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Politics : The Left Wing Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (5118)	8/19/2001 11:15:42 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6089

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.

To: Poet who wrote (5118)	8/19/2001 11:18:44 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6089

in Orem, Utah, an elementary school principal was sentenced to 30 days in jail after he stole his students' Ritalin pills and replaced them with sugar pills. This is an absolutely wonderful story. Like something out of a Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic. Shocking and horrible too, of course, but most of all funny. The issue is actually a bit complex, and I see points on both sides. An interesting observation... my children go to a school with students of many nationalities. A number of students are on medication to treat ADHD and similar problems. The school does not prescribe such medications, the students involved were taking the medication when they arrived at the school. Only about 20% of the students are American. All of the students on medication are American. I have yet to meet a non-American parent that has ever heard of ADHD or Ritalin. I have talked to teachers from Australia and New Zealand that have never dealt with a situation in which a student was placed on medication for a behavioural problem. I have talked to teachers that say that as parents, they are totally opposed to such medication, but as teachers, they sometimes see no choice. They say that almost any individual case of a behaviourally disturbed child can be dealt with without drugging the child, if the parents cooperate and are fully involved. But many parents don't cooperate, and if a teacher has enough problem kids in one class, it becomes virtually impossible to teach the rest of the class. My son's fourth grade teacher, an older woman who had previously taught in a conservative medium sized town in the midwest, told me that she and her husband moved into teaching overseas because they were tired of having to put more energy into managing behaviour than into teaching. Last year I had to deal, peripherally, with two children that were taking ADHD medication; one has now moved out. In both cases, it was clear to everyone who knew the families that the problem was not medical: these kids had home lives that would make your skin crawl. No physical abuse, but things that are in some ways almost worse. Bad stuff. The parents just fix on the medical "solution" because it absolves them of responsibility, lets them have good little Stepford Kids without ever having to look in the mirror. Of course there is no civilized way to confront other parents and tell them to their faces that they are destroying their children. But there are times when I wish I could do exactly that.