“The side effect that most neuroscientist fear is not physical discomfort but subtle mental change. ‘(Philip, 2016 p 179)
“After all, they’re going to school, and what’s more important than education of the young? some parents will consider it more important to give their children a little chemical edge than think of the long-term consequences.” (Philip, 2016 p 180)

In the article, it mentions a phenomenon that students are taking “smart drugs” to improve their achievement in school. Unluckily, it happens in China, too. I do not know the earliest age for American students to take the drugs to cope with study, but in China, students do it as early as they are in Junior high school. For a long time, Chinese education system is criticized for the entrance to college exam, which is held once a year and based on which, colleges decide whether or not they would enroll the student. Unlike the application system in the States, in China, the score students get in the tests is the only factor taken into consideration of enrollment. So it is not hard to image how much parents are engaged in their kids’ education and they resort to any methods to improve their kids’ scores. It is not strange for students to take medicine to help them get long-term memory, cope with drowsiness, and stay focused. Now because of the fierce competition, students in year 8 or 9 start to use drugs to prepare for the entrance to high school exams. When I was in the last year in Senior High School, my mom bought me the drug for improving memory. At that time, the product for improving memory was a hit. Based on my experience, I do not think the product is really helpful, but definitely I have never considered about the questions, like whether it is fair for some students to take drugs to improve performance while others not, neither do I think about the safety of taking the unauthorized medicine which have not been approved by the food and drug administration. I fear even my parents or many parents have never thought about those questions. But we cannot deny the facts just because they do not know them.
In Todd’s case, he takes the drug to sharpen his memory, so he can get higher score in the social studies. For me, I feel very disappointed that the test Todd took. It seems like the test is based on fact/ memory instead of testing students’ comprehension. There are various ways to assess students’ learning besides asking them to reciting facts which take students a few seconds to google and get answers. For Todd who has difficulty memorizing facts, we can give him multiple choices to choose from and check more on comprehension instead of facts. I think to cope with the drug abuse, we need to change the view people have on education system and how we grade or assess students. Assessments should be diverse and catered to students’ needs. More importantly, they are supposed to test comprehension instead of facts. Also, I think parents and students need to change their view about education. They pIace too much value on scores rather than focus on what their kids take away from the education. Education is much more than scores, and it eventually aims to help students to be an independent and useful person to themselves, even to society. Getting drugs to improve scores is off what education really cares.