RAYMOND E. KIRK Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York
AT THE
end of a long career as a teacher, Professor Bliss Perry wrote an autobiography which is in my opinion the best account of the life of a college teacher. He called it "And Gladly Teach." The book and its title are equally revealing and challenging. It is my privilege to speak here about the chemist who is a teacher. It is my hope that some of my readers will be among the chernist-teachem of tomorrow. I can perhaps venture to speak as one representing the "median" teacher: neither good nor bad, neither distinguished nor obscure. What are the demands made upon one such? What must he know? What must he do? How should he do it? What are his privilege~and what are his rewards?
One who teaches chemistry must first of all be a chemist! No teaching techniques will ever replace this first requirement. And with equal certainty he must also be well-trained in physics and mathematics! Some training (as much as possible) in the natural sciences and the earth sciences is also indicated. Chemical technology and chemical engineering must be known and a~ureciatedif one is to be a well-rounded chemist. ~ x ~ e k & cine the chemical plant and in commercial laboratories will provide the indispensable background of practice needed by our profession. It will by now have been realized that I q not prcposing any special training in chemistry for the likely chemist-teacher. This is equally true in my suggestions
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for the graduate school training of prospective teachers of our science. They need the same training as do other chemists, since they are to join the same profession. The young man who plans to teach might well plan as broad a program of majors and minors as is permissible in his graduate school. He might well supplement his undergraduate training in the other sciences. Above all, he might well cultivate friendships with graduate students in biology, in medicine, in agriculture, and in engineering. It has always been true that graduate students learn more from one mother than they do from their professors. A certain graduate fraternity (which shall be nameless here) has long operated to prove this point. In all that has been said previously about training in science there has been assumed parallel training in speaking and writing, especially at the upper class and graduate level. Some of this might well be formal; much of it must be informal. A vigorous critic who will point out errors of diction and accent is a "must" for each chapter of "student affiliates!" History, language, and literature still hold their place in the training of well-rounded scientists. Economics and political history, especially when factual rather than doctrinaire, deserve their place in the training of the chemist. Here, too, a place on the debating team may well give much more training than long exposure to boring lectures. When the young Ph.D. contemplates becoming a teacher he needs both positive and negative advice. He might well think in terms of his first college teacher of chemistry rather than of his major professor in the graduate school. It is my firm conviction that the young man who thinks only of how to enhance his own prestige as an investigator should not enter teaching. The Research Institute and the Research Lahoratory have open doors for him! If there are any "Ivory Towers" of science left, one h d s them elsewhere than in colleges and universities. His research program (and he should have one) must be chosen and directed primarily in order to train young chemists, and only secondarily to enhance his own prestige. He may not fully sense this a t first, but a few conversations with experienced teachers will soon set him straight. Above all, the prospective chemist-teacher should never forget that he must expect to teach a t all academic levels. It is still true in most universities that one earns his salary by teaching a t the undergraduate level, while graduate teaching and research is an "extra time" endeavor presumed to be its own reward. The young man who holds back his best when teaching freshmen will never know the real joys of teaching. When he can take over a class of "ags" or "premeds," who look on the subject as a necessary evil, and make them like it, and him, he will really he a teacher! He may even get one convert for chemistry! He will surely start a number of the ablest men toward careers in one of the agricultural sciences or in experimental medicine. These are the men who count. They will always remember
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
your teaching! More red scientists in these fields can only come from your teaching. Our young fledglmg Ph.D. should also be warned about faculty committees and faculty meetings! These must be endured, in silence, if humanly possible. Eventually there will come a day when the young professor can present his own pet ideas. They may be good or bad, they may be new or old, but never sliould they be, "the way it is done a t old Siwash." Here, too, will come the day when he can influence the training of young men. About one hundred hours of outside reading a year on the problems of college education will make the young professor a power in faculty committees within five years. (More than this is dangerous, and might well deflect h i to a deanship; a fate worse than death!) The young teacher-to-be should realize that he must have and maintain a lively interest in young persons and their problems. Growing up is a painful process. It usually happens to young folks while they are in college! The young teacher (and sometimes the older one, too) soon becomes an adviser and counselor. Here he needs twice the amount of tact and discretion that anyone could possibly possess. He must deal gently and carefully with all the urges of youth. Fortunately, most modern universities maintain functional counseling services to which the more d8icult problems can and should be referred. The young faculty man will reap a rich harvest of friendship in his student relationships. The nineteen-year-old sophomore halfback who haa been featured in the preseason publicity should scarcely he expected to realize the importance of that mid-term examination. He may even send a local alumnus around to explain to you how important it is to have this halfback eligible for the game with "State." Is this science? Would you have this problem a t the "Whosis Institute of Pure Research?" Perhaps the local alumnus is past your help. But you may still be able to aid the star halfback in his growing up. How should you act? What should you do? That is your problem, sir, not mine! But you can help to produce men, even from star halfbacks. The young teacher may discover a student genius starving in a garret, one whose high scholarship is threatened by the time spent in self-support. Surely a student grant can be had. But the needy students are many; the aid funds meager. Now the teacher must learn to wheedle. He must listen in silence while the "rah-rah" boy of the student aid committee (the committee always has at least one!) sounds off about "giving aid to well-rounded young men who take part in campus activities." The young teacher must also sit mute while the other pest of the committee (usually a scientist, I regret to say) gets off the line that goes, "of course I have no prejudices, but why don't more of these applicants have old American names." However, the shortage of boys with Sioux or Pawnee or Crow names persists! The professors on the committee who have been through this before shrug; and, eventually, the cases
