I've known parents who have drugged their children with Ritalin because they talked too much or because it was hard for the child to concentrate on pages that were "too busy". Ritalin is being used to eliminate annoying personalities or rambunctiousness more than it's being used for a legitimate medical condition, in my opinion.
Gee, I thought he was known as a "heroin addict."
I have a friend whose kids are both on that stuff. They have to take them off in the summer to try to put weight on them. They are both super skinny.
"...for whom the successes of the past simply don't exist. "
This attitude applies to many on the left, hence their cosmic quest for "progress". But I've never seen it expressed so clearly. I better make a good note of the author's name, as I intend to quote this phrase often.
The article failed to mention it is generally boys who are put on Ritalin.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3820d3032dd3.htm
This is the real reason for the Ritalin usage in classrooms.
Most Ritalin goes to boys who are by nature "fidgety", and who do better in separate classes from girls.
Using Ritalin not only calms a boy down, but gives the teacher a "feminized" classroom. For the teacher it's a win-win situation. Not so for the boys.
As one drives through the neighborhoods of just about anytown America, one rarely sees what one used to a lot of 25 or so years ago. Children running around playing in yards, or in the streets. No todays child is stuck inside the house drinking and eating extremely high sugar content soda's and candy bars while sitting on his or her butt either watching TV or playing video / computer games.
A child is just by his or her nature hyperactive to begin with. So feeding them all this sugar and allowing them to sit around all day doing absolutely nothing physical to work off all that energy and then doping them up with retalin expecting to sit still all day at school is IMHO, the same as taking someone, shooting them up with speed and tying them to a chair.
A friend of mine is a pharmacist and she was telling me one day the school wanted to give her kid that crap. She asked each of her sons teachers to keep a record of each day her son was unruly in class. Well it turned out that EVERY day her son was being unruly and hyperactive, was the days her husband was feeding them breakfast and preparing their lunchs. Her hubby would give 'em high sugar content creals and junk food for lunch. When she made him prepare the kind of breakfasts and lunchs she prepared, her son was no longer hyperactive and unruly.
Maybe instead of the schools doping up these kids to get them to calm down, the parents should allow children to be children and go outside and burn off all that excess energy like I did when I was a child., but I guess that makes too much sense.
Did you see this?
Almost as good as the National Enquirer. Phhhhtttt
"Why would anyone subject a child to a drug with so many possible harmful side effects simply to "cure" an attention problem?"
A meaningful and real answere is it is a risk verses benefits situation. First of all, the "risks" expounded here are greatly exagerated, the benefits are not at all given.
I am the proud father of a 9 year old son that has ADHD. He is extremely bright and the problem didn't become apparent until late in K-5. When we started him in first grade (he was attending a private Christian school - the public schools in my poor neighborhood just arent' safe) he just couldn't keep up. The problem was he just could not pay attention. No amount of discipline would change it.
We pulled him from school so my wife could homeschool him so he would have total one on one attention. He still just couldn't pay attention. At the end of every day my wife would be in "tears" and my son "beaten down and discouraged."
Finally, I agreed to consult are pedriatrician - a caring and highly experienced physician. He told us all the "horror" stories about Ritalin were just that. He had used the medication for years with great success - and he himself had been very sceptical about it initially. So, we tried the medication, and the difference was like day and night. Suddenly, he was able to pay attention long enough to learn, and his intelligence started to show. We have, under close physicians supervision, adjusted his medication because it tends to wear off quickly - we use time released now. He is flourishing. We ONLY use the medication on days when he is being taught and as sparingly as possible. We will never use it as a way to control his behavior. We don't mind the hyperness, that is who he is. Even on the med he is hyper, it is just a "focused" hyper. Our concern was his ability to learn, not be calm.
There are parents out there that will use Ritalin as a "baby sitter" the same way they use TV. We don't do that. This is about helping our son, not us.
I strongly resent the implications of this article. It is full of distorted "facts" and false stereotypes. It is the kind of nonsense that made me delay getting my son help.
BTW - EVERY medication has risks. If Aspirin was discovered today, it would not be marketed because of all its bad side effects.
If folks here want to bash the educational establishment, then they are welcomed to do so. I am not a big fan of it either; my goodness we homeschool. However, it was neural "biochemistry" not the educational establishment that was my son's problem. Don't use urban legends about an effective medication as a means to push an anti(whatever) agenda.
Carolyn
My grandson suffered an aneurism 2 years ago, when he was fourteen.. when they did an arterialgram (sp) of his brain, every blood vessel were all crooked and pinched, they blame Ritalin. His life was saved by a doctor in the ER,and has fully recuperated, but, I would seriously caution this drug from being used. We thought it was helping him too.
BTW -"Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld" is NOT a physician, he is at best an educator. He really is not qualified to make the assertions he does.
Bump for later
There is an article in the Seattle PI today that says that Canada has banned Adderall and another timed release form of the drug because of the risk of heart attack.
A few weeks ago there was an article in the WSJ saying that studies indicate that use of ritalin and other stimulants causes the same depression of dopamine that is seen in cocaine use. In other words use of the stimulants can lead to an inability to experience pleasure result in increased depression and anxiety.