Brain gum, originally uploaded by L-plate big cheese.

I was out with everyone's favourite Andytgeezer yesterday when he told me a great story about a school in Canada which is apparently encouraging its student to chew gum rather than working to ban it.

Chewing gum has long been the school teacher's sworn enemy. Banned in all the schools I've ever been to and frowned upon by many educating types, a friend today told me a story which made me laugh. It also reminded me of the times you've mentioned your brain is being squeezed for every last drop of knowledge.
Some lovely chaps from an equally lovely science lab* tested whether gum has any effect on brain performance and the answer they reached was yes - the activity seems to increase the chewer's heartrate, causing more oxygen and nutrients to be pumped to the brain. Genius (or the assistance of)!
So, it turns out, that teachers who allow to be chewed gum in their classrooms should actually be counted as the better educators without enduring any of the stress of having to punish rowdy teenagers who are probably only trying to do the descent thing for society at large by making their breath smell nicer.

*my next question, by the way, is whether they were funded by Wrigleys...