“In short, someone who notices or remembers everything may end up understanding nothing.”
“Our lives are better served by being able to focus on the essential information than being able to remember every little detail.” – Drugs that Enhance Student Achievement

This chapter was very enlightening to me because it brought up a few drugs and their uses that I had never heard of before. It also shocked me that this type of focus-enhancing drug usage is becoming so very common place in our world. But the lines quoted above struck me most because when I think back to school, I think back to all of the exercises we had to do on the “main idea” of things. It made me wonder how these drugs affected our ability to put together all of these minute details into the “bigger picture.” Many tests, in fact, are like that – asking for more analysis and construction than memorization and spitting back details. Continue reading But that isn’t what the brain is for… →

“New drugs to improve memory and cognitive performance are under intense study and testing on people impaired by brain deficiencies. The possibility of their use on healthy adults, let alone adolescents, trigger debate from the laboratory to the legislature.”
– Philip (2006) Drugs that enhance student achievement in engaging tween and teens.

Using drugs to boost testing score in the US might be new to some people, but to a student who survived from extreme high-stake tests in Asia, it’s just a quite common and acceptable phenomenon to me. The general public’s attitude towards college entrance test pushes it up to prominent position that this once-a-year test can decide your entire life. If a test really could decide your future salary, achievement or even social status, I bet no one would reject a little help from any possible sources. As a result, cram schools and private tutoring, along with drugs that are said to boost memory, flourish in Asia. Some parents and students believe in the advertisements said and constantly take these kinds of medicine, hoping to get better grades in tests. Even though I seriously doubt the effectiveness of these drugs, I still want to try them sometimes in case they really work. However, I heard that most of these drugs are not effective because the main ingredients are vitamins, so basically they only provide you with what you could get from a balanced diet. If there really is a medicine that could make you score higher, like Modafinil in the Article, using the drug can be considered a kind of cheating. First of all, using drugs makes students perform better than their real proficiency level. The test would lose its credibility of evaluating students’ performance. Secondly, not every student could afford the drug. It’s unfair for students who do not take the drugs.

Also, I am considering that using drugs to boost performance may gradually change students’ attitude towards test. Since they can take several pills to help their score, there is no need to study hard. If a student get a high testing score with the help of drugs, it is unfair for others who study diligently.

Last but not least, the side effects of these drugs have not been studied yet. It is possible that taking drugs cause mental damage in a long term.

Respond to: Caring Connections: Mentoring relationships in the lives of urban girls

“Until the basic resources in urban communities are improved—the schools, neighborhoods, health and child care settings, employment opportunities, and so forth—the influences of adult supports or any other supplementary resources on the life trajectories of most youths will remain limited.” Continue reading The insufficiency in basic resources could greatly hinder the efficacy of mentoring system! →

“One of the dilemmas facing parents, teachers, and schools is how to convince teenagers that this is a real problem without resorting to scare tactics. We know from the past that this methodology for changing behavior and reducing risk behavior isn’t effective and probably never has been” (Philip 159).

Philip, R. (2006). This is your brain on…Understanding and curbing adolescent substance abuse. In Engaging ‘tweens and teens: A brain-compatible approach to reaching middle and high school students (pp. 157-174). California: Corwin Press. Continue reading Addressing Substance Abuse in Schools →