Double your pleasure, double your GPA (Library of Congress)

Peppermint may be the new Red Bull. Well, without the wings.

Back home where life is simple, in the halls of suburban Maryland schools, educators are trying innovative measures to improve standardized test scores. Enter thousands of peppermint candies. The idea is not to reward the students — the “power of peppermint” has middle school teachers eager to harness its aromatic potential.

In a month (:-O ), I will graduate with a Biology degree. So yes, I am about to offer that there might be credible scientific evidence for the effect of peppermint in sharpening awareness and mental acuity. And yes, I will ask you to hold your laughter to the end.

The author who broke the
front-page Metro story in the Washington Post cites studies illustrating how the aromatic smell of peppermint can increase measures of mental efficiency. The first, from the University of Cincinnati, compared a healthy group with a group with brain damage. The study found that a peppermint aroma changed the vigilance of the injured group compared to the un-minted vigilance score of the normal.

Another study from Wheeling Jesuit University showed that peppermint’s aroma improved basketball players’ reaction times and overall energy, and lessened their feeling of physical demand. Granted, this study was funded by a company who bottled the aroma in an inhaler to market to athletes, but who’s checking?

A 2005 University of Oxford study has corroborated the power of peppermint, even suggesting the use of the aroma in cars to improve driving alertness.

Not all are convinced. Our own
Dr. Skilton-Sylvester, Lecturer and Early Education Coordinator in the Graduate School of Education, was quoted in the Post with all of the enthusiasm of an overworked Penn Previews guide. His decided distrust is understandable, but who wouldn’t be curious to see if there is power past the placebo?

Will it work? Will students merely feel more confident? Will there be a school full of good-smelling kids? We’ll see in a few weeks, but in the meanwhile, I’d like to run my own trial come finals week!

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