DISCUSSION ROBERT
COLLIER, JR.. SOUTHHIGHSCHOOL, DENVER, COLORADO
Mr. Chairman: I wish to disagree with the previous speaker, Mr. Wildish, in the matter of drill on essentials, such as equations, laws, and formulas. I believe that nothing is more deadly to the interest of boys and girls in high school than continued drill of this nature. In our high school approximately 20% of the students graduating continue on to college. Of that number, one-half will have had chemistry in high school. Thus, less than 10To will ever have an opportunity to apply the laws and theories of chemistry directly, while 90% will possibly never solve a chemical problem or write an equation again. Should we teach in high school for the 10% who will use chemistry in college and disregard the 90% who will never have chemistry again? In the matter of the qualitative analysis, at South High, in Denver we teach approximately six weeks of elementary analysis, taking up 22 simple metals and 5 acids. In this course we attempt to review our previous work and give the student an idea of what may he obtained by using chemistry as a tool. I find that nothing awakens more interest or produces better results than does this short work in qualitative analysis. I would like very much to hear expressions from other schools in this regard.
