It’s CSAP time. Can you hear the children chomping?
Some Colorado schools that normally ban gum are passing it out in hopes of boosting scores on standardized tests.
“CSAP is a long time for kids to sit and do their very best thinking,” said Karen Quanbeck, principal at Golden’s Ralston Elementary School, which spent $52 on spearmint sticks for its 320 students. “Even if it’s a gimmick, we think it works.”
Gum is a sticky subject, and schools of thought vary about its benefits.
Some educators swear by studies showing that chewing stimulates brain activity and enhances concentration among test-takers. (One such inquiry was sponsored, shockingly, by Wrigley.)
Some believe gum’s minty freshness keeps kids alert.
And some say the normally verboten treat simply eases stress about exams that no one wants to take.
“Gum makes kids happy, and happy kids generally do better on tests,” said J.R. Dunn, an eighth-grade English teacher at Evergreen Middle School.
As kids tell it, the latest chew of choice is called “5,” sugar-free sticks distributed by Wrigley in slick black boxes that look like condom packages. With flavors called “Flare,” “Rain,” and “Cobalt,” “5’s” minty punch lasted, as advertised, throughout the writing of this column.
Fourth-graders at Ralston Elementary seemed pleased enough Monday with the old-school Wrigley’s Spearmint that teacher Kris Bianchi handed out along with their English CSAP.
I’ll admit, I had secretly hoped to justify my half-hour drive to the foothills by witnessing students chomping like Violet Beauregarde, the chewing-gum fanatic who turned into a blueberry in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
Instead, Bianchi’s class chewed responsibly, with no cracks or pops as they focused with ninja concentration filling multiple-choice bubbles.
“In terms of health risks, it’s pretty benign. It’s not like giving a child amphetamines to perform well on a test,” said Tim Adams, a Denver pediatric dentist who sees no dental downside to gum chewing during the two weeks of the Colorado Student Assessment Program.
Susan Scott, an eighth-grade special-ed teacher at Evergreen, has used gum for years to boost concentration among certain kids with “sensory oral needs.”
Still, she is skeptical about research showing performance benefits of gum chewing among students in general.
“You can find a study to tell you whatever you want it to tell you,” she said.
Having scraped a wad off a desk last week, Scott now frowns on the privilege.
“The goal becomes, ‘Can I stretch it from my mouth around the back of my head to my nose and get anybody to notice?’ When you have to cut it out of the third-grader’s hair, it’s really more of a distraction,” she said.
Farther south at Bergen Valley Elementary School, a custodian named Catfish curses the day administrators figured gum would help with CSAP.
“The kids leave it everywhere. It goes onto the carpet. They put it underneath their desks, even on the walls of the stalls in the bathroom. Any place they can find to put it,” he sighed. “I know this is all about raising test scores. But I keep asking myself, why can’t they just put it in the trash cans?”
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
