It was not my intention to have a thread that was primarily devoted to the pluses and minuses of ritalan per se, but to the excesses of a school system run amock; the harassment of parents that don't toe the party line, the incompetence of teachers and administrators that want to drup children into zombie-like submission.
Nitwits [that barely hit 900 on the SAT] with BAs in education playing medical doctor. In this state (or county at least) the process to *force* a child on to ritalin is very streamlined. All it takes is one teacher (many are not very bright-I have firsthand knowledge) to get the kid sent to a "doctor". Quotes used because I question the ethics of the ones used by the system around here. There is usually a particular doctor that the school will claim must be used. Then a 5 minute exam and judgment. i.e. quacks (IMO) that are there to rubber stamp the claims of these teachers.
In addition to the normal activity of 10 year old boys, we have hordes of undisciplined little monsters raised by day care centers and parents that are clueless about handling children. Ritalin is not a solution to the behavior of children with bad parents.
The school system does not want children to be children. Make all the teachers sit still for 7 hours straight, eat lunch in silence, and have no choice with whom the sit at their [20 minute] lunch. We'd have to put most of them on drugs in short order.
And eliminate the teacher's lounge & smoking breaks. Since the kids have no recess, the adults should be subjected to the equivilent. Sauce for goose is sauce for the gander.
My youngest is just about to graduate high school, and my conclusion after 13 years observation of the public schools is that most of the best and brightest and most loving teachers have gradually gone away, and we're mostly left with incompetents who don't like children, period end of story.
After putting my children through college, my next financial goal is to save enough money to be able to pay for private school for the grandchildren I hope to have. It's just too expensive for most families to do that, and I can't think of a better use for my money.