In the quest for academic excellence, have schools been blind to the benefit of a tool right under their noses—chewing gum? Attempting to promote proper classroom etiquette, teachers, faculty members, and school administrators have outright banned chewing gum, claiming it takes away from the classroom environment. While it is fully within their right to govern their classes the way they see fit, perhaps they are missing out on what could be a vital contribution to the conventional education environment.
Educators and school admin are constantly searching for the most effective means to better their teaching methods, so it seems as though a catalyst of academic excellence that costs only around 25 cents a piece would surely be a welcome addition to the classroom. However, many teachers refuse to allow gum entirely because it can distract students who chew too loudly, disrupt their neighbors, blow bubbles during lectures, etc. This is entirely true—for bubble gum. Chewing gum, on the other hand, has actually been proven to increase one’s concentration. Recorded in the National Library of Medicine, a 2019 meta-analysis of 21 scientific papers denoted the relationship between mastication, the act of chewing in general, and sustained attention; the review concluded that alertness increased during mastication (Miquel 1). Honing in on chewing gum in particular, two renowned researchers in the worlds of behavioral pharmacology and cognitive psychology conducted 4 various studies that all keyed in on discovering how gum affects mood and sustained attention: even the gum chewing group’s margin of error performance stumped the raw data of the control group, proving that chewing gum can improve alertness, as it raises cortisol levels which dictate one’s attention span (Allen 6). This all demonstrates that the idea of gum being distracting is simply just a misconception, for while some types like bubble gum can be, chewing gum is the exact opposite.
Beyond increasing attention rates, chewing gum has also been proven to increase memory retention in multiple ways. In 2013, a group of researchers endeavored to discover chewing gum’s impact on audio memory. The lead psychologist Kate Morgan explained, “It’s been well established by previous research that chewing gum can benefit some areas of cognition” (Morgan 1), referring to pre-existing studies on visual memory among other types. Within this experiment, 38 people split into 2 groups each listened to a 30-minute recording of numbers and were tested on their ability to recall. The group that chewed gum performed recognizably better than the other, and the researchers discovered that long-term declines in memory retention attenuated distinguishably slower in the chewing gum group than the other. In all kinds of scholastic environments, the ability to learn a concept and have it stick in the brain is crucial. If all it takes is a sticky treat to help information really stick, then why wouldn’t we chew on that idea a little longer?
Just as chewing gum aids memory retention, it also offers a solution to another prevalent issue in school: anxiety. High levels of stress in school can inhibit students from performing to the best of their abilities. The Pew Research Center surveyed teens of ages 13-17 and discovered that 70% of them claimed that anxiety and depression were a major problem in schools (Horowitz 1). Even beyond high school, the American College Health Association, in 2018, gathered that 63% of college students felt overwhelming levels of anxiety (Leblanc 3). Even going beyond the academic field, one can find anxiety still lurking and haunting people’s lives: the Workhuman survey denoted that “a total of 80% report they have ‘productivity anxiety’ and over one-third have it multiple times a week” (Robinson, 2); the UK’s Health and Safety Executive reported that “[in] 1,152,000 cases of work-related illnesses in the UK in 2010/2011, there were 400,000 cases of stress” (Smith 3); and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America found that “40 percent [of people] experience persistent stress or excessive anxiety in their daily lives” (ADAA 1). The sole purpose of presenting this plethora of data is to establish the inscrutable fact that anxiety is everywhere—and surprisingly, one that might just be chewed away with a stick of gum. Before 2022, there had been multiple attempts to assess chewing gum’s effect on anxiety/mood, but in that year, Dr. Jing Lou MD, MPH compiled multiple data sets to reach a more apt conclusion: “chewing gum is an inexpensive, well-tolerated, safe, and effective way to relieve anxiety and stress” (Lou 1). She did acknowledge that further research would solidify the foundations of this reasoning, but in most cases, chewing gum had been proven to help alleviate high levels of stress and anxiety.
On par with memory retention and anxiety in schools, sleep deprivation is another challenge that students have to face, while also being a challenge that no amount of hitting the snooze button seems to fix—unless, of course, there’s gum involved. Most students might find recourse in energy drinks or caffeine, but Dr. Andrew J. Johnson Ph.D (along with associates) used three distinct scales—the Pupillographic Sleepiness Test (PST), the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS), and the Bond Lader Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS)—to conclude that many attributes of gum, right down to its flavor, can reduce daytime sleepiness (Johnson 2, 5). An even more in-depth study used the SSS to analyze alertness levels of student volunteers through an all-nighter. This research found that even throughout all hours of the night, the act of chewing gum can heighten one’s awareness and keep them from falling asleep. Of course, it is not prudent for students to stay up all night finishing assignments or for whatever reason. However, entertaining such extremes can allow us to properly understand how beneficial gum can be, especially in the realm of sleep.
As we’ve seen, the myriad benefits of chewing gum in academic settings warrant a reevaluation of its place in schools. Tying everything together, gum can extremely benefit students and others to stay productive, remember lessons, deal with anxiety, and stay awake! With all of this evidence of gum’s success in the academic field, it seems as though the sweet treat might be for some a cornerstone of scholastic prowess. Of course, there are cases of students leaving gum in places and not throwing them away, but we are talking about schools: where else should students be taught proper decorum and social etiquette? Even with the major benefits that chewing gum can bring to one’s performance on assessments as well as overall happiness within the classroom, such concerns seem almost trivial. So why let a few sticky situations keep us from chewing on a sweet solution? In a world where academic pressures mount, perhaps it’s time for schools to embrace the benefits of chewing gum, turning a simple treat into a powerful tool for success!
