248 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



CONTENT OF THE HIGH SCHOOL COURSE IN 

 CHEMISTRY 



J. P. Magnusson, Augustana College 



It is barely a matter of two decades ago since chemis- 

 try began to be transferred from the college to the high 

 school as a well established course of study. It is per- 

 haps for this reason that high school chemistry has per- 

 sistently clung to its inherited character of a college sub- 

 ject pared down, made easy, and sugar coated with 

 ''practical applications" to make it more palatable to 

 the recalcitrant young minds. 



It is the purpose of this paper to otfer a suggestion by 

 which the high school and college freshman chemistry 

 courses may be sharply differentiated so as to make the 

 one a real foundation course and the other a distinct ad- 

 vance in the learners progress. The constant overlap- 

 ping of these two courses, with the consequent loss of mo- 

 tion and hence interest in the subject, is familiar to all 

 teachers of chemistry. In the average high school text 

 there are the usual chapters on fundamental laws and 

 principles, hydrogen, oxygen, water, hydrochloric acid, 

 the halogens, salts, acids, bases, solutions, ionic theoiy, 

 the metals, the periodic law, and so on to a grand finale on 

 the wonders of radium or a mighty explosion in the Pana- 

 ma Canal. Then, to those whose enthusiasm has been 

 sufficiently aroused to carry them into the freshman class, 

 comes a dreary rehash of the whole program, the only 

 practical difference being that the young freshman has to 

 pay more for his text book. 



In order to arrive at some conclusion as to the nature 

 of the present daj^ high school course in chemistry, six 

 of the most widely used chemistry texts in Illinois high 

 schools were analyzed by paragraph count, classing the 

 paragraphs under the following three heads: 



1. Fundamental Principles. 



2. Descriptive Matter, 



3. Practical Applications. 



Under the first head were included paragraphs dealing 

 with fundamental principals and laws, such as the weight 



