Ritalin: It Just Doesn't ADD up

Dr. Whitaker.com ^ | 11/21/01 | Dr. Julian Whitaker

[dano1]

Thanks for the post. I've always been really sceptical about the numbers of kids who supposedly need this medicine.

[cva66snipe]

Basically for kids with real problems we need to take some major back steps as far as schools go. They do not belong in a normal class room setting. There they only get cheated. Up till mainstreaming there were schools that dealt with all aspects of the many known problems and they had a very high sucess rate. It came about from the necessity of teacxhing those from the Polio epidemic. Basically the system wasn't broken and did not need fixing.

[jonathonandjennifer]

The McCormacks were told, in no uncertain terms, that unless Sammy's behavior changed, he would be transferred to a special class for behavior-problem children at another school or the McCormacks would have to consider alternatives to public education like home schooling.

In other words, Sammy would be guilty of "Drug Evasion". See the movie "THX 1138", produced in the 1970's, for a fictional prediction of this situation.

[ChemistCat]

Fiction can be far too real.

Government representatives do not generally know better than parents. Sad to say, doctors are just guessing, most of the time.

[jonathonandjennifer]

doctors are just guessing, most of the time.

I agree. Doctors are good for setting broken bones, sticthing cuts, and giving citizens permission to buy antibiotics (or were, until government sponsered health insurance pushed the cost of such simple procedures to unreasonable heights). Otherwise, unless one is near death and willing to try anything, I would stay away from them.

But I digress; I tend to think that a combination of discipline, and parental support and love will solve most of these behavioral problems. But of course discipline has been criminalized by our courts/lawyers.

[ChemistCat]

One of the reasons we have come to love Oklahoma is that the state legislature passed a resolution reminding Oklahoma parents that it was their duty to discipline their children and that spanking is legal in this state. No parent can be prosecuted here for spanking. And Governor Frank Keating signed it.

It makes us all a little less afraid of DHS and a little less worried that we're going to lose our families when we choose not to spare the rod. I'm no longer physically capable of spanking my children, but I think they're getting old enough and sensible enough that they don't need it much anymore. Spanking is most useful with the toddler and preschool set. If you don't have them in hand long before puberty, I don't think anything is likely to work too well; the child him or herself has to figure things out the hard way, and that can take years.

Rush Limbaugh did a hilarious parody commercial about Oklahoma's new Spanking Is OKay policy. :-) Maybe someone who is familiar with his website could dig it up.