Chewing Gum! By Grace

A lot of middle school students like chewing gum. In fact, you may like chewing it yourself (even though it is banned during school hours). Here is a bit about the history of chewing gum that maybe you didn’t know before, as well as some ISB MS students’ opinions to ‘chew’ on!
Researchers discovered that Mayans who lived in Central America chewed chicle, a natural gum that comes from the latex of the Sapodilla tree and later went on to become one of the main ingredients in chewing gum.

Thomas Adams, a New York inventor, has to be credited for the first creation of the official chewing gum. He was hired by a Mexican General in 1869 to invent a new kind of rubber using chicle. Admittedly, he failed at creating a new kind of rubber, but what he did do was produce the first modern chewing gum ever. He named it Adams New York No. 1 (kind of like Chanel No. 5, isn’t it?).

Now, there’re more than a thousand types of gum manufactured and sold in the U.S., and they come in all kinds of crazy shapes and flavors. What do the middle school students here in ISB feel about this ‘phenomena’, then? Let’s check it out.

“It’s good stuff, it makes me happy,” 6th grader Margaret said, joking that it ‘made her feel like a gangster’. 7th grader Shawnie said that some flavors, like lemon, are so nice that it makes her want to swallow the gum. Khun E said that gum’s good to chew when you’re in an airplane and the pressure’s just getting to your head (I so agree! Ever been on a super-long flight and your head’s just killing you- then you remember chewing gum?). 6th grader Raimy said, “I like chewing gum because it comes in many flavors. I would just say it’s awesome!” Oda, who’s also in 6th grade, agreed about the ‘awesome’ bit. “It’s good and fresh!” she said.

I myself like chewing gum- especially Wrigley’s spearmint flavor. The flavor always feels so fresh and it’s as good as any other candy you pop into your mouth. It’s also very convenient to just pop a few sticks of gum in your bag to pull out and chew occasionally.
What do you feel about chewing gum?

The history of chewing gum was taken from http://www.nacgm.org/consumer/storyof.html, while the image was taken from http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/121225-5med.jpg.