provoc~tiveopinion "Scenario" Harold Koch 6901 Perry Ave. N., Minneapolis, MN 55429
Today the doors of the Minneapolis Public Schools flew open to start a new school year. The academic year traditionally starts with pep talks. Why not? It gives one a good tingly feeling. I do not appreciate being a member of a captured audience for longspeeches, hut one can always dig in and find some positive information. Even a casual observer would learn that colleague, the "in" word of last year, has heen dropped. Teachers shall continue to share things, hut the new "in" word isscenario. You are allowed to share a scenario, hut evidence is building up that in most cases it is going to he painted. So much for the jargon. Occasionally it is fun for teachers to tease one another with our ill-defined words of the trade. I plan to send the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION a few short tips, ideas, and space fillers. My seeking of those positive strokes will have to wait for another day. Today I am compelled to report that much of my "view from the classroom" is negative. Undouhtedly some chemistry programs must have gained strength; however, I wish to focus attention on the unpleasant topic of how the teaching of high school chemistry has slipped during the past decade. Please read carefully. I am not claiming that teachers have slipped. It is the support behind the chemistry teacher which has eroded. I have been told that the three most important things in the educational process are (1) motivation, (2) motivation, and (3) motivation. I agree that motivation is the name of the game, and it is the motivation of the chemistry teacher which has been neglected. The bottom line which I fear is that as a result of this neglect students will be less motivated-less motivated to TAKE chemistry and less motivated to perform if they take chemistry. Most people agree that we need chemical engineers and scientifically literate memhers of Congress to ease the world-wide food crisis, energy crisis, and soon-to-be-recognized water crisis. (It amounts to playing with words, hut for many people water shortages are localized or temporary and are perceived as a prohlem rather than a crisis a t this time.) I perceive the lack of money for equipment and for refresher courses for high school chemistry teachers as a problem heading for the category of crisis. The problem is more subtle than the search for a clean glass of water. For this reason i t is important that we chemistry teachers communicate our need for help as well as our success stories. I shall try to communicate some specific problems in the area of the country where I teach. A few years ago we had twelve full-time chemistry teachers in the city. We now have six. Four or five people teach chemistry part time. The falling enrollment has taken a heavy toll. I worked with two "younger" chemistry teachers long enough to know that they were excellent. They were dropped because of the falling enrollment. One of these teachers had nine years experience. Obviously the average age of a chemistry teacher in Minneapolis is getting to he high. This is not evil per se, hut some of our older science teachers have not had a refresher course for a long time. A serious problem connected with the falling enrollment is the mental set and lack of recent chemistry training of the 182
Journal of Chemical Education
teachers who are requested to fill in on a part time basis for the chemistry teachers who were laid off. Some of the replacement teachers have a minor in chemistry. Others have old state certificates which allow them to teach any and all sciences. It is not mv uoint to chastise the re~lacement teachers. The point isthat we need to provide themoney for refresher courses immediately. Obviously the only hope for the outlay of money of this magnitude, to meet the need on a National scale, would he the Federal government. A lesser problem is that of equipment..~ostof the suburban schools I get into have ample equipment. Most big city teachers I talk to say that they do not have enough equipment. If the NSF ever gets hack into massive school support, I would want them to out out a minimum list of eauinment that would have to be in a chemistry lab. If s c h b o i " ~ "has a safety shower then everv school through "Z"should have a safetv shower. The sending of money without sufficient strings attached did not work, for administrators are too adept a t juggling funds. Forgive them. They are forced into the development of this skill by their inadequate hudgets. The greatest thing that ever happened science teaching was the providing of Summer Institutes by the National Science Foundation. For the young teacher who might he reading this article, it will he fun for me to relate how inspiring the NSF programs were. Most teachers prior to Sputnik (1957) placed a great deal of emphasis on descriptive chemistry and on memorizing large blocks of information. The pendulum swung! CHEMS, a program sponsored by the NSF, was well received. The tests were open hook. The reading level was placed a t thirteenth grade by our science consultant. T h e teachers in our sevencounty area who were fortunate enough to go to CHEMS classes scattered across the country were so "turned on" that they taught the rest of us. Every Saturday a different high school teacher would offer his or her school. Either a CHEMS film or experiment highlighted the get-together. There was involvement and excitement, for we were sharing ideas from all over the country. An organization of the college professors and high school teachers was formed, and soon they were going from college to college exchanging ideas. Most of the institutes offered refresher courses which were not CHEMS. I went to American Universitv. Leo Schubert had us doing our lab work a t the Bureau of standards! I went to Stevens Institute of Technology for three summers. The courses were so difficult we calledthem science fiction, hut it was a chemistry teacher who finally taught me what calculus was all about. The Universitv of Marvland nut on a oroeram ~ a r &~ a r d n e r .~ h ;t&ght entitled IAC. I am in debt teachers that it was OK to have fun in chemistry. She also taught us about the wonderful world of hiochem. The CHEMS era brushed up the area of physical chemistry. Most chemistry teachers I know were not taught biochem. Our students are vitally interested in the topics of hiochem and pollution which keep making the daily news. The chemistry teachers I know took physics and math-not biology. . . In fact. we have a "fear" of biology. Thank you, NSF, for making all of the institutes of the 60's possible. Thank you Chemical Manufacturing Association for your support to chemistry teachers down through the years. Thank vou. OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION. . ,JOURNAL . for .outtineu in a secondary school section. Help. . .somebody. . . anybody in a oosition of Dower.. . .The hall is hack in vour court. The chemistry teachers of this country desperatel; need refresher courses.
