Your sons teachers, or those directing them, know exactly what they are doing. It is part and parcel of the feminist movement. It's one of the reasons that girls so outnumber boys in our universities. Our male children are being totally emasculated. If the boy does not willing accept that emasculation he will be classified "hyperactive" and drugged (Ritalin, et al) into the submissive behavior the feminist/liberals seek. I wish there were more parents like you so that I could hold out a bit of hope for our country.
I have some first hand experience with Ritalin. It does _not_ "drug one into submissive behavior". It _can_ give one enough self control to get even without getting caught though. Trust me on this, ADHD is real and it sucks to live inside it.
I used to believe the same thing that you do. Then I found out first hand what the stuff does.
Like all things, there is some truth to it. The problem is mis-use. A kid does one thing in class and the teachers want him drugged to be docile. Teachers and administrators don't want discipline (and don't know how) , they want kids that will just sit and be quiet because they don't know how to handle them.
In our school system, 15% of the kids are labeled as "special needs" I cannot accept that.
First, it is unlawful in many states for teachers to even suggest that a kid be medicated. Second, if they want the kid to be "docile" Ritalin is not the med to do it. Go down to Starbucks and have them lay out 20 or so shots of espresso and drink one after another until you're starting to get a little buzzed and you've got an idea of what it's like to be on a _very_ high dose of Ritalin, only the coffee is going to give you more side effects and not last as long. Then ask yourself if that is the prescription for making a kid "docile".
I'm sorry, but this "drugging our kids into submission" business is one of my hot buttons. There may be meds that will make a kid "docile" and "sit quietly" but unless the kid really does have a problem Ritalin is not one of them.
You can "discipline" an ADHD kid until you're blue in the face and he won't sit quietly and pay attention because he _can_ _not_ _do_ _it_. He may sit quietly but the only way he can do that is to put his mind somewhere far from the classroom.
You think the schools _want_ that? Every single "special needs" kid is a sink into which piles of their scant resources get poured. Yes, there is a little federal assistance that comes in. It doesn't come close to covering the costs. Further, "special needs" != ADHD. Some kids with ADHD are also special needs, others are not. Talk to some parents of ADHD kids and see how hard they had to battle to get some help for the kid from the school if you think that a diagnosis of ADHD automatically results in classification as special needs.
Techers have suggested the child see a doctor, then the doctor prescribes Ritalin. I've seen this in my family so I know it to be true, at least in our school system.
I don't doubt you, but you are talking a true ADHD child, not one that has just has poor parenting and no discipline at home and none is given in the school either. Just give the kid a label and be done with him.
Again, I don't "think" anything. I've seen it. There are many things wrong in most every school system. Part is the parents, part is the school, part is the few teachers that are lazy and incompetent. With a little effort, these kids would not be in the special needs section, they would be mainstream and quite capable.
If the doctor doesn't find a problem then why does the doctor prescribe a medication? Incidentally, due to the political incorrectness of Ritalin, a new non-stimulant medication called "Strattera" is more commonly prescribed. It has much the same primary effect but the side effects are a bitch. But it's not one of those eeeeeeeevvvvvvviiiiiiilllllll stimulants.
And of course you can without ever seeing the kid determine that the problem is poor parenting and no discipline at home while the physician who examines him cannot.
What, specifically, have you seen?
Special needs kids get mainstreamed with IEPs, not put in a "special needs section". Been that way ever since IDEA went through. You think that "lazy teachers" _want_ to have to prepare a different lesson plan for each kid in the class? Because that's what having special needs kids means these days.
It was a couple of years ago, but the school nurse was also an influence.
Sure seems that way. We has some unruly kids in school, but we all got through with no drugs. While there are some ADHD kids, it seems as though there has been an explosion of them in recent years. Why is that
Lack of dicipline, teachers that do not know proper grammer and spelling (I've actualy sent back teacher's notes with corrections on them) Teachers for whom English is their second language trying to teach pronunciation of English, forgeing accent included at no charge. Teachers that do not know the subject matter, administrators that have no clue about administration, budgets, purchasing, and other functions needed to operate a system with a $15 million budget,
Maybe in your school In ours, the teacher does not teach both, nor do they have multiple lesson plans. That is the job of the Special Ed teacher and assistants. The lazy teachers just push off the marginal students to someone else.
