Chemistry Teachers Are Welcome

Have you ever reflected on who played the key roles in influencing your decision to pursue a career in the chemical sciences? Your parents are probably high on that list, and possibly also a family friend. But I'll bet that most of you became interested in becoming a chemist or chemical engineer because of the influence of a high school chemistry teacher. Young people, particularly those of a high school age, seem to trust teachers as a source of information and authority more than the media and often even more than their parents.

Thus, it is disappointing that most chemistry teachers have not chosen to become members of the American Chemical Society, the broad-reaching professional society of the chemical sciences. Yes, we do have many teacher members of the society's Division of Chemical Education and some who are affiliates of ACS local sections. Yet probably fewer than 1,000 chemistry teachers are among the 160,000 ACS members.

So why have teachers chosen not to become ACS members? I am sure that there are many individual reasons, but I will suggest that two may be critical. One is that about 50% of chemistry teachers do not have a bachelor's degree in chemistry. States control teacher credentialing, and some states, my home state of California, for example, require a broad, integrated physical science type of degree. The other reason, I believe, is that ACS simply has not provided a welcoming environment for teachers.

I do hope that this will change as a result of the overwhelming support by the ACS Council in Philadelphia for a bylaw change that provides an explicit membership category for teachers. Finally, for the first time in our history, the ACS bylaws specifically identify chemistry teachers as valued potential members and our professional peers.

Many people have asked whether this change will really increase our teacher membership. My crystal ball is not a very good predictor, but I would expect that this change can only enhance our attractiveness to this community. Similar change several years ago to bring chemical technicians to ACS membership has been quite successful. And our outreach to college students through the student affiliate program has, over the past 10 years, evolved to include about 10,000 undergraduate student members, with 2,000 to 3,000 attending ACS national meetings in recent years. ACS reached out to these groups and made joining "the thing to do" and meetings "the place to be." I hope that we can be as effective with those teachers who help shape the career goals and competencies of our students and future colleagues.

Local sections provide the best opportunity for person-to-person contact with chemistry teachers. Most sections already have activities involving teachers: the Chemistry Olympiad, high school teacher/student recognition, and National Chemistry Week are just a few of these. The ACS Office of Education has taken an active role in teacher development, principally through programs that bring to them the latest in science information and science teaching pedagogy in order to stimulate and excite both teachers and their students.

The National Science Education Standards state: "The understanding and abilities required to be a masterful teacher of science are not static. Science content increases and changes, and a teacher's understanding of science must keep pace." Who better to provide that knowledge than ACS?

Do seek out those teachers and make them welcome!