Discussion
Your assignment requires you to write an essay in which you discuss the role of performance enhancing drugs in modern society, or a speech in which you debate whether it is fair to use performance enhancing drugs in order to achieve higher grades. Your assignment should be based on the two texts.
In what follows, we will look at each part of the assignment individually and give you some points about the topic, based on the source material.
The role of performance enhancing drugs in modern society
Both texts in your exam set cover the role of performance enhancing drugs in modern society.
Text I, “Students Seek Competitive edge by Taking Adderall, Ritalin” focuses on the use of performance-enhancing drugs by students.
The video shows that drugs like Adderall and Ritalin—normally prescribed for ADHD—are being increasingly used by students as “smart drugs”, to enhance their academic results. The drugs are being used by students to get better results in tests and examinations because they have the capacity to boost concentration when studying. Interestingly enough, the video shows that it is the more academically-gifted students that resort to such drugs because they want to gain a “competitive advantage”. Furthermore, there are even parents who want their children to take the drugs to improve their academic performances.
These drugs are illegal to take without a prescription and they cause addiction or have negative side effects.
Text II, “The Doping of Everyday Life” explores both the history of the use of performance-enhancing drugs and their current role in modern society.
In the past fifty years, but also presently, these drugs have been used by multiple categories of people with the purpose of enhancing performance:
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Using performance enhancing drugs to achieve higher grades
Both texts in your exam material are a valuable resource when discussing whether it is fair to use performance enhancing drugs to achieve higher grades.
Text II does not discuss explicitly whether it is fair or not to use performance enhancing drugs to achieve higher grades. However, the author presents the case of a student who used them for this purpose:
The performance-enhancing effects of ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall exceed those of the classic amphetamines by promoting a supernormal capacity for mental focus. ‘It's like tunnel vision,; says one high school student. ‘You're able to think really deeply about the subject.’
The way the effect of such drugs is described, suggests that using them gives students a competitive advantage. Those who use them will find it easier to stay focused for longer than those who don’t use the drugs, even though they are both aiming for the same academic goals. This could be used to argue that the use of performance-enhancing drugs to achieve higher grades is not fair.
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