Volume SO; Number I
With this issue t h e Journal of Chemical Education begins its 50th volume. Over the years its pages have served as a vehicle of exchange among authors and readers in all parts of the world, transmitting an incredible volume and variety of chemical and pedagogical information-much of i t sound and useful-and a mvriad of ideas.. ooinions. attitudes. . techniques, lamentatibns, jubilations, gems of wisdom; treasures of excellence, flights of fancy, farces of inconand trivia in excelsus. gruity, parodies of Its readers have reacted to all of this with delight on some occasions, with outrage on others, but mostly with stoicism reinforced bv h o ~ efor im~rovement.At times. its editors have been forced to scrounge to find enough m&us c r i ~ t to s fill its pages: a t others-such as the oresent-the sup;,ly exceeds b; many times the irvailahle space. Seldom has an editor been satisfied wirb the overall quality of thd manuscripts received; yet all editors have-felt great pride in what has been published. Seldom have authors accepted with grace or appreciation the comments (or even the competencies) of reviewers, and rarely has reiection of a m a n u s c r i ~ tbeen answered with ohiectivitv: i e t the number of submitted and the nimber bf authors submittine them continues to increase. Rarelv has the ideal balance among topics and areas of reader interest been easy to maintain; yet today, largely because of wider, m o i intense reader and author interest, both the hreadth and depth of the subjects treated provide substance for teachers from the secondary school through the early years of graduate education. Never has a n editor opened a new issue.. iust off the mess.. without wonderine what surorises the muses of the pressroom have arranged this time on his ~ r e s u m a b l vwell-edited Danes. or without leadi inn for a iittle mer& from the gods 'of irate letter-to-the--editor writers. Nor have the major issues and problems confronting chemical education changed dramatically since 1924 when the first volume appeared. This is illustrated by the following collection of titles and excerpts taken from the pages of Volume 1.
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Some titles: Educating Euerybody; Whot We Teach Our Freshmen in Chemistry; Whot Kind of Research is Essential to Good Teaching; Aduontoges of Laboratory Work in Elementary Chemistry; Correlntion of High School and College Chemistry; Why More High School Students Do Not Elect Chemistry As o Career; Need for Trained Teachers of Chemistry; Chemical Education oio Radio; Movies in the Service of Science; Achieoement Tests in Chemistry; Physical Chemistry for Undergraduates; Rationally Coordinated Courses in Analytical Chemistry.
Some excerpts: On losing good students: We are yearly losing many of our young people, and among them some of the most active and intelligent, because they fail to see the connection between school work and life work and so drop out at various stages . . . (p. 3) On relevance: there is a strange dearth of [popular] writers on chemistry,
Ieditorially speaking
although there is no subject that touches human life at more points, none that has a longer or more romantic history, none that is making greater progress at present, or that promises more for the future. (p. 5) Ongeneral chemistry: 72% of the teachers [of general chemistry at 27 colleges and universities] believe we try to teach too much . . . there now exists a wide-snread dissatisfaction with the results . . . In many instances there s a sharp rontradirrion hetween what teachers ray they stress and the stress in Itheir own] final exammatians. (p. 10)
On application of principles: I believe that in undergraduate courses not enough attention is paid to the practical application of principles. Students learn certain laws and fundamentals which lie dormant in their minds until they have to apply them. Then they cannot use them efficiently because they are not arranged so as to be available on an instant's notice. (p. 115)
On attitudes of chemistry graduates: Anpther score on which we may complain of the young chemist is his attitude toward routine . . . If we admit that the routine character of work will excuse the chemist's lack of interest, we might as wellstopresearch . . . (p. 117) On research: The teacher's viewpoint of chemistry should he one of great breadth, not narrow as is necessarily that of the investigator. (p. 17) A stimulating freshness and a feeling of authority come to the college teacher as he unravels the secrets of science . . . The pupil then feels he is near one of the fresh springs that feed the stream of knowledge . . . (p. 81) On chemistry andsocietyr "The average person looks upon chemistry as a mysterious, occult science, tinged with necromancy. This almost superstitious ignorance prevents appreciation of the chemist's power to serve society . . . It is likely to result in great economic waste through failure properly to utilize raw materials, develop by-products . ." p. 184
It is interesting to compare some of the preceding excerpts from Volume 1 with the views expressed in the Report of the Mt. Holyoke Conference which follows on these pages, and which represents a good cross-section of opinion and attitude in the American chemical education community of today. We leave it to each reader to decide just how far chemical education has come in a half-century, and how much this Journal mav have influenced thines. As for the journal staff, we are &joying momentarily ;he golden glow that this anniversaw and the dedicated work of our p;edeces*ors and several thbusand authors have made possible, but we look forward to those battles with authors, those surprises from the pressroom, and those delightful letters-to-the-editor that are sure signs that this Journal is well on its way into its second half-century of service. Volume 50, Number 7, January 1973 / 1
