion of our own students. We are therefore dealing with young people who in the future will be men and women of influence, who will be leaders of thought and action in the community. What kind of training should we like such ones to have? For our leaders in society we should like to have high-minded men and women who have a broad outlook upon life. We should like men and women who can think, who have judgment, who can work and who have initiative and resourcefulness in attacking their problems. We should like men and women who have the courage of their convictions, men and women of vision, perspective, and broad human sympathies. This is partly a job for Mother Nature herself, but it is not altogether hers, else we should have no need for schools of any sort. This is what President Hopkins of Dartmouth has in mind when he says, "The purpose of a college education is to give a man complete command of his faculties and the ability to think clearly and independently." It is for theeducator to give the raw material he gets from nature every opportunity to develop into the kind of men and women the community needs. I believe there are few if any subjects better adapted for this purpose than is that of chemistry. The beginner goes exploring into what is to him an entirely new field where he should he able to use his imagination, his reason, his judgment-in fact all his faculties to his heart's content. Do we always give him the chance? Another qualification we should like for our leading citizens to have is open-mindedness. This is the great need of the present. It is almost too much to hope that our political, financial, social, and industrial problems may sometime be solved by open-minded men and women. Yet we do entertain such a hope. James Harvey Robinson in his book on "Humanizing of Knowledge" has well said, "Of all human ambitions an open mind eagerly expectant of new discoveries and ready to remold convictions in the light of added knowledge and dispelled ignorance and misapprehension is the noblest, the rarest, and the most difficult to achieve." There is probably no better place for a student to begin the scientific method than in the subject of chemistry. This is one of the more exact of
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Oaremrvss IN TEACHING CHBMISTRY
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the sciences where experiments may be tried and definite results obtained. In chemistry it is easy to see why certain hypotheses were proposed to explain certain phenomena and that failure to take into account all the facts inevitably leads to false conclusions. The student will see that to make real progress he must keep his mind open. I cannot refrain from adding, however, that if chemistry is a good place to begin the use of the scientific method, it is not necessary to confine its use to this science. One of my colleagues once said, "We chemists are always open-minded excefit when we go outside of our specialty. We are willing to take account of all the facts in our own problems, but when i t comes to questions on politics or education or the labor problem our minds are not always open." A third thing that we should like for our leaders to have is a full realization of the role that chemistry plays in life and sufficient grasp of the most fundamental things to enable them to appreciate its applications and possibilities when chemistry is involved. That the public is grossly ignorant of chemistry and the value of chemical knowledge in the solution of public problems needs no argument before a body of this kind. This ignorance exists among educated people, among men of affairs and among most of those who a t the present time comprise our leaders in society and mold public opinion. It is important, therefore, that we take steps to dispel this ignorance. We should see to it that i t does not exist among our future leaders, who are now taking their one course in chemistry. It is urgent that we plan this course with these future leading citizens definitely in mind. They are more to be conscdered than the ones who are to specialize in chemistry. Any false notions or any deficiencies in the preparation of the specialist there will be ample opportunity to correct, but the impression the one-course man carries away is likely to be retained for life. Will he go with the feeling even though unexpressed "I certainly did a lot of cramming in that course and I'm glad it's over. What does i t all mean, anyhow?" Or can he be made to feel "Aninteresting subject. It gives me a clue to the explanation of a lot of things. I'd like to inquire further into some of them." It is a matter of the utmost importance that this course he s,o planned and the material for it be so selected as to enable the student to get understanding, as to arouse his interest and in the end to make him feel that he has at least a general idea of what it all means. J. E. BELL CALIPORNIA INSTITUTE OP TECHNOLOGY, PASADENA, CAL.
