My goodness. That is a can of worms.
There are definitely children whose activity level is so extreme they cannot function in a classroom. These children can be "just fine" over the summer- because they don't have to sit, and they don't have to concentrate. In order to learn in a classroom of 20 or 30 children a child must be able to keep on task, at least for a little while. If they cannot it becomes almost impossible to educate them.
I had a little boy last year that I referred to the SST team for suspected attention deficit disorder. I compiled a folder of this little boys work. He never finished anything. Even if I stood right behind him, reminding him, he could not finish. We tried using post it notes on his desk for every assignment- (i.e. "I'm supposed to be READING now), that didn't work. We tried alternate seating. This child couldn't sit still in his chair, frequently wandered the room bothering other children, and was very loud. I tried stim cushions, these are special plastic cushions that sometimes keep children from rocking/tipping in their chairs. When I first took over the class many parents were worried that he as affecting their children's education.
When I first approached the parents they said they would take care of it at home. Whatever they were doing scared this child so much that when he brought a small knife to school he became hysterical when I told him he had to go to the office (because we have a 0 tolerance policy for weapons of any kind at school).
Finally the science teacher approached the parents and told them that she was seeing the same thing and she was getting no work out of him, and since she wasn't a substitute they believed her.
I think, if a drug helped him, it would be marvelous. With the time I took managing him, to keep him from disrupting the class (planning tactile things to keep him engaged, working with him personally because he only really responded to one on one instruction) I could have been meeting the needs of many other students.
Not only did he have trouble in the classroom but he had impulse control problems on the playground. These frequently led him to the principal's office. |
