March 17th, 2005 | 
Author: Can someone tell me just WHAT THE HELL is going on in our public schools? I was talking to a friend yesterday about our kids and how they were doing in school. He revealed to me that his boy is on medication for ADHD. So now it’s official. Of all the people I personally know who have boys in school, and I mean ALL of them, I am the only one who’s boy is not currently being medicated for ADHD. Not that it hasn’t been brought up. Attention Deficit has been mentioned or hinted at in ALL parent/teacher conferences we’ve had about the boy.
Something is seriously wrong in the school and medical system. It is just not possible that there are this many children, especially boys, who are being accurately diagnosed with ADHD. I’ve read that there’s been close to a 45% increase in children being medicated over the past 5-6 years. That’s an epidemic. Imagine the panic if Cancer diagnoses increased by that level.
So I guess I’m developing my own Crusade. I will not medicate my child simply because he acts like a 7 year old boy. I will not medicate my child to make a teachers job easier when he starts to get bored with school towards the end of the day (see this previous entry for background on the ‘easy’ statement). I say this even though I admit it also scares the hell out of me because of several documented cases where parents are arrested and/or charged with child abuse for refusing to put their child on sitmulants.
Its only going to get worse if the proposed mandatory mental health screening goes through.
Keep in mind, I’m not coming flat out and saying ADHD does not exist. I am saying that it is over diagnosed and the target seems to be boys who are acting the way boys act (I’ve seen statistics that up to 90% of ADHD cases are diagnosed in boys). I’ve done a bit of reading on the subject, from all sides of the debate (and I’ve got a hell of a lot more to do), and I can’t help but agree with the theory that there is an attempt to modify boy’s natural behavior.
Currently reading: The WAR AGAINST BOYS
What I don’t understand is why so many people are taking this laying down! Don’t these people ever think back to their childhoods and realize that they and their friends were practically never medicated? Hasn’t it occurred to them that something might be wrong with the system if almost every kid has ADHD? Usually I champion teachers, but if behavior problems are going on they need to contact the parents and chastize the hell out of them for letting their little brats run rampant without manners, NOT suggest “calm-me-down” drugs… or, just suck it up and embarrass the kid in front of his classmates and remove his recess privledges for a week. But noooooooo, that kind of shit can spark lawsuits, and half the lazy ass non-parenting-parents (who you are obviously not one of) would go right over the teacher’s head to the principal. If teachers, parents, school officials would take some freakin accountability this wouldn’t be half the issue that it is.
Sorry, I’m getting off the soapbox, I get a little excited when someone agrees with one of my issues.
I am totally amazed also with the amount of parents that think a bottle of pills is some kind of good thing for their children. Way to go Phil with not allowing this kind of crap with your kids.
I am fully aware that when I was in school that none of my friends were on some type of drug to mellow them out. Of course that is when parenting was allowed and actually practiced and people did not look for the easiest solution, such as tranquilizing your children.