All communities have rules. One good example is the no chewing rule in school. The school has this rule because they cause a lot of problems. For example people stick them under the tables or chairs, which ruins other people's clothes and is unhygienic.

Due to this reason of not being able to chew in school, the school building is constantly smelling of bad breath. This bad breath has proven to be very crucial. Bad breath also turned out to be the number one reason for people becoming sick.

In my opinion the no chewing rule is bad because some people become disgusted by the constant smell of bad breath. Chewing gums can definitely get rid of bad breath, which would give a nice friendly smell of mint all over the school building.

For students, chewing increases the rate of concentration. This is because they don't think about food any more or about lunch time because they already have something in their mouthes. Another reason is because there mouthes are in constant movement, which would keep their brains working. Chewing gum also reduces the risk of becoming sick by a cold or dental problems because nowadays chewing gums have eucalyptus that prevents colds and carries (by neutralising the pH factor in their mouthes), which would increase the academic performance of students due to not missing school.

Chewing is nothing new, in fact it is a age old tradition in many cultures around the world. In Africa for instance, people chew cocoa nut. In certain regions of Asia, people chew specific kinds of tree barks which have medicinal properties and strengthens teeth and jaw muscles. In South East Asia people chew beetle leaves and beetle nuts . In many cultures of the world people chew mixtures of different herbal combinations which are actually very healthy. Of course in most cultures chewing is not restricted to healthy substances. A lot of people chew tobacco or different types of herbs and combinations which have the same the affect of making you high. In our generation we have chewing gum. It is good that students only chew gum in our school. I recently saw a television report on "Dateline NBC" where students in certain US schools were chewing tobacco. The students said they were influenced by seeing baseball players chew tobacco. We can not let this happen in our school and therefore only chew gum which later generations can inherit instead of chewing something else.

It is proven that only younger students stick the chewing gums under tables and chairs. I think it would be a good idea for the school to allow students in tutorial school to chew since they understand the consequences and problems such a thing can cause. Therefore I would suggest that the students should be warned about the risks they are taking if they do anything wrong, and then let them chew.

Altogether I think that chewing gum has a positive effect on the school environment. Some people do mistreat it, but that is common everywhere. (For example some people also mistreat the computers and the internet) There are more good things about chewing than there are bad. It would increase concentration, avoid students being sick and going to the dentist, and it would most of all stop people from having bad breath in school which disgusts people and gives the school building a nice mint flavoured atmosphere. The only negative affect though is that if gum is left on chairs they can be very annoying.

© 1999, Ahsan T. , Vienna , Austria