Priorities and what "the schools want" vary. In my school district there are schools where almost 50% of the kids have IEPs. The individual school will get a greater share of the "scant resources" and the student and family will get more services in theory. In practice the needs of the "normal" kids as well as the special needs kids are not the first priority of the school system, and both groups are underserved.
As of 2004 the school nurse if she even suggested the use of a controlled substance would be in violation of Federal law.
There is a common misconception that "ADHD" and "unruly" are synonymous--I suspect that the increase in ADHD diagnosis in recent years has been mostly the result of increased recognition of the "inattentive" form, in which the kid is not unruly at all, he just spends most of his time with his mind somewhere else. In any case, if Ritalin makes an unruly kid less unruly it means that the kid didn't want to be unruly in the first place--if he _wants_ to be unruly Ritalin won't stop him.
Incidentally, my best friend in high school was on Dexedrine for ADHD (they called it "hyperactivity" then but it's the same condition) in 1969. This is nothing new.
Define "lack of discipline" and tell me where, specifically, you have seen this.
Which has what, exactly, to do with anything we are discussing? If you want to argue that the schools suck and the teachers are bumbling incompetents you'll get little argument from me, but this has nothing to do with ADHD.
Again, what does this have to do with ADHD?
Been a long time since this was a requirement. I used to catch my teachers in bloopers all the time and that was 40 years ago.
Again, this has zip all to do with ADHD.
If the student is already enrolled in the teacher's class then the teacher does not have that option unless and until quite a lot has happened. You might want to take a look at to see the steps that must be followed before a kid can be placed in special education. Note that parental consent is required just to _evaluate_ the kid. It's not something a teacher can do unilaterally. Not anymore. The IEP committee gets to decide whether the kid stays in that teacher's class or is transferred to a different "mainstream" teacher or is placed in special education for all or part of his schooling.
The most commonly expressed concern I hear is that kids are getting mainstreamed who shouldn't be, not that kids are being placed in special ed who shouldn't be.
If it is in fact happening in your schools then call the Federal department of education and blow the whistle. What part of "breaking the law" are you having trouble with?
Friend of mine was a schoolteacher for half his life, has a PhD in education, he agrees with you, every chance he gets he votes against increased funding for the schools.
People equate dollars spent with quality of education. School administrators think if you are against the budget, you are against education.
One of the teachers is a member of the finance committee (and gets paid extra as a coach too) . He did not like it when I brought up the fact that the teacher's pay increase is more than what his property tax will be going up. My taxes increased $450 but I don't get a raise because the budget passed. There were also a couple of line items that the school board knew would be much less, but did not disclose it until after tax bills were sent out, but they kept the money. Spending is over $11k per student.
Wrong. They do not sink R+D money into drugs that there is no market for. They identify a potential product that can be marketed to address a problem then they develope the product. Pharmaceutical comapanies may be guilty of many things that we don't like, but they don't throw money into new products that don't have a protential market that already exists.
My oldest son has ADD Attention Defecit Disorder similar to ADHD but without the Hyperactivity component. I couldn't agree more with Mr Clarke. He recently graduated from high school. None of his teachers ever accused him of being unruly. He did have one hell of a time paying attention in class. Stimulant drugs made school a little more bearable for him. He did still need a lot of coaching from us and his teachers to make it through. Some teachers did well for him.
Others seemed to resent his presence in their classroom and targeted him. Discipline was heaped on him. It did no good. Discipline is NOT THE ANSWER for these kids. The people who think it is are not paying attention to the facts. Maybe THEY need the discipine.
Heaping "discipline" on ADD, ADHD and Autistic kids only damages their self image and chases them out of school.
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