I’d like to encourage a little dialog on a troublesome subject that someone brought up a couple of days ago. Specifically, someone mentioned hyperactive “Shannon-like” kids being put on Ritalin or other psych meds.
First, for the record, I’m horrified at how many school children these days end up on psych meds. I think it’s being promoted by the medical industry, as a way to sell bookoos of drugs. And this can hurt a kid’s chances for better employment opportunities, since they may be stigmatized as having had “mental problems”.
But there’s a deeper angle as to why all this is happening, and it has to do with the public schools. When I was in public school in the 50s and 60s, kids were not put on drugs. Conventional discipline was used to correct those who broke rules. And only in the most extreme cases did that involve corporal punishment. Finally, if a kid would not respond to routine discipline, by the schools or by his parents, he’d be expelled. I knew of only one instance of the latter.
The problem is that, over time, especially with the public schools becoming so diverse, discipline has tended to deteriorate, but the old disciplinary methods can’t be used. Say that a kid has become extremely disruptive. His parents can’t or won’t correct the problem. If he gets suspended more often than other kids (let alone paddled), many parents and their greedy lawyers will claim that he’s being discriminated against (by one criteria or another). And if a school tries to expel an incorrigible troublemaker, the parents are likely to sue. The social attitudes have shifted from parental responsibility to making it all the school’s problem and responsibility.
This leaves school districts between the rock and the hard place. It seems that the one thing they can do with minimal legal problems is recommend psychiatric treatment. So a combination of the legal system and the medical industry is propagating this travesty.
I’d like to encourage a little dialog on a troublesome subject that someone brought up a couple of days ago. Specifically, someone mentioned hyperactive “Shannon-like” kids being put on Ritalin or other psych meds.
First, for the record, I’m horrified at how many school children these days end up on psych meds. I think it’s being promoted by the medical industry, as a way to sell bookoos of drugs. And this can hurt a kid’s chances for better employment opportunities, since they may be stigmatized as having had “mental problems”.
But there’s a deeper angle as to why all this is happening, and it has to do with the public schools. When I was in public school in the 50s and 60s, kids were not put on drugs. Conventional discipline was used to correct those who broke rules. And only in the most extreme cases did that involve corporal punishment. Finally, if a kid would not respond to routine discipline, by the schools or by his parents, he’d be expelled. I knew of only one instance of the latter.
The problem is that, over time, especially with the public schools becoming so diverse, discipline has tended to deteriorate, but the old disciplinary methods can’t be used. Say that a kid has become extremely disruptive. His parents can’t or won’t correct the problem. If he gets suspended more often than other kids (let alone paddled), many parents and their greedy lawyers will claim that he’s being discriminated against (by one criteria or another). And if a school tries to expel an incorrigible troublemaker, the parents are likely to sue. The social attitudes have shifted from parental responsibility to making it all the school’s problem and responsibility.
This leaves school districts between the rock and the hard place. It seems that the one thing they can do with minimal legal problems is recommend psychiatric treatment. So a combination of the legal system and the medical industry is propagating this travesty.
Any good ideas on resolving this unholy mess?