Chemical Education Today
Editorial
History, Chemistry, and a Longer View Several papers in this issue describe history as a vehicle How can we help students to learn that science (and life, for learning chemistry and chemistry as a vehicle for preservfor that matter) requires thinking about the future as well as ing history. These prompted me to think about taking a the present? Not by simply saying that science is easy or fun. longer view of the common enterprise all of us participate in And not through TV shows or classes that show the results as teachers of chemistry. of science without documenting the struggles Our society seems aimed at exactly the and persistence that were required to achieve opposite kind of approach. Most corpora- …to attain anything of those results. Yes, science is fun, but it is a tions seem to be concerned chiefly with the longer-term and more fulfilling kind of fun value requires real bottom line for the current quarter, not with than that often represented on TV. It is a lot fundamental research that may assure their effort—even struggle— more like the fun of teaching. The process is vitality a decade hence. Politicians seem to arduous, it requires discipline and planning, over a long period worry about the latest poll, tonight’s fundand even when a goal has been achieved there raising dinner, and the next election. The are countless additional things to try. Satisfacstate of the country as little as a year or two from now seems tions are often savored long after the work is over, except for the farthest thing from their minds. There seems to be widethe immediate inner satisfaction of doing anything well. spread discounting of the future—devaluation of things, such Giunta (page 1322) describes using history to teach scias education of children, that only pay off years later, and entific method and alludes to the case-study approach proeven we and our students are not immune. “If I can’t see that mulgated much earlier by James Bryant Conant in a book it benefits me immediately, I don’t want to know about it” is titled On Understanding Science. According to Conant, a scia common reaction among students, and we teachers often entist “approaches a problem in pure or applied science…with behave the same way—I want something I can use in class a special point of view. I designate this point of view ‘undertomorrow, not a broader, longer-term background in the substanding science’.” And, “Being well informed about science ject that may prove beneficial a year or more from now. is not the same thing as understanding science, although the Another aspect of this was touched on in my June editwo propositions are not antithetical.” To understand science, torial on the Third International Mathematics and Science Conant thought, requires that one “retrace the steps by which Study (TIMSS). In comparison with other countries, U.S. certain end results have been produced”, not that one simstudents’ science and math test scores were above average in ply be exposed to a logical exposition of the subject. That is, elementary grades, average in middle school, and below avit requires a historical approach, not a mathematical or philoerage in high school. U.S. high school students devoted fewer sophical one. Or it requires actually experiencing those, or hours to study than those in other countries or in earlier similar, steps, as in student research projects. grades, and this was at least partially attributed to the fact Conant recommended that case studies be taken from that they are much more likely to be working at a paid job. the time during which a science developed into its modern A reader of that editorial responded that students’ working form, because such studies would require little background for other than the basics of economic survival was short knowledge and relatively little mathematics. Even more imsighted: portantly, “one sees in clearest light the necessary fumblings of even intellectual giants when they are also pioneers; one In my opinion, parents do their children a great dissercomes to understand what science is by seeing how difficult vice by allowing them to work during the school year. I see students working to pay for a car, or car insurance, it is in fact to carry out glib scientific precepts.” designer clothes/shoes, CDs, concert tickets, etc. If I had Perhaps we all suffer from what is exemplified by the to, I would take a second job scrubbing floors, or whatsound-bite approach to political, and even scientific, disever, to allow my daughters the luxury to do their job course. Students and teachers want quick and easy answers right—study. to questions and simple, fool-proof nostrums for pedagogical difficulties, when in fact to attain anything of value reThe writer’s parents motivated their two daughters to quires real effort—even struggle—over a long period. Getstudy, and the daughters achieved an M.D. and a Ph.D. Those ting that simple idea across, especially in an era when society’s parents obviously took a long view of what would be most values seem to contradict it, might well be the most imporhelpful to their children—the long-term satisfaction of catant way we can help students. reers that benefit society greatly.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 10 October 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
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