Should the government force drugs on kids?

WorldNetDaily ^ | November 15, 2003 | Samuel L. Blumenfeld

[LandofLincoln]

The Chinese have Ritalin, in the form of DISCIPLINE. Here, the schools cannot discipline the kids and the parents don't. That is not a problem in China. Here, kids do not have ADD, they SUGAR RAGE, their diets are all sugar, and they are hyperactive. What boy wasn't hyper when you were a kid, but we had better diets.

Now we tell kids to do drugs, until they want to choose their own, and then we tell them that it is wrong. We created our own problems, and excuses. I do not want to here this schiznitz

[Steve Eisenberg]

My daughter who is tested to read on a 4th grade level is failing reading in 1st grade because the teacher doesn't keep the class quiet.

Tough situation. A few years ago when a public school 3rd grader of ours had a bad teacher, we wrote by certified mail to the principal, with a cc to the superintendent, requesting VERY politely a change to a different teacher. They wrote back that this was impossible. We wrote back asking politely for an exception. They wrote that there had never been an exception made. We wrote back politely again asking for just this one exception. Well? Within less than a month the principal gave in, telling us we were the first parents in the school ever to get such an accomodation. Right.

Did the principal glare whenever she saw us from then on? Yes. Did she take it out on our child? Not at all; they were careful from then on to give him good teachers and treat him right.

Forget lawyers, but also forget giving up. You are the only true advocate for your child.

Sorry if this advice is inapplicable, as in a private school that can tell you to walk. Also, if, by some miracle, my advice here is taken, NEVER say that the teacher is bad. Just write that the fit between this teacher and your individual child is not right. Also, they will want to talk to stop the certified letters. They are experienced at such meetings and you are not, so if you don't want to talk much, don't.

[netmilsmom]

And if mother's would not be brainwashed into thinking that institutionaized daycare is as good as mothering, only the women who really needed it would have children in daycare. When I watched kids, I watched them like a mom. When you stick 2 year olds in a 6 to 1 ratio with an adult, that is impossible.

[Tax-chick]

women actually give up their babies after only six months

You mean six weeks, in many cases.

Some women have no choice, but do they really?

A good question. I hesitate to say "no choice" about just about any situation. More accurate might be "seemed like the best choice among non-very-good options."

Daycare doesn't have to be a disaster. My oldest son went to daycare at 6 weeks (I was putting my husband through college), at a church near my office. They had four babies, and two grandmothers taking care of them. He was happy - smiling when I dropped him off, and still smiling when I picked him up.

We did get behavior problems with our oldest daughter (4 when the Dad finally graduated) because of the large-group situation. I honestly don't think the school could have done any better; a mob of 3-year-olds together 12 hours a day is just not a good idea.

[wizardoz]

Now wait a minute, I dislike this trend as much as the next person, but I've never gotten the impression that the schools can force parents to drug their kids. They can request, suggest, and pressure (and they do) but as far as I know, they cannot force it.

[FourPeas]

First, let me say I agree completely with the author that the government forcing drugs on kids is wrong.

Before I had kids I thought the very same thing about ADHD: it was bad parenting, TV, etc. Then I had my oldest. His doctor has already suggested that he's most probably ADHD (without all the testing, so obviously it's just a blatant guess). He watched NO TV until he was three, then just 30 minutes a day at the most. Many days he watched none. When he was allowed to watch, it was Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Not exactly a bright, flashy, constantly changing attention program. This past March, he and his little brother lost their TV priviledges. Six months later (long, long story), when they were finally allowed to watch TV there had been no difference in his "ADHD-type" behavior.

I am a SAHM who homeschools. My kids don't know what a gameboy is. They spend very little time with computer software. What time they do spend is with educational programs. Still, ny oldest is "hyper". There is an obvious difference between my 5yo and others his age. Anyone who's spent any time around him and other 5yo boys can see it.

Before becoming a parent, I knew that ADHD was the result of bad parenting: ignoring the kids, abusing them, lax disclipline, letting them watch too much TV, bad values, whatever. After living through five years of my oldest, I've had to change my tune. Does my kid have ADHD? I have no idea and I have no plans to pursue that information. I do know, however, that were he in a classroom with twenty other agemates, he'd be the problem kid that made the teacher's life miserable. (BTW, to give a complete picture of my kid, last Friday while sitting on the floor of our kitchen, he easily grasped the concept of multiplication as I was demonstrating the concept of addition to his little brother.)

