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o& CHEMICAL EDUCATION 4 e - S -
International Dimensions to Chemical Education
R, H. MAYBURY Member-at-large, Executive Committee
The global aspects of science are manifest all about us today: in research programs in space, nuclear energy, geophysics, food supply, and humen health; in eonclrvves under UNESCO, IUPAC, NATO, and other auspices; in wide exchange of scientific personnel and of scientific journdls and books. Perhaps no feature of this universal eoncern far science stands out more strikingly than that of education and training q l scientists. Everywhere, but especially in the newlydeveloping countries-India, Pakistan, and those of Africa and South America-the education of the young for science and technology is viewed ns the key to the ennoblement of human existence throueh escaoo from huneer. sickness. and oovertv.
providing science texhorn. The IXvision of Chemical Education has not been immune ta these currents of international concern. The keen scnse of prdpssional responsibility that guides its members in programs of chernic:tl educstion in American schools and colleges has been tnuched by t,h=c educational needs beyond. For over a, year, intensive thoueht and studv has boen eiven t o these international aspects of instruction in chemistry by several ad hoc committees of t,he Division. Representatives of the Department of State, the Peace Corps, the NSF Int,ernational Science Activities oEce, and the National Academy of Science have met with Division officers and with these committees. The experience and understanding of memhem of the Division who have served abroad in Fulbright, ICA (now AII)), or private programs have been collected. Especially valuable have heon reports from members participating in foreign institut~8of the CHEMS or CBA project,^. Ilivision policy in regard to international chemical education was givcn tentative expression by the Executive Committ,ee at tho Washington mecting in March: A communication was sent to W. A. Noyes, ACS representnt.ive on the UNESCO Council, and E. G. Xovaeh, of the Bureau of Cultural and Educational Alhirs of tho U. S. Department of State, stating that the Division is willing to cooperate in foreign educational activities when requested to do so. This rcflcets membership eoncern that real responsibility be accepted-fcw if any membon deny our obligation, as a relatively well-afT group, to share our know-how and our material resources with those i n need who are determined to help themselves. At the same time, this policy expresses an appropriate restraint barn both of modesty and of realism. Redistically, teachers are-and the Division is-already overtaxed by demands
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far improving chemical education in our 0u.n schools and colleges. Possibly a careful and measured approach to outside demands for assistance can he itn excellent means for drawing 8. larger number of chemists into Division activities. The modesty of this policy stems from awarenpds that not all, we have and do isnecesssrily applicable, without creative adaptation, to chemical education in a newly-developing country. Only by carefully drawn plans for working together-American and national scientists of the host country-sn programs and curricula in chemistry be evolved that really fit the need of the host country. Two instances of the appropriateness of the Division policy may he prafitsbly cited. The United States Commission ior UNESCO reports: "The Fulbright-Hays Act grants authority for astrengthened and improved exchange program. To realize such a program, however, will requirc adequate Congre~~ional itppropriations, sound Department administr:tt,ion, and mazimum cooperation f m m the academic community, private organizations, and the general public."' Recently, the Assoeiatcd Colleges of the Midwest, when asked by the State Department to send a team of science professors to Pakistan to investigate science instruction in the colleges there, turned to each of the throe professional societies, American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Institute of Physics, and the ACS, for assistance in selecting qualified science faculty. The Chairman of the l>ivision oi Chemical Education, L. Carroll King (Xorthnestern), wm able to act in the spirit of this policy (then unformulated) and nominated the Mcmber-ablalarge ta the Associated Colleges team. Subsequently, two members of the Division, Joseph Danforth (Grinnell) and Robert Maybury (University of Redlands), went to Pakistan as members of the team. A letter sotting forth this Division policy statement on international chemical education is being sent to major national groups likely to have occasion to cell upon t,he Divisim far assistance in specific programs. The Division should find a rapidly widening opportunity to assist in filling overseas teaching openings in chemistry, in developing teaching aids and course content materials, in working out laboratory designs, and in many other ways granting s hand a i brotherhood to chemical educators in other nations. (See THIS JOURNAL 39, 364 and 383 (1962), for example.) 1 U. S. National Commission for UNISSCO Newslellw, February, 1062.
Volume 39, Number 8, August 1962
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