Chemical Education Today
Letters Reaction to “Something Might Be Gaining on Us” I read with some interest the Editorial in the August issue of the Journal (1). While we all agree that, in whatever we do, we should strive for improvement, I find it disconcerting that someone would use the statistics on the origins of articles published in a journal such as the Physical Review as indicative of any need to change the education system in the United States of America. There may well be problems with educational institutions, but this fact about publication is not necessarily evidence of any unhealthy trend in our educational system. What is clear is that most journals I watch have become more and more internationalized over time. This is probably an indication of the confluence of a number of trends across the world. First, as economies across the globe develop, science has become the beneficiary in those areas and scientific efforts have begun to flourish in these lands as institutions and companies grow and develop, just as they did in the U.S. after the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Second, the educational system, particularly at the graduate level (which would have the most impact on the parameter chosen as a measure), of the United States has provided not only excellent educations to American students, but it has provided, and continues to provide, excellent educations to many students from foreign lands, often supported by the government of the United States. Many of these scientists return to their homelands with the desire and ability to continue research and publication, and their societies often encourage this as means of demonstrating the strength of the country and it policies. Since World War II, this trend has been continuous. Indeed, one might say that the American higher education system has provided the base on which not just our economy, but that of the world, has taken root, including scientific endeavors. The third, and more sinister, trend in physics is the lack of viable positions for students of physics in the United States after their graduation, a trend that has caused some stagnation, and even decrease, in the efforts in physics in institutions in the United States at the same time it is expanding elsewhere. Frequently, students of physics in the U.S. find
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employment outside the area of physics simply because there are no positions (or only a few) to be had. This certainly is not a failure of the education system. It may be a failure of our society, in that we do not value the kinds of skills of and the knowledge base created by physicists, but it does not necessarily indicate anything about the education system. The question that should be of some concern to chemists is this: will this trend be transplanted from physics to chemistry? There may be value in the work of Stigler and Hiebert. In fact, I am sure there is. As a professor, I constantly have to remind students not to interrupt in the classroom. On the other hand, one of the great strengths of American culture is the ability of the individual to question and challenge the doctrines being laid down, in ways that would be unacceptable in other cultures. Maybe it is better to have students challenge and interrupt, than to accept blindly the statements of an “authority”. Whatever one may make of studies of teaching, the statistics on the origins of papers in Physical Review probably are much more optimistic than they are negative. In fact, an internationalist might say that these statistics are a healthy sign, because prosperity that gives rise to the time for creative exercises such as scientific inquiry across the world is good for us all. What should be a concern to U.S. scientists is that these statistics probably also indicate that students, having sensed that our society (that is, government and industry) supports the creative endeavors that give rise to papers in Physical Review less than it once did and provides less and less time for creative scientific investigations that invigorate the individual, are less attracted to scientific studies than in earlier times. And even if they are attracted, they are probably less completely than once they were. Literature Cited 1. Moore, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1079. Cecil R. Dybowski Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716-2522
[email protected] Vol. 82 No. 2 February 2005
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