“Wouldn’t it be great if he could swallow a pill rather than study for the test? Perhaps he could take a pill and get a “mental tune-up” for the PSAT.
Why go through the pangs of self-doubt even when I study hard, if I can get something like this to power me up! I’ll do it every time because it helps so much and doesn’t seem to be illegal.” — Philip 2006
The smart pill in the article reminds me the movie I saw before, titled “Limitless” in 2011. I was preparing my TOEFL and GRE exams when it was on the big screen. I wish I could take the smart pill in the movie. Before I read the article, I have never thought about there do exist some pills that can strengthen your memory and concentration for study and tests. None of my peers had taken smart pills for academic purposes in my schooling years. It is even impossible to abuse marijuana. Taiwan’s laws have very strict outcomes of smoking marihuana; people would be sentenced in jail for several years. The only abuse among adolescents might be cigarette.
However, there are some other drug abuses in Taiwan. First, it is doping in sports. In competitive sports, doping refers to the use of banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs by athletic competitors. There are lots of international sports organizations prohibit this unethical behaviors, including the International Olympic Committee. Second, it is escaping conscription that taking medication causes military physical examination have positive results and avoids compulsory military service. In Taiwan, all male citizens from age 19 to 36 are required to do military service for entire year. Some of smart guys, especially medical students, know how to manipulate data of physical examination under some effects of medicine. They feel spending one year in army is waste of their life doing nothing valuable.
These are due to allures of shortcuts. For smart pills in tests or doping in sports, people are hoodwinked by fames and honors but forgetting what are the truths they were pursuing in terms of knowledge and sport spirits. What if I guarantee every student will get an A in the class but I don’t teach anything to students, will students satisfy with that? We should educate students what are original intentions they have. Learning, tests, or competition should be a form of examining yourself and gaining sense of achievement. Serving the military is the duty as a citizen in a country. Educators should keep in mind the roots education. Grading system is just a way to keep records of students’ learning logs in terms of numbers.
I have never heard of people taking pills to avoid military service. Thank you for sharing that, Pei-chi. I can see how that would potentially be a real problem and places an unfair advantage on those who can falsify/manipulate their results.
But in terms of students taking pills to increase performance, I am not sure if it is so cut and dry. You mention that in sports, taking pills defeats the spirit of sportsmanship implicit in the trade. I want to agree with that idea with the lens that an equal distribution of resources creates a level playing field that only further places the focus on individual skill and athleticism. But one need look no further than the olympics to see a gap in that logic. I think it is no coincidence that countries with more money/resources consistently perform well in sporting events that require more infrastructure (swimming, hockey) vs those without.
With that in mind, we have to realize that drugs or not, there is not a level playing field for our students. There is an indisputable correlation between high income families and high quality schooling. And this is no longer a matter of entertainment where perhaps there can be a uniform culture of “sportsmanship”. It isn’t about artificially giving everyone passing grades, but what if we could ensure that all students have the ability absorb the content and “legitimately” perform at A level. Assuming that health risks are out of the picture for a moment, I fail to see what is so wrong with medical supplements.
I wonder if the standard tests could be further reformed so that they would not test whether students memorize the information but test whether students develop the ability to solve problems. In other words, tests are designed to test if students’ internalization, skills and abilities not short-term memory.