Raising Boys - Time For A Change?
Scott Kirwin
When did medicating boys become popular and why aren't more people questioning this practice?
I'm the parent of a boy, and I've noted that several of his friends are on various meds "to help him focus", "it's better for his grades" and "the teacher says he couldn't sit still in class". Meanwhile there is debate about ending recess in schools for various reasons, including improving test scores, saving money (teachers are demanding to be paid to supervise recess) and even protection (it's easier to keep kids away from predators in a building).
I hate to tell those of you who believe in the complete equality of the sexes, but boys are not girls. They are absolute bundles of energy. "Snips, snails and puppy-dog tails" goes the saying and one thing that "puppy-dog tails" never do is sit still. Boys must move. They have evolved for that very purpose, and forcing them to sit in one place for a long period of time isn't just wrong - it's unethical and sexual discrimination of the highest order.
I believe that it is time to consider a whole new way of teaching boys. Boys can focus to a degree that is amazing to adults. Just ask one about his Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh strategy and be prepared for a detailed analysis of the game that would make a Pentagon planner feel like a generalist. However they can do so only between periods of activity. Think of it as teaching science, math and English in a gymnasium with lectures punctuated by games of Dodgeball and Hoops. Instead of relegating PE to 40 mins a week (as is the case at my kid's school) regular classes would be integrated into PE to the point where a separate PE class would be unnecessary.
Medicating boys is the easy solution, but it makes as much sense as pumping girls full of speed and steroids to perform better at sports. No one is calling for that, and if anyone did there would be charges of child abuse levelled - and rightly so. Yet millions of boys are on medication today and people are comfortable with this.
The current trend of drugging up boys is, to me at least, a very simplistic solution to a non-existent problem. I'm becoming increasingly sympathetic to the idea of same-sex education for the elementary school years. Classrooms for boys shouldn't just have a bunch of desks facing a chalkboard.
There is something seriously wrong in the US education system and medicating children to make them more docile, and putting them in private school won't fix it.
I have two boys and after I had the first one, it was obvious that boys are not girls and the penis wasn't the give away.
Litle boys are endless bundles of energy. Jake jogs in place when he plays video games. Why? Because he wants to and he needs to do it. When Jake started Kindergarten, his well meaning but clueless teacher told me that Jake had ADHD. I told her that her diagnosis was bull. It was her first year teaching that grade and she had no children of her own. Apparantly she told the mothers of 7 other children the same thing. The common link in her "diagnosis"? They were ALL BOYS.
Boys need to run, they need it more than girls. They don't need medicine, they need recess.
While same-sex education is an interesting discussion, I think it would fail worse than co-ed. Boys need to play with girls. They need to have multiple interaction levels, just like girls do.
I was an extremely active child, and I was never 'diagnosed' by a teacher as ADHD or ADD or whatever the catchphrase for today is. My teachers didn't like me being so active, they called me 'hyper' and recommended Ritalin (hello, got a license from Cracker Jack to practice medicine??). My family never bought into the 'drug her up' line. I think it comes down to teachers not wanting to be responsible for a generation of children. They want drones (even the DODDS teachers do).
As much as I detest having my kids running and screaming in the house, they're KIDS! That's what they do! I don't see why a teacher can't deal with it, that's what they're trained for, that's what their job is.
Anyway, I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'm certain it's not drugging up half the population to make them more compliant.
I think I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that girls need recess less than boys, I think that boys need more actual run time. While girls can be content playing quietly with dolls, boys can't. I guess what I was trying to say that if a girl (and I was "hyper" too) needs 30 minutes to recess during the day, a boy might need 35. Slightly more actual time to burn off the energy.
Exactly. Right on, Mama!
/Orwell off
Girls aren't loud or antsy, but they're not learning much either. Like boys, they're kids, and they also learn more from actively engaging with the world, not sitting in little chair all day, watching the clock.
Cutting back on recess time is the worst idea I've ever heard. All kids want to be more active, they all want to feel like they're making a contribution to the world. Our current system doesn't engage kid's minds, it deadens them. Boys are just more open about expressing their disapproval.