FEBRUARY, 1949
are decided on their merits. And eventually you see the young scholar go on to fame. Is this science? No, but it is a part of teaching. The prospective teacher must beware of the easy assumption of "three months' vacation." In his first years he will teach summer sessions, in all his years the backlog of his scholarly work will eat up his summers. He may eventually be able to transfer his work to spots more or less remote from the campus, but it will never cease to make demands on his time. He can never explain thii to his industrial colleagues, and he will soon cease to try. All his life the teacher may expect to be envied for the long vacations that actually never materialize. The book, the paper, the consulting job (so that Junior can go away to college), will take time. One of the neatest survey articles that I know was written when its author was in bed with a broken leg! Teachers are not born, they are made. They are largely self-made. Formal courses in teaching methods, when taught by competent and devoted teachers, are of great value. They should he more widely uti1ized.b~ young teachers. Beware the ones taught by experts who have themselves never taught subject matter. The best teaching in America is to be found in the e l e mentary grades of our fine public schools. Visit a first-grade room where reading is being taught by mod.ern methods. Try the third grade for arithmetic. Here are the teachers who get down to fundamentals. The best lectures in teaching methods that I have ever heard were given, along with class demonstrations, by a first-grade teacher in a State Normal School. It is still true, however, that most chemist-teachers must perforce make themselves good teachers. In my observation, the teacher who has learned t o appraise his own teaching will eventually make himself a good teacher. He will check his results thoughtfully. He will relate his techniques to his results. To calculate the median grade for each written examination is an almost certain cure for cockiness. The teacher who knows his class will soon know his own failures. He will soon learn to analyze his raw material as well as to test his finished product. Like any other technologist he will soon learn that specifications for raw materials and procedures to be used in the processes are interrelated. The teacher who has an open mind, a willing spirit, and a love of humans can make himself a good teacher. He will learn the arts of outline and organization; he will master exposition and demonstration. He wiIl use all the talents of his mind and personality to teach. To really teach is to study with the class and to plan in advance the direction that the study is to take. The teacher in any scholarly field needs to attain a state characterized by both self-abnegation and selfesteem. My late good friend and valued colleague, Professor John C. Olsen, always remarked, "everything in moderation." No teacher ever needs to be a Uriah Heep! Neither should he be a "stuffed shirt."
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The young teacher who fails to study his own role and that of his science in the school where he is employed will never achieve teaching success. Never should he place himself above and beyond his class. One can seldom fool college students. An honest confession of lack of certain knowledge will stimulate honest thought. One who holds the Ph.D. may well admit how little chemistry he knows. The best way to know a subject is to teach it. There will always he a great thrill in studying a changing subject with each new crop of brilliant young minds. Beware the continued use of the same text or of the same old set of lecture notes. Self-esteem is especially necessary when the young teacher goes to meetings of the A. C . S. Here he may well discover how well industry rewards chemical knowledge and ability. Self-esteem, in moderate amounts, will aid him in making the. decision to remain in the tiresome academic post. Indeed, the teacher of chemistry is extremely fortunate in this regard. He knows that he is teaching because he wants to teach. Any time until his fifties he can shift to industry and obtain a much larger salary. His colleagues in history, language, and sociology are often not so certain that they are teaching from choice. The personal qualities of the teacher need little emphasis here. Good health, bodily vigor, good speech, and good manners are all so important that elaboration seems useless. Then, too, there are subtler things compounded of all these things and more. My first teacher of chemistry, Professor H. 0. Sutton, gave me his best advice about these. "Raymond, don't take yourself too damn seriously!" The field for the chemist-teacher is wide open today. Each college and unviersity is understaffed. Most department heads have funds for additional well-qualified teachers that cannot be properly expended. The great shortage of competent chemists with doctoral training has denuded teaching staffs. The chemical industries have attracted many older teachers to their service. Many departments have professors apprmhing retirement. In the major fields of chemistry the greatest shortage seems to be in the field of "real" inorganic chemists. Next in scarcity come analytical chemists, followed by physical chemists. However, it can be safely predicted that 10 years will he required to staff adequately the departments of chemistry in the United States. All the predictions regarding future college enrollments bear out this prediction. Enrollments will not "level off"; they will only change with regard to rate of increase. The chemist-teacher is in great demand; this demand seems certain to continue. The boys who rode with General Nathan Bedford Forrest sang, "If you want to have a good time, join the cavalry!" Concluding, I say, "If you want to have a good time, join those who are teaching chemistry!"
