CHEW ON.(The Talk of the Town)(chewing gum and education)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 09-FEB-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

The truly great scientific discoveries--gravity, laughing gas, Velcro--always seem to happen by accident. Take the case of Dr. Kenneth Allen, whose latest findings indicate that we should perhaps overturn one of the most sacred laws of primary education: the prohibition on chewing gum in the classroom. Allen, a professor at N.Y.U.'s College of Dentistry, is an unlikely champion of Bazooka and Double Bubble, and yet he has recently shown, if inadvertently, that a pack-a-day chewing habit may help account for the difference between the honor roll and summer school.

Allen's claim to fame goes as follows: Like any conscientious teacher, he was interested in finding new and better ways of helping his students learn. Last year, he decided to see whether or not...

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