[netmilsmom]

No, this is great advice. The teacher is a darling really, it's just that quiet is not expected in the school. I constantly say to the teachers, "What can you suggest that we can do to help the situation." and "We want to work with you."
My sister is a teacher and told me about raging parents who get no where.

[FourPeas]

Schools have been known to tell parents that if they want their kid in the school, they must put their kids on stimulants.

[netmilsmom]

Go to the Homeschool Legal Defence Fund website. There have been parents who have been told that if they do not medicate the child, Social Services will be contacted. I'm not sure what state.

[Al B.]

They can request, suggest, and pressure (and they do) but as far as I know, they cannot force it.

A distinction without a difference for many, if not most parents whose only alternative to drugging their child would be to deny them mainstream classes (in other words - alternative schools for "bad" kids or special ed.).

As someone who was offered this set of very bad choices, the pressure to drug your child is overwhelming. In my case, I chose to buck the system, but most parents are not equipped to do that.

Pressure, force......same thing as far as I'm concerned. Apparently, Dr. Blumenfeld feels the same way.

[netmilsmom]

I worked for a Psychiatrist. No one can tell me that there is absolutely NO child who should be on this med.
The problem is the kids who get no attention at home or too much (as in the Little Emperor syndrome) that are being medicated for behavior adjustment.

[FourPeas]

And, this is precisely the reason I will never pursue any sort of ADHD diagnosis for my son. It's like handing CPS live ammo.

[netmilsmom]

How do you afford to be single, homeschool and live in MI?

[netmilsmom]

>>And, this is precisely the reason I will never pursue any sort of ADHD diagnosis for my son. It's like handing CPS live ammo<<

You got THAT right!!!

[Cicero]

There are two questions here. One, what causes the bad behavior of children? Two, do the schools have a right to force ritalin on them without the parents' consent.

I could give some answers to the first question, but the main point at issue is the second. It is a FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT of parents to supervise the welfare and education of their kids. NO ONE has a right to act against their wishes except in those rare cases when parents are truly and hopelessly criminal and abusive.

This fundamental right has, in recent years, repeatedly been confirmed by the Catholic Church. The Vatican has often issued statements to this effect in response to government abuses against parental rights here in America and around the world.

But it is a right recognized by all traditional societies--before the rise of Communism, which argued that the state can do whatever it wants.

[FourPeas]

*grin* There is a Mr. FourPeas.

[Tax-chick]

Your son sounds like my oldest boy (only more so, I guess). We never considered sending him to school. He's a bright, warm, very VERY active boy ... not sick, not disabled ... but an institutional classroom would not be the best place for him (or for others, with him in there!).

At home, we can build up his strengths, challenge him to improve his weaknesses *in an appropriate environment*, and give him as much exercise and hard work as we can find. But boys who are not very different from our son are on drugs, when they have to go to school. The societal fallout of a system that treats normal children as diseased is going to be HUGH :-).

[netmilsmom]

OH I am so SORRY!
I looked at SAHM, did not see stay-at-home-mom but rather Single *something, something* Male. Then I looked at your profile page. Is that Mr. FourPeas?

[AZLiberty]

Another anti-daycare bump. Besides being an incubator for every infectious disease known to man, it breeds violence. My sweet and brainy 2-year-old niece immediately excelled in the scratch and bite lessons.

In this context, consider Marvin Minsky's comments:

It seems to me that much of what we call education is really socialization. Consider what we do to our kids. Is it really a good idea to send your 6-year-old into a room full of 6-year-olds, and then, the next year, to put your 7-year-old in with 7-year-olds, and so on? A simple recursive argument suggests this exposes them to a real danger of all growing up with the minds of 6-year-olds. And, so far as I can see, that's exactly what happens.

Now apply this to 1-year-olds and 2-year-olds.

[ladylib]

They can tell you they will report you to social services if you don't drug your kid. That's force.