"I was thinking back, and I can only remember one kid that I thought might have had ADD when I was in grade school."
Part of the problem is that the school system expects boys to act like girls. The whole ADD thing is pretty much a US phenomena, other countries don't diagnose ADD nearly to the extreme that we do here.
ADD, like most disorders, exist on a continua. Everybody has some elements of it, the only question is at what point does it cause a problem? Public schools in particular tend to draw the line at a pretty low threshold. Boys tend to act up, be loud, be wiggly and are easily distracted. It is just part of being a boy.
Its my hypothesis that that may be caused partly by the feminist issue. Prior to feminism, female teachers found ways to deal with the boys. But after feminism, I don't think it became as much of a goal. After all, why should they have to give boys special treatment. It became easier to say they were ADD or ADHD. In fact, in one class, I found out that some of the boys that were called ADD had not been formally diagnosed by a doctor.....it was the school counselor that had made the diagnosis. While the school counselor has a background in psychology, I don't think its appropriate that she make that determination.
One of the things I said in my paper is that boys are wired differently. As a man, I understand the difference and know instinctively how to with boys when they act up. With girls, I have to move much slower because I don't understand them as easily. Later, after the uproar was over, some of the women in the class came up to me and said they understood what I was saying. They don't understand boys that well either.......and it worries them. One women has three small boys and she told me their behavior scares her at times.
So its a very complex thing. And the women who were most critical of me.......and two of them won't speak to me now......were women who are the most aggressive and the most competitive in the class. Its a very weird dynamic.
ted |
