T
HE FINAL objective in all teaching is the production of an efficient citizen, one who is not only sufficientlyable to provide for his own needs but also able and willing to contribute to the common betterment of society. There is need of special emphasis on the altruistic element in education since we are finding that statutes and punishments are not a sufficient check for the anti-social and criminal tendencies of some of our population. Education is the last hope of making democracy safe for the world. In obtaining this final end of education lesser and more immediate objectives present themselves. In the vocation of teaching the foremost objective to be recognized is, that the welfare and interests of the pupil are paramount. It is necessary to re-affirm this readily admitted point, for, beginning with the high school the pupil begins to lose the center of the educational stage. The first definite withdrawal of emphasis from the pupil begins with the change from room-teachers to subject-teachers. From the force of circumstances which isolates the pupil from other teachers, the only teacher of a group of pupils must realize that the complete preparation of his pupils for life depends on him, a t least for a time. Instead of bringing to the pupils all the values of a given subject that will make a well-rounded character, the teacher of a single subject tends rather to furnish them only with the information of the subject. The language of education is literally saturated with the terminology of the subjects. The text-books, the syllabi, and the whole curriculum contain nothing else. Pupils point out their teachers more by subject than by their own names, teachers are sought for by subject name and the qualificatiori most inquired into is the knowledge of subject-matter rather than the
ability to minister to vital needs of youth.. These circumstances place undue emphasis on the subject as an end in itself, and they are responsible for directing the efforts of too many class-rooms toward the objective of fillingup pupils with subject-matter as if they were empty vessels. As found by the surveys of the past year the preparation for the teaching of chemistry in most of our colleges and universities is almost entirely the acquisition of subject-matter. After spending the college years gathering information and some further time is found for graduate study, we might expect that now the teacher will consider the organization and the best presentation of the subject-matter already accumulated. But no, the all too certain case is that the further study given is some sort of research for new and unknown subject-matter, as if there was extreme dearth of this already too plentiful article. Tlie objection herewith made to research is, that for those who are to become teachers of chemistry, research of method rather than research of subject-matter would equip them much better for the vocation of teaching. The great increase of chemical knowledge of the past 25 years has made the choice of subject-matter a point of increasing importance, particularly in fitting our teaching to the practical things of life. But when the best possible selection of subject-matter has been made the educational process is just begun. It is what is done with the information that makes it knowledge and confers effectiveness on the individual. Survey of the student body of high schools and colleges indicates that about 10% have an abiding interest in their studies. They will faithfully prepare assignments, and will persist in effort until understanding is obtained. They prove their desire for an education by the effortto obtain it. Given only such pupils, teaching would be a joyous vocation. The other 90% of the class range on down the scale of desire to approximately zero. A particular characteristic of this type of pupil is that they are soon filled up with information that they do not see immediate use for. For this 90% of pupils the first objective of the teacher is the creating of a desire for knowledge, information that functions in being useful. Compulsion is obsolete and not worth the effort. Academic methods of presentation, no matter how logically arranged, fail to interest because the pupil has not yet become proficient in the practice of rationality. In presenting the subject-matter of chemistry i t is quite the accepted custom to consider a topic by the academic plan: occurrence, preparation, properties, and uses. I find few pupils interested in where i t is found but most of them are decidedly interested in.what it is good for. This is the pupil viewpoint and here we should begin with every topic. Of course text-books are not written after this fashion a t present but the real teacher can present the topics in this way if he wishes. For example, if the topic "hydrates" is to be studied by the class it is introduced by the use of some such substance as a drying agent.
VOL.2, No. 11
OBJECTIVE^ IN TEACHING CHEMISTRY
993
Then the nature of such substances may well be investigated by laboratory study, ending with the consideration of the formal text-book account or special reference. To reinforce this objective of interest a t the beginning of the course some special topics from the achievements of workers in chemistry can be presented. The next objective "training in method" or "method in training" will be introduced by a page of history of the American Chemical Society. Nearly two years ago some of my hearers were in Milwaukee participating in an afternoon's discussion of the training of the chemist. Speaker after speaker laid on more subjects with a generous hand, as each considered them useful or necessary, until it was certain that the chemist to be would have scant time to eat or sleep. Then the discussion further brought out the conclusion that after graduation the chemist would still be considered "raw material'' from the stand-point of his immediate service to industry. Then as one industrial chemist after another told how his industrial work had carried him to fields far remote from his college researches, the education of a chemist was found to consist chiefly of the exercise of the mind in solving problems and not the storing of the mind with information. The subject-matter of his college researches had functioned as practice material but was now valueless. The skill acquired in using it, however, could still function. The case is the same for all pupils of the high school and college irrespective of the courses they are taking. The selection and association of ideas, the tracing of cause and d e c t , the judgments that fall from facts as a result of the discernment of their inner meaning; of such is the substance from which education is made. If we know that the chief values of education lie in the exercise in thinking and training in method, let us as teachers of chemistry put this objective to the front and prove that we believe in it. We should definitely teach our pupils to hold the scientific habit of mind and apply its problem-solving power to all the questions that arise in daily life. The use of the scientific method has given us the marvelous development of material things, so let us use i t more consistently. After the loss of the sense of sight the blind person by necessity develops the other senses to make up the deficiency of sight. Then our senses may be sharpened in like degree if we will train them as he does. We know it, but somehow we do not do it. As our pupils see, smell, touch, taste, and hear, let us see to it that the thinking to form a mental image goes with it. Then there will be sense training. Because we teach too many topics we do not have time or do not take the time to think about the relationship of facts and build them into larger units of knowledge. The discussions of a minimum list of fundamentals will bring an enormous improvement in teaching if the topics are so reduced that they are studied more scientifically. Every class in chemistry prepares hydrochloric acid in the laboratory as
well as several other acids during the course of the year. The usual result is that the pupils think &at each acid must be prepared by a different method and each one learned by itself. In this way pupils make a subject difficult. The business of the teacher is to show the pupils th3t all acids are prepared in the same fundamental way regarding materials used and the method depending on the properties concerned. When a pupil, from his knowledge of how acids are made in general, can outline a method of the essentials in the preparation of an acid that he has not studied, he feels the power of knowledge, he acquires confidence in his ability to do things, and becomes interested in learning. He has followed the scientific method in deductive reasoning. This is just one sample of how chemistry has been taught in an effective manner. Every topic can and should be presented in the same general way. Through the guiding objective of the scientific method the interest, enthusiasm, and appreciation for chemical knowledge grows in the pupil for the facts of chemistry are related and organized in the science of chemistry, the subject that offers the greatest educational opportunities of any subject in the cumculum, and will take the foremost place in the near future if the teachers of chemistry so wish.
