356 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1423 



docile acceptance of dogmatic authority and to 

 whom the term "doubt" is one of opprobium. 



The repressive process, alas, does not end 

 here, for we in the university who next take 

 him in hand delight in giving him the impres- 

 sion that the subject has been thoroughly elu- 

 cidated. We take little pains to help him to 

 realize the existence of vast fields awaiting 

 exploration. Moreover, we are so anxious to 

 guard him from errors of fact that we announce 

 in advance what he is expected to find in his 

 experiments. He is told to mix solution A with 

 solution B and "to note the red precipitate 

 which is formed." The precipitate he gets may 

 happen to be yellow, but he has learned by 

 this time that it is safer to call it red in his 

 note-book. Why quarrel with the instructor, 

 it is wiser to give the answer he wants and 

 keep him in a good humor. 



I am convinced of the justice of the fore- 

 going diatribe, as I have had an intimate 

 acquaintance with the problem, not only as a 

 child, a student and a parent, but, I must con- 

 fess also, as a teacher. Indeed, so thoroughly 

 convinced have we been in the department of 

 chemistry of the University of California of 

 the importance of giving the student, so far as 

 we can, a real training in the scientific method 

 and spirit, that we have taken great liberties 

 with that most conservative of all university 

 courses, the freshman course in general chem- 

 istrj^ So many have asked for information 

 concerning our methods that I am encouraged 

 to assume sufficient general interest to justify 

 an exposition of our attempt at the solution 

 of this important problem. 



We have been inspired by the opportunity 

 offered by a fundamental course to present 

 science in such a wa^' as, first, to win for scien- 

 tific careers the keen-minded students who arf- 

 repelled by the drudgery and memory work 

 of the old-fashioned course in descriptive chem- 

 istry; and, second, to encourage the average 

 student to adopt the scientific attitude towards 

 his everyday problems, an attitude so neces- 

 sary in combatting the superstition, prejudice, 

 selfishness and dishonesty in the world of or- 

 dinary aii'airs. 



Aliliough the following paragraphs describe 

 a course in chemistry, our aim in giving -this 



course is not simply to teach chemistry, but 

 through it to teach science. Whether the 

 student proceeds to advanced work in chem- 

 istry or enters one of the numerous fields for 

 which it is prerequisite, or even takes no fur- 

 ther scientific studies, it is important for him 

 to have scientific training. The medium for 

 this training is with us chemistry, but other 

 subjects can, of course, be taught with a simi- 

 lar purpose in view. 



In order to attain these ends we have been 

 C(.)nvinced that the laboratory work must be the 

 central feature of the course, and that it must 

 involve the solution of problems rather than the 

 mere performance of illustrative experiments. 

 This makes the work harder and therefore more 

 interesting. The doctrine that the interest of 

 the pupil is to be gained through ease and 

 practicality is an educational fallacy. The stu- 

 dent belies tlus doctrine in his own practice. 

 Football is difficult and impractical, but it 

 arouses far more interest than dishwashing, 

 which is both easy and practical. 



The teaching of elementary chemistry has 

 been slow to reflect the modern state of the 

 science, which is no longer chieflj' descriptive, 

 but to a high degree mathematical and de- 

 ductive. It has largely continued, in the 

 language of Le Chatelier, to present "une 

 enumeration indeflne de petits faits partieu- 

 liers : Tormules de combinaisons, densites, 

 couleui's, action de tel on tel corps, recette de 

 preparation, etc." Laws and principles appear" 

 to the student as dykes intruding into the mass, 

 but not fusing with it. While it is difficult 

 and probably undesirable to abandon altogether 

 the traditional method, we have sought to sub- 

 stitute for much of the purely informational 

 material, a grasp of gi-eat principles such as 

 the atomic, molecular, kinetic and ionic theo- 

 ries, the mass law, and the periodic system of 

 the elements, and to make them not mere defini- 

 tions, but tools to be used with intelligence and 

 skill. It is of little use for the student to de- 

 fine the mass law unless he can actually use it 

 in controlling a new chemical reaction. There 

 is little point in committing the periodic table 

 to memory unless he can apply it with assur- 

 ance in predicting chemical behaviors. 



We have been fortunate in being able to in- 



