Vanity: Reading Resources

A special education teacher wrote to me about the abuse of Ritalin. The teacher said: “My students are on Ritalin. This is a brain shrinking, top tier heavily psychotropic drug, as you know. The authorities KNOW this is their weapon for the most intelligent boys... ”

The teacher believes this is a high-level NWO plot, which is not a road I like to go down. But the teacher got me thinking...

1) The Education Establishment in this country, for 75 years, has used bogus methods (i.e., Whole Word) to teach reading. For many millions of children, the result is illiteracy and a COLLAPSE of each child’s confidence, with a concomitant increase in anxiety and misbehavior.

2) A separate set of experts (these are in the psychiatric community) diagnose millions of young children as having something called ADHD. The common treatment for this hyperactivity is Ritalin. Interestingly, according to a government site, “This pattern of behavior usually becomes evident in the preschool or early elementary years, and the median age of onset of ADHD symptoms is 7 years,” which just happens to be the age when children, taught with Whole Word, wake up to the fact that they are falling behind their friends and seem in some way to be damaged.

I would like to think that these two groups of experts are separate and sincere. The thought that the two groups are actually working together is almost too horrible to think about.

Here is my question: does anyone have solid evidence or personal anecdotes that can help illuminate this issue?

(Final thought: Inability to read will usually destroy a child’s sense that he is smart and in control. At the very least, shouldn’t all those highly-paid medical professionals assess the reading abilities of their patients, and then DEMAND that the education experts do more to make sure these children can actually read by the second grade? Even if these groups are separate and well-intentioned, it seems to me you still have a serious dereliction of duty if doctors are prescribing powerful drugs to children without understanding the actual cause of their anxiety and misbehavior.)

(For more on why Whole Word causes illiteracy, see “42: Reading Resources” on Improve-Education.org.)

I am sorry to seem so critical...
No big deal. We worked our way through it.

You’ve done right by your kids, but sadly not everyone cares or even understands what the education establishment is teaching kids these days.
Well I thank you for that.

Man, you don't have to tell me about the failings of our public school system. By the time I got out of HS I was so disillusioned with public education that it's not even funny. That was what really motivated me to teach my kids myself rather than have public schools fail in the attempt like they did with some of my classmates.

Good God, we had some 18 year old kids who could only read at about an 8th grade level or less back then. Some of them still fair no better today as adults! And that's here in Texas!

Read Post 21 it makes my point for me. Notice the behavioral symptoms yet? It is in the case I speak of caused by a Vestibular {Inner Ear related} disorder causing learning and behavioral issue. To better prove my point I was diagnosed at age 33 with General Anxiety Disorder because they did not know what else too call it.

The doctors first tried Xanax at 2mg every 12 hours. It worked half the time. Then they tried SSRI's and other antidepressants which made it much worse all the time. Finally one doctor saw the problem and said lets try a.5mg or hald a MG 4 times a day instead and it has worked 17 years.

AS for how I learned a lot of whet I know and knew where too start looking? There is one man out there who has likely hit the nail on the head about ADD ADHD and even many causes of anxiety disorder. It is Sensory Processing Disorders. IOW Va Primary Neurological Cause undetected by doctors but they are only treated the secondary symptoms which can mimic ADD ADHD. Thus an epidemic. Read up on Harold Levinsom MD's writings. His book Phobia Free gave me a good idea of what was going on with me and he was right as my medical history matched.

To explain it better ADD ADHD is likely covering several yet to be diagnosed neurological or physical disorders in the same fact that proven Central Auditory Processing Disorder does. Levinsons linking of Vestibular Disorders to ADD ADHD as well as anxiety disorders back in the 1970's is likely the right direction. So much so in fact C.A.P.D. descriptions follows almost word for word his findings that were scoffed at for years.

You say I have physiological symptoms? True but the lesson here is one people are forgetting Many mental health related issues are the direct cause of a undetected neurological or physical ailment and it can be something as simple as a Bad Inner Ear Infection. Mental Health disorders generally do not trigger seizure activity. But in my earliest childhood I did not have seizures that started at age 34. I was born one eye functional. I am functionally blind in either eye meaning the one I can not use with the other. I have very poor coordination that took two years of Occupational Therapy to be able to walk a straight line and deal with the other issues it causes like no depth perception. I had chronic sinus allergies as well. I was deemed hyperactive. When someone told me something it took several tries till I understood it sometimes. My feet? LOL My parents bought me shoes once per month. I could break over the best pair.

OK the reason the shrink tried caffeine because it is a stimulant. In rare actual true ADD ADHD cases they do work. Now unlike you I believe the ADD ADHD that requires Ritalin is simply symptoms which are being triggered most likely by a hidden physical or neurological disorder medical science has yet too pin point. Most persons said too have mental illness in fact do not. They have other ailments of which cognitive behavioral issues are causing that type of symptoms :>}

I know considerably more on this matter than you. I have lived with it 54 years and I have done the look ups for 17 years to get answers. I learned answers about it most Shrinks don't even know. I have too take Xanax because it tones down my sensory processing system too a level I can function at. In doing so that in turn eases or highly limits sensory triggers such as sight and sound that start my seizures. I have Inner Damage confirmed. I have visual issues confirmed. Now pay close attention to what I am saying. This portion of the sensory processing system and brain control the release of some of the strongest chemicals and reactions in the human brain.

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