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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (9211)	3/21/2001 7:02:06 AM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 82486

That article is notably deficient in information, which makes it difficult or impossible to offer an opinion on the case. We are not told what sort of behaviour was involved, though the writer would clearly like us to believe that it was simply "a set of behaviors that teachers find irritating". Comments like that, and like "Government agents seem quick to drug kids" seem designed to inflame a patterned response in the reader, without supplying vital information. We are not told what prior measures had been taken to control the child's behaviour, or what the results were. I don't think this situation simply emerged out of nowhere; there must have been a fairly considerable history of misbehaviour leading up to it. My own suspicion is always that when a writer with a political agenda fails to provide information necessary for the reader to develop an opinion, it is usually because the writer wants the reader to adopt the opinion of the writer. I am not at all happy with the way Ritalin and similar drugs are used in schools, but the way this is written makes we want to disagree. The image of "Government agents" pouncing on children and drugging them for no reason is, I think, dishonestly conjured and ridiculously oversimplified. Schools exist to teach young people. If certain students are so disruptive that the education of the other students is adversely affected, and if the parents are not willing or able to correct this behaviour through non-pharmaceutical means, I see nothing at all with a school drawing the line and telling the parent that the student must either accept medication or transfer to a school with programs designed for students with serious behaviour problems. It's just not fair to the rest of the students to allow classes to be continuously disrupted by a few problem cases. I also think it is unfair to blame the teachers, as developing the basic capacity to accept an ordered environment and respond to discipline is clearly the responsibility of parents.