Nearby certain Long Island public schools there are street signs that read: “Drug Free School Zone.” Yet the educators of these schools are pushing a drug called Ritalin on students they diagnose with “Attention Deficit Disorder” (ADD).
Regarding this issue, educators make sure they distinguish between mind- destroying drugs such as marijuana and crack cocaine, which they declare “war” on, and Ritalin, a drug which they eagerly encourage because, they claim, it helps relax ADD-diagnosed students, who they allege are biologically over- talkative and -active and unable to concentrate for long.
An individual who habitually uses mind-destroying drugs is attempting to evade facts that, for various reasons such as confusion, fear, insecurity, he wants not to confront much or ever. Drugs help him, in effect, “escape” reality. Any rational parent would discourage their child from using such drugs.
If used properly, Ritalin can help people with certain medical conditions. The problem with educators encouraging it as a means to alleviate or cure “ADD” is that the symptoms attributed to it are not necessarily caused by a biological, medical “disorder” that renders children unable to concentrate.
Dr. Michael Hurd, a psychologist in private practice in Maryland, who works with ADD-labeled children, says: “Mental health clinicians such as myself continually hear parents of kids diagnosed with ADD point out that their kids can concentrate when and if they choose to do so. The operative word here is ‘choose.’ Proponents of ADD seem to be suggesting that kids do not make choices, that if Johnny does not concentrate on his homework or pay attention in class it must be due to a ‘disorder’ rather than a simple choice not to focus his attention.”
“How do you explain the fact that some kids who display ADD in the classroom show no evidence of such a syndrome when playing a video game, talking to friends on the telephone, or engaging in other intellectually undemanding activities? If ADD kids have a biological inability to focus, then how can they easily concentrate on so many activities?”1
Educators must seriously confront other possibilities — besides lack of Ritalin — as causing ADD in a child. That child may have many reasons for simply choosing not to concentrate on his schoolwork. Perhaps he is suffering from emotional problems due to his family life? Perhaps parents and educators are not properly motivating him? Perhaps the one-size-fits-all curriculum found in most public schools are to him intellectually undemanding and thus boring?
If education’s purpose is to teach a child how to live his life by developing his mind to understand reality, as it properly should be, for many decades now the John Dewey-influenced “progressive” public school system has undercut that purpose. In fact, it’s become a primary cause for the decline not only in children being unable to concentrate on schoolwork, but also in test standards and the increasing number of children unable to read, write, multiply or form independent judgments.
Public schools have undercut these abilities in their students primarily by failing in all grades to teach reason and logic, the basis of all knowledge, as explicit subjects — or at all. Instead, they’ve become increasingly obsessed with a student’s “feelings,” as evidenced by their attempts now to build his self-esteem, a crucial value, by basing its development inversely on his ability to “adjust” socially so as to feel he “belongs” to his peers in age.
No wonder many children are becoming more confused, insecure, rambunctious and unable to concentrate in school.
Thus, the diagnosis of ADD and the pushing of Ritalin as its cure are used by educators for the same reasons that people use mind-destroying drugs: to “escape” their failures. Educators are unable to confront how their public school system continues its failure to teach children how to think. Their “drug” use, in effect, is their concocting a biological, medical “disorder” and pushing a drug to help them “escape” from their responsibility for their failures and their inability to properly correct them.
These “educators” may declare a “war on drugs,” but they are teaching students many lessons that foster their desire to use drugs in the first place. To stop this desire, they must start by teaching ideas that help students understand reality, such as that reason and logic are their primary tools to that end — not “feelings.”
References:
1) Dr. Michael Hurd, “ADD Myth or Reality,” The Living Resources Newsletter, Vol. 3 Num. 2.
