An article in Tuesday's Washington Post reports that a Silver Spring principal went one step further. She went out and bought 3,600 peppermint candies. She went with evidence she had found (on the Internet) that (along with good teaching, careful preparation, a good night's sleep, and a full stomach - DUH) the use of peppermint helped with brain boosting. If nothing else, the kids will have fresh breath.
There is actual scientific evidence to back up the claim. The article reports that a 1990s study at the University of Cincinnati found that the smell of peppermint helped test subjects concentrate and do better on tasks that required sustained concentration. A psychology professor at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia found that athletes performed better after catching a whiff of peppermint.
This was enough for a superintendent in Montgomery County, Maryland. He directed several schools to distribute the candies at test time. There are a fair amount of skeptics that believe the findings are mind games, that people think they can do better because of the candies.
Perhaps this is where I went wrong in my school career. I prefer chocolate.
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