I think some of the pharmaceutical companies and medical/science/educator weenies are stuck on that old Huey Lewis Song ..."I Want a New Drug."
Ritalin, which is essentially pharmaceutical cocaine, is totally unecessary. Drugging boys, for God's sake, is purely a function of the authoritarian Nanny-state gone bonkers.
Hell, when I was a boy, here was my daily itinerary: (1) Play tackle football, (2) fistfights/wrestling matches, (3) Chase girls, (4) Be a smart aleck in class, (5) Steal candy from store-owners, (6) run a lot through town causing general mischief.
Now, we got MTV, i-pods, Ritalin, child psychologists, time-outs, Barney, bicycle helmets, and all this other wimpy jive.
What happened?:)
Hank Barnes
If I had a school-age boy right now, I would not, under any circumstances, send him to public school. Part of the drugging problem lies in the fact that teachers are often allowed to diagnose ADD, despite their lack of training or qualifications to do so.
Another part lies in some of the teachers themselves. There are only two things you can do with a degree in women's studies -- run a battered women's shelter or teach, so now we're seeing a number of these otherwise uneducated women in both fields.
1) Ritalin and similar drugs lower IQ.
2) ADD and ADHD always come with associated problems such as allergies, vision, hearing, anxiety and even Tourettes. If you treat these problems, the ADD and ADHD goes away.
Yours,
Tom Hawkson, aka Wince
And one more thing: my mother always said, "If they're not dirty, they didn't have fun." Remember that kids is kids. Dirt is not your enemy.
The best commentary ever on that phenomenon: Saki's "The Toys of Peace." Dr. Weevil has a copy up at
http://www.doctorweevil.org/saki/toys.html
It's magnificent.
JDS has a idea I can get behind. We already have 'gifted and talented' classes for those with mental ages for in excess of their peers. I don't see why we can't tailor the rest of school to the activity level of the child. There would of course have to be minimum standards, but if a kid wants or needs more excersize or 'free time' than that, where is the harm? I think making school serve the children better in education will only improve their experiance, and in the process up test scores (which I hate standardized testing anyway...).
I have a deep and abiding respect for teachers. I was raised in a family of them, but today's teachers seem more content to go in, get their paycheck and leave with as little educating and interacting with the children as possible. (This is by no means all teachers, but the great ones, or even the good ones are getting fewer and farther between.) That's a diservice to society of today, the children and the world of tomorrow.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world as they say...in this case it seems to be the hand that pushes the needle... :(
On the ADD note though, it is actually possible to get a negative diagnosis. The craze really started as I was in middle school, and as I frequently had a hard time concentrating in class, the teacher recommended that I be given Ritalin. My mom was open-minded, but not willing to take the teacher's word for it, so I went to a specialist who evaluated me and said that I did not have ADD, but that I was just bored because my classwork was not sufficiently stimulating. I tell you what, that diagnosis was not what the teacher wanted to hear.
And the same might be true with girls - it's just that they don't seem to be as medicated as often as boys. Kids need to play - and the educational system seems to have forgotten this.
Things are different now.
Your message is on target. School ought to be made a lot more suitable for boys.
The epidemic of so-called ADD or ADHD kids IMO is a cause and effect of the inability of public schools to legally mete out meaningful discipline at school. If a kid spits on another student, he's classified as a special needs student who cannot be expelled for any reason. I know some teachers and I'm not exaggerating. There isn't enough money in the world to pay me to be a public school teacher in this society. So schools see unruly children as in need of medication I guess because that is about their only weapon to control the uncontrollable ones. It's bullshit to be sure but fortunately Ritalin can only be prescribed by a REAL doctor so somebody diagnosises the ones that get it. Whether THEY know what their are doing is open to debate for sure.
A true diagnosis involves brain cat scan or MRI and evaluation of brain chemistry or so I'm told by a nurse friend who had an true ADHD kid of her ownand who was really helped by correct diagnosis and treatment which is MUCH more than just ritalin and requires parental involvement with behavior modification and other important consistent disciplinary methods to be effectiveb (as well as cooperation from the school).