GRADE-SCHOOL METHODS AN ASSET TO THE CHEMISTRY TEACHER BRUCEF. LAMONT, SENIOR HIcn SCHOOL, HAZLETON, PENNSYLVANIA
The most effectiveteaching is undoubtedly done in the grades. I t is in this field that most of our educational research has been carried on. Most of the radical changes made in the methods of teaching have taken place in the grades. It was in this field that standardized tests were first perfected and utilized. Silent reading was introduced because it is only by this means that people read in life. Changes in the curriculum began in the elementary field, so grade teachers have been compelled to be on the alert and keep an ear to the ground, as new advances in their field are constantly being brought forward. When many of us attended school we were carried through the intricacies of cube root, yet most of us have never had occasion to use it in actual life. Today children are drilled in the fundamental arithmetical operations with the aim to become skilful so that they later can cope with actual responsibilities. In thP field of readmg, we can recall how we were taught to read, stand up reading aloud, with frequent admonitions to put more expression into our reading. Very few of us have had occasion to read aloud since. Investigators found that the better the oral reader the less the ability to comprehend. Undoubtedly the aim of all reading is comprehension. The result has been the introduction of silent reading into our elementary schools where the aim is the quick and accurate cothprehension of what is read. In our school days we were compelled to learn long lists of difficult words in our spellmg classes. Words which we never used were learned and words we used daily were neglected. Investigations in the field of spelling resulted in the introduction of context spellmg in the elementary grades. Fewer words are learned, but they are words which many investigations have shown to he most frequently used in actual life. These are just a few of the changes which have taken place in the elementary field. Through a study of these modern elementary-school methods high-school chemistry teachers will acquire a philosophy of education which will broaden their outlook and make them better teachers. A sound philosophy is necessary for successful living, and so a philosophy of education is necessary for successful teaching. Chemistry teachers would do well to study the methods of teaching utilized in the elementary grades. By becoming familiar with the manner in which changes were brought about in the grade schools, high-school teachers will acquire an insight into the methods of research from which these changes have resulted. They will be better fitted to solve intelligently the problems met in their own classrooms. The solution of many prohlems of secondary education can only he reached by teachers who are actually in daily contact with the students. 2701
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
Nov~nwm,1930
A favorite maxim of the successful grade teacher is teach a thing in the way it is to be used. Grade-school teachers know that children can spell words in columns but miss them when writing sentences; some pupils recognize words in drill work but do not know them in reading. In arithmetic children know the arithmetical combinations but make errors in their use in actual problems. Grade-school teachers, therefore, aim to teach facts in the way in which they are to be used. Chemistry teachers are prone to neglect this fundamental principle of educational psychology. I t seems to be traditional. with teachers in the secondary field that the aim of all education is the acquisition of facts. Factual material is crammed into the high-school pupil until he too believes this is why he is in school. The grade-school teacher can give the chemistry teacher an excellent lesson in this matter. By teaching a thing in the way it is to be used many of the facts we now teach lose their seeming importance. The successful grade teacher of today has as her chief aim the preparation for life. Facts to her are only important to the extent to which they are useful in building correct habits and attitudes. Leadership, tesourcefulness, neatness, politeness, tact, coijperation, responsibility, industry, and honesty are traits with which the elementary teacher is concerned. Chemistry instruction will better meet the needs of the pupils when teachers utilize the facts which they teach as a means of developing habits, attitudes, and ideals which will prepare students for life. Every high-school subject should contribute attitudes, habits, and ideals to the education of e the pupil. When facts are to be acquired the grade-school teacher is a master of the technic of drill. This is a fundamental weakness of all high-school instruction. Chemistry teachers frequently expect students to acquire a mastery of factual material without applying the laws of learning. Facts are presented and seldom drilled upon. Grade teachers have scientifically worked out the distribution of drill periods. This scientific distribution of drill periods at frequent intervals is lacking in the teaching of chemistry. Facts well drilled and aiming to develop civic, moral, and economic attitudes and ideals will follow as chemistry teachers study the methods used in the grades. Many grade teachers have become expert in the teachmg of silent reading. Here is a field for the high-school chemistry teacher. Little or nothing has beeu done in secondary education in the diagnosis of errors in reading of high-school subjects. Yet all high-school subjects are acquired largely through reading. Different reading abilities are required by diierent subjects. For instance, the study of science or mathematics requires a different reading ability than history. I n many instances the writer has found that failure on the part of a high-school chemistry student has beeu due to the inability to comprehend what has been read because of
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poor reading habits. In many instances the poor habits can be corrected by the use of proper remedial measures. High-school chemistry teachers will find improvement in their work through a study of the methods of silent reading as practiced in the grade schools. Teachers in the elementary field know the value of a good assignment. They know that a study of any unit will fail in educational results unless it is preceded by a good assignment. Grade teachers aim to make their assignments delinite and specific because they are dealmg with immature minds. The assignment is motivated and made as a definite unit. The pupil is shown that his lesson is an answer to some definite problem. The teacher shows the pupil how to attack the new problem and then how to study it by studying with him. The teacher tells many interesting things about the new content which is not found in the textbook, and thus tries to overcome the pupil's reluctance for further reading. In the making and motivating of chemistry assignmentsthe high-school teacher can learn much by a study of elementary-school methods. In the grade schools the teacher individualizes instruction to an extent undreamed of by many high-school teachers. The elementary teacher is a friend and adviser to the pupil and in many instances in closer relationship to the child than the home. The successful grade teacher is serving as the best kmd of a guidance counselor. By watching the grade teacher at work the high-school teacher will learn the methods of individualized instruction rather than mass teaching, and become better able to serve as guide and c counselor to the pupils. Much material is taught in the grades through dramatization and visualized instruction. Some high schools have made progress along this line, but much can yet be learned from the expert grade teacher. Chemistry is a subject which naturally lends itself to instruction through dramatization or visualized instruction. The secondary-schoolteacher must in the future make wider use of both dramatization and visualization. In dealing with younger minds the elementary school teacher has been forced to practice modern educational methods. In many ways more expert teaching is done in this field than in the secondary schools, and chemistry teachers who make a study of elementary educational methods will improve themselves as teachers.
Rubber Explodes When Overworked. Strange is the behavior of ordinary, eomman rubber. Like water, it is non-compressible, but like a gas it stores as heat work done an it when it is strained and stressed. And rubber has been stressed so severely and so rapidly that it heated up and exploded, Walter C. Keys, of Detroit, Michigan, reported recently to the American Society for Testing Materials. Mr. Keys said that badly overloaded solid tires have been known to explode.-Science Sem'ce
