[xrp]

Neal Boortz rags on the Ritalin generation all the time on his talk show. He's absolutely right. Drugging kids is the quick and easy fix for kids who are energetic and imaginative. The teachers don't want that, they want automotons. I was an extremely energetic and imaginative kid and whenever I had energy to burn, my mother would just make me run around the house 10 times. It worked wonders. Nowadays they just pop em full of pills.

Of course, it doesn't surprise me that government employees (teachers) want to force a more docile generation of pansies, err Americans.

[EggsAckley]

Are American children more mentally handicapped than Chinese children? Are they afflicted with a mental disease that is more prevalent in the United States than anywhere else on the globe?

Are Chinese children spending 6, 8, 10 hours a day hooked on Nintendo and television? Hate to answer a question with a question, but this one seems like a no-brainer.

[cyborg]

except for the miniscule percentage of children that actually need ritalin, forcefully pushing 'America's babysitter' is to ignore so many vital social issues on so many levels.

Let's see I can think of a few:
child abuse of all kinds, sexual,physical,etc.
malnutriton/neglect (this can be tied in with abuse)
bullying
parents divorcing
parents drug abusing
parents drinking and other social diseases
basically parents not doing their job, including putting material things/people before their children

[Zipporah]

The violent behavior of elementary school children is beyond belief. I have worked in the elementary schools for 16 years and it's becoming more and more prevalent. Recently I was attacked by an 8 year old child and there was no stopping him.. he was determined. By the time the incident was over, he had hit me at least 20 times .. then hit me repeatedly with an object and head butted me ..all within about 15 mins or less. We have had at least 10 such incidents since September. What the answer is .. I don't know.

I was fortunate enough to meet Sam Blumenfeld about 10 years ago. If the pedagogs had listened to him then, our education system wouldn't be in the sad shape it is today.

[Steve Eisenberg]

The forced drugging of American schoolchildren has become pandemic

If this was true, the teachers unions would have opposed something making their jobs harder and the bill would have been controversial rather than passing 425 to 1. Actually, schools rarely try to force parents to give a drug they don't want their kid to have. This is a feel-good bill for what is not really a problem.

Do school staff sometimes express their opinions on Ritilin strongly? Yes. So do many on FR. That is not forced drugging.

I visited a school where I was able to observe about 500 children doing their morning physical exercises in the schoolyard. I asked my host how many of these children were on Ritalin. He asked me what Ritalin was. He had never heard of it.

Remember the stories about the Chinese kids forced to spend half their school day working, including manufacturer of firecrackers. This is the true sink or swim approach to combatting ADD.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Just found a link that they do use Ritilin in China. Not too surprising since if the generic drug companies didn't have to defend lawsuits, it would be cheap enough even for the poorest to afford:

In China, the same attention deficit problem has been noted, and Ritalin has been used as a therapy.

The link above toots specific Chinese herbal meds for ADD. Probably do about the same as Ritilin.

[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

[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.

[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.

[EdReform]

BTTT

[thoughtomator]

I've been railing against the forced-drugging outrage for a long time. I'm impressed the House took it up. I'm not at all surprised at the list of Democrat Senators who are blocking it.

[StriperSniper]

Democrat members of that committee include...

...something happened to this bill on the way to the Senate. The pharmaceutical and mental-health lobby got to the senators...

...held a hearing to which no parents supporting the bill were invited. The one parent who did attend was one acceptable to the mental-health lobby. That subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Mike DeWine, Republican...

Comming from WND, I can understand why this has a partsan slant whacking the Dims, but it would be far more effective to target the GOP for allowing this to happen.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

The fact that legislation is needed to stop schools from forcibly drugging students is pathetic.

Ninely-nine percent of the time, ADD is simply the normal activity of childhood being confronted by too-busy parents and idiot school officials.

Drugging kids is criminal child abuse and should be prosecuted.

[SSN558]

There are between 4 and 6 million schoolchildren now taking psychotropic drugs daily so that they can attend school.

Many of these children are already pschylogically addicted to speed. The kids trade and sell Ritaln to their friends. A percentage of them will become the future meth freaks of America.

[BBell]

Interesting article. I had not realized it but there is a whole lot more $hit plastered on the walls of my Daughter's classroom then there ever was when I was a kid. I had to look out the windows to be distracted. By the way, I was a ritalin kid when thier weren't any. I was always the only one in the school, and I went to alot of schools before I was out of grade school.