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Comment by poopsmithe | Hacker News Reader

When I took high school chemistry, I repeatedly failed the alebra-esque conversions between one molecule to another (I don't remember what that was called.) The teacher saw this and one day took me aside and asked why I was not progressing like the other students. I told the teacher I didn't care one bit about the topic. Instead of trying to make the subject more interesting for me, the teacher suggested I drop the class and take something I actually liked. I switched to video production, something I was really passionate about, where I did very well. I will always appreciate the chemistry teacher who helped me find my way.

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The standard chemistry curriculum was strange to me. It seemed like we had to learn every incorrect model that civilization ever had about atoms, molecules, and electrons.

It seemed like the kids who were into chemistry were frustrated by the distraction, and the kids who weren't were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of concepts. They didn't seem like useful stepping stones to how things actually worked, just wasted time on things that then had to be un-learned for the next module.

I didn't need much of a "why" to crunch through stoichiometry as a kid who was into physics and algebra who liked puzzles, but I also stopped doing chem after my freshman undergrad requirement. I didn't really understand organic chem and the tie between carbon backbones and interesting organic molecules that can actually do things. I think I would have taken it farther if we hadn't exclusively focused on simple ions in solution for like 2 years, implying to a high schooler that the only career available was more efficient ways of manufacturing ammonia.

Chemistry pissed me off. We spent like 3 months learning all these arcane and arbitrary combinations, and then it turns out there are some algebra-like equations at the end that you can just compute your way through.

I’m sure I missed something important because all the memorization was super annoying and so I basically checked out, but I regret nothing and revel in my ignorance of the topic. Chemistry, ugh, may as well be alchemy as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve found channels like a NileRed to be incredibly interesting and pique my interest in chemistry years too late.

But I hated HS chemistry class. Of course we never did any sort of cool experiments, most of what I remember is tediously drawing models of different atoms.

I felt the same way about chemistry in high school. I only cared about math really. Recently, 30+ years later, I got interested in human physiology and ended up reading chemistry. Really basic stuff, since I had forgotten the little I knew. And I found it so interesting. It's not math, it's not data structures, and yet it has enough of that, plus the connection to the real world, and I found it all very satisfying.

Anyway, I don't really have a point. But I think chemistry is just hard, as in trying to make it (the theory, not the lab work) approachable and interesting at high school level is nearly impossible.

Stoichiometry?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoichiometry

How do you know if you will like something without trying?

I think trying to present the topic in an interesting and engaging way is worthwhile.

But thinking you can get 100% students interested in it is probably unrealistic. I don't think you can get all the students interested in any given topic, so why think of this as a failure? Getting a decent number of students interested is good enough. Getting all of them? Unrealistic.

I don't even think this is a failure of the students. Coding isn't universally interesting. It's ok to find it boring, through no fault of either the teacher or the students.

Maybe I wasn't clear in the article. 100% is a nominal goal (give everyone a chance!) but obviously not everyone will like it and that's not a problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_reaction

My chemistry teacher was passionate and seemed over qualified and I think that made him sort of come across as bitter at times. He didn't always understand why other people weren't as passionate. Anyways, I heard he had got sick and left teaching. But about a year or so later he was all over the news as he was apparently making really pure meth at a macro level for a cartel and had somehow ended up with some biker gang and was found dead. Crazy story.

Tbf I imagine mass meth production pays a lot better than even the best industry jobs when it comes to chemistry.

Weird, my chemistry teacher was the exact opposite. He didn't even have a degree in chemistry, it was in physics. He hated teaching that class but loved us as students so we did basically nothing all year. May explain why my knowledge of chemistry is equivalent to that of a medieval peasant. Cool guy though.

Breaking Bad reference. The other two commenters missed the joke.

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