So Near, and Yet So Far January 1959, Volume 51,
No. 1
APPLIED JOURNALS, ACS Direcfor of Publicofions, C. 8. larrabee Editorial Director, Walter J. Murphy Execufive Edifor, James M. Crowe Production Manager, Joseph H. Kuney INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERINGCHEMISTRY Editor, Will H. Shearon, Jr. EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON 6, D. C. 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Phone Republic 7-3337 Teletype W A 23 Associate Editors: G. Gladys Gordon, Stella Anderson, Ruth Cornette, Katherine 1. Biggs, George B. Krantz, Melvyn A. Kohudic Assistant Edifors: Robert J. Riley, Robert J. Kelley, Ruth M. Howorth, Eugenia Keller, Sue M. Solliday, William H. Gay, S. David Pursglove, Malvina B. Preiss, Ruth Reynard Edifarial Assistanfs: Katherine H. Ginnane, James H. Carpenter layout ond Production: Melvin D. Buckner (Art); Betty V. Kieffer, Roy F. Nash, Clarence 1. Rakow BRANCH EDITORIAL OFFICES CHICAGO 1, ILL. Room 926,36 South Wabash Ave. Phone State 2-5148 Teletype CG 725 Associafe Editors: Howard J. Sanders, Chester Placek, Laurence J. White HOUSTON 2, TEX., 718 Melrose Bldg. Phone FairFax 3-7107 Teletype HO 72 Associafe Editor: Bruce F. Greek Assistanf Editor: Earl V. Anderson NEW YORK 16, N. Y., 2 Park Ave. Phone Oregon 9-1646 Teletype NY 1-4726 Associafe Editors: William Q. Hull, Harry Stenerson, David M. KieFer, D. Gray Weaver, Walter 5. Fedor, Morton Salkind Assistanf Edifor: l o u i s A. Agnello SAN FRANCISCO 4, CALIF. 703 Mechanics’ Institute Bldg., 57 Post St. Teletype SF 549 Phone Exbrook 2 2895 Associafe Editors: Richard H. Newhall, David E. Gushee EASTON, PA. 20th and Northampton Sts. Teletype ESTN Pa 48 Phone Easton 91 11 Associafe Edifor: Charlotte C. Sayre Editorial Assistants: Joyce A Richards, Elizabeth R. Rufe, June A. Barron EUROPEAN OFFICE Bush House, Aldwych, London Cable JIECHEM Phone Temple Bar 3605 Associafe Editor: Albert S. Hester Contributing Editors: H. Carl Bauman, Robert F. Wall, James B. Weaver, W. J. Youden Advisory Board: A. H. Batchelder, R.L. Bateman, James M. Church, Lauchlin M. Currie, George Harrington, Gustave Heinemann, Rafael Katzen, Joseph H. Koffolt, Samuel D. Koonce, C. J. Krister, E. E. McSweeney, F. Drew Mayfield, H. Gladys Swope, George Thodos, Richard C. Waugh
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130 A
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A high school football game recently we were talking to the ph>-sicsteacher, when we should have been watching plays. After hearing about the program she was running in lab periods, our reaction was “Tt’hat has that got to do with physics?” T h e answer: nothing. T h e reason-lack of equipment necessary to perform the simplest experiments. A country high school? Not by a long way. Rather, a modern school lvith some 600 students. No interest in science? Far from it. ,Q.-ciencebooks never stay in the library. Seventy-five to 90y0of students in chemistry and physics go to college. We suspect this situation is duplicated in hundreds of communities throughout the country. Part of the difficulty, at least, lies in suburbia. This high school lies on the edge of the Metropolitan Lt‘ashington area-but on the wrong side of the edge. Suburbia has extended the population into an area not yet able to provide all the material benefits available to the big city high schools. Metropolitan Washington is helping a little. Through the science contact program sponsored by the National Academy of Science, scientists are available to substitute-teach, to help in career guidance, and to give lecture demonstrations. But these are crumbs at best. T h e Bible teaching “to him that hath it shall be given” seems to apply in the TVashington area too. T h e big high schools in the wealthy counties get the attention. T h e special programs include them but forget the high schools in still nearby suburbia. NSTA’s Traveling Science Library, el-en, was so booked up that only “needling” and some earnest pleading got the library down to the far edge of suburbia a year after application. And two thirds of the books were drawn out in 3 days ! Here you may ask what IiEC’s pitch is. TVe are for anything that will help out in areas like this all over the country. We would suggest that the chemical industry look for such conditions 25, 50, 100 miles away from its plants. We would suggest gifts of simple lab equipment, of product flow display-s, of time and effort on the part of company chemists and chemical engineers. Sometime ago, we had a letter from a chemistry teacher, who was interested in one of the stories in our I i E C Reports. She remarked, incidentally, that she didn’t even have laboratory thermometers. Her count>-was a poor one, but there was a chemical plant in the same general area of the state. SVhat a wonderful opportunity to do so much at little cost, where anything would be welcome. Just a few weeks ago Chemistry and Industry carried an editorial titled “The State of School Science Laboratories.” Britain has its troubles too. Expenditure on apparatus in half of the state-maintained schools of our high school level is about a dollar per science pupil per year. British industry has already done a great deal to improve laboratory facilities in private schools. Chemistry and Industry is appealing for a very active interest by the British chemical industry in government-supported schools as well. I n “The Fool’s Prayer,” a poem we memorized in high school, the jester says
The words we had not sense to say Who knows how grandly they’d have rung MCA is doing a marvelous missionary work with the science demonstration program booklets it is distributing to high schools throughout the country. But these booklets will only tantalize if there is not equipment to perform the experiments, Can we not assume that a feIv burners, pieces of glassware, and chemicals may light a spark in some student’s career planning which will repay a thousand times over the cost of these small items? A small challenge-but we throw it to you.
