Comment by unsettledturtle
1 hour ago
Chemistry in particular is just taught very poorly in USA middle/high school. If anything, it perfectly hinders building that internal understanding.
"Chemical bonds fill the electron shells, which is why we have CO2. But don't worry about why carbon monoxide exists."
"Here's a formula to figure out the angle between atoms in a molecule. But it doesn't apply to H2O, because handwavy reasons. Just memorize this number instead."
Students don't gain an understanding of the subject, because the curriculum doesn't even try to teach it.
This was kind of infuriating about high school chemistry. We were taught so much simply is and that's that. Gold and Mercury differ by one proton, so why is one a dense, yellowish metal and the other one liquid at room temperature? Carbon and Nitrogen sit right next to each other on the periodic table, so why are their chemical properties so different? Why are there so few elements that are ferromagnetic? We dove relatively deep into chemical bonds and isotopes, but glossed over fundamental things like why compounds with similar structures had seemingly random, unrelated properties.