I agree. Having taught middle school for 35 years I would cringe in parent conferences when the Child Study Team would recommend to parents they get medication for their child.(it was illegal to do this anyway).I would pull them aside afterward and tell them their son has N.B.S. and not to worry because my wife and I had raised two boys. When they asked what N.B.S. was I told them “Normal Boy Syndrome.”
I lead a group of about 60 boys aged 5-17. Over the years we’ve had kids who were mature, immature, crazy, precocious, helpful, helpless. Sometimes all at the same time, sometimes all in the same boy.
It’s part of being a boy. They grow up at different times but they all grow up.
The drugs seem to be wildly overprescribed. We have one kid who was on them who was at times a virtual zombie. He would look right through you.
No discipline at home. I’d have had ADHD for about five minutes, then Dad would’ve “cured” it.
Bingo!
It's all about the Benjamins!
They’re not immature, they’re UNDISCIPLINED. While there is a minority of children who benefit from medication to make them sit down and shut up when they need to I would say that easily 50% of cases are the result of overaggressive prescription writing, marketing by the pharmaceutical companies, and parents wanting to hand Johnny a pill as a quick-fix so they can go watch Opera or their football game instead of stand behind him with a peach tree switch while he does his math.
My grandmother summed it all up thusly: “The best cure for A-D-H-D is a S-W-A-T on the B-U-T-T.”
Oooh. Look! Squirrel!