Sad, but true: For more than three years now, one of us here at The Gradebook couldn't bear to part with a Sept. 29, 2004, press release headlined, "STUDENTS DRINK APPLE JUICE ON THEIR WAY TO BETTER TEST SCORES." Yes, incredibly, it was tied to the FCAT (but isn't everything? click here) so someday we knew we'd put it to good use.

And that day has come!

It was impossible not to think of the FCAT-boosting powers of apple juice this morning when reading about the four South Florida kids who nearly OD'd on Redline energy drinks. According to the story, the middle schoolers (all male, of course) were rushed to a hospital with increased heart rates and bloodshot eyes after each drank six of the caffeinated beverages. One parent said his son could have died.

The kids' motivation: They wanted to be alert for the FCAT.

Maybe they had the right idea, but the wrong drink? Here is what the Apple Products Research & Education Council  said in that 2004 press release: "You don't have to convince teachers and students at Barbara J. Hawkins Elementary School in Miami-Dade County that drinking apple juice can boost brainpower – they know it firsthand. Before the Florida Comprehensive Tests were handed out, each student got an apple juice box adorned with a sticker that read, "Yes I can!"

"The apple juice and inspirational stickers, along with a dedicated teaching staff that worked overtime, together have improved the school's average by two letter grades, going from a D to a B, in the past three years."

- Ron Matus, state education reporter