We've had guns in American homes since the 1600's
We've had troubled teens since the first humans
But it's only in the last couple of decades that we've indulged in the wholesale drugging of small children, which also corresponds to sharp increases in insane violence.
Children who are diagnosed as ADHD have a psychiatric diagnosis that will follow them forever, and they are not allowed in the armed forces.
I also had a friend whose son was diagnosed as ADHD by a TEACHER, for heaven's sake. The school wanted her child on Ritalin. Well, she took her son to a neurologist who informed her that if her son were to be placed on Ritalin, it would have done major neurological damage.
BTW, I don't believe in ADHD.
1. my short (four years) experience in Special Education and,
2. on the "stuff" I was taught while getting my Masters in Educational Psychology,
I believe that the "Disorders" mentioned in this article MAY be real, but they are nowhere near as prevalent as the educational psychologists and educational psychiatrists and the NEA would have us believe. Remember, their living depends on this!
Special Education, at least in the school in which I taught, was a dumping ground for all the kids who did not fit into the predetermined slot which the teacher thought he should occupy.
There are kids who are difficult to teach, but there have ALWAYS been kids who have been difficult to teach. Today the teacher and school administrations are handicapped by the threat of litigation and by the threat of adverse action that may be taken against them by higher-ups in the feeding chain. The adminstration threatens the teacher. The school board threatens the administration. The parents threaten everybody with a court action.
There is also the fact that teachers want to be rid those students who don't fit the mold and want to get them out of the classroom. The various "Diseases" mentioned in the article are seen as easy ways to be rid of them.
If the kid is readmitted to the mainstream classroom, it is usually with the proviso that he be put on some drug to "correct his behavior".
OK, this has been more or less a rant, but the present practices ordained by the educational psychology/psychiartry bunch is NOT helping the education of our young people.
Public schools operate a lot like factories whose employees can do the assembly line work but do not know how to deal with the custom work. Custom work requires more time and patience and skill and usually the customer gets better product. Hard to do custom work with unskilled or semi-skilled labor. Custom work usually goes to the custom shops where they can specialize.
Slowly, parents are getting savvy about how to make the public school address the custom work.
I'll buy that! I got a bachelor's degree in engineering 2 years ago. If I drank a 6-pack of beer everyday before school, and then another 8 or 9 throughout the day, how well do you think I would have done in college?
Hell, why pussyfoot around? Just prescribe the little tykes a few Budweisers before school and dole out a few more throughout the day. Whether it's little white pills or beers, it's all just don't-give-a-damn medicine. Feed them beer, it's cheaper.
Parents who are barely involved in their children's lives and are too busy to spend time with their children. Pharmaceutical companies looking to create a new generation of buyers from cradle to grave.
Children these days are not nurtured, given proper nutrition, exercise or proper rest.
I have a 6 year-old and a 3 year-old, they have yet to drink soda, eat junk food, or visit a fast food restaurant. They both ask for apples, carrots, yogurt, etc. for snacks. Wow, the marketing companies must really hate us.