Many years ago I taught art in a private elementary school. One of
the boys in the second grade was diagnosed as hyperactive; this was long ago when
this condition was still relatively rare. I loved this boy—he was intelligent
and creative. Luckily for him at this time he had a very wise teacher.
She allowed him to sit on the floor and play with blocks during
class while the rest of the students sat at their desks. She told me that, even
though he wasn’t “paying attention” to the lesson, whenever she asked him a
question he was completely aware of what was being taught. She realized that he
could focus his attention better when his hands and body were engaged in
activity. If she had tried to make him sit still he would have had much more
trouble following the lesson. What was so remarkable to me was not only her
understanding of this boy’s needs, but her ability to explain to the other
children why they had to stay in their seats. I never heard any grumbling about
unfairness.
A few days ago the New York
Times reported,
“Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11
percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” If that’s not bad enough, the
American Psychiatric Association is just about to change its definition of the
disorder, which, the Times article says,
will result in even more children being diagnosed.
Every day I read the blog of Tom Toles, the Washington Post
cartoonist. In
a post this week he casually mentioned that, since he hated sitting for
long periods in meetings, perhaps he had ADHD. “Meetings are a little
like School, which was never a friend of mine. I am a born fidgeter, and about
30 minutes in a chair is about maximum for me. Yes ADD or ADHD or
Addlle-Dee-Dee or what have you. I get bored and restless.”
This made me think: maybe the problem isn’t the kids—maybe our
modern system of work and school is unnatural for humans. Instead of medicating
our children perhaps we should be examining our culture. We’re rewarding quiet,
submissive children who can sit still for long periods of time and punishing
lively, energetic children. Is this really wise? Or does it make for docile
workers?
The NY Times article
quotes Dr. Jerome Groopman, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School and the author of How Doctors
Think: “There’s a tremendous push where if the kid’s behavior is thought to
be quote-unquote abnormal — if they’re not sitting quietly at their desk —
that’s pathological, instead of just childhood.”
Of course there are some
troubled youth whose lives have been transformed for the better by ADHD medication.
What is at issue here is the labeling of twenty percent of our teen-age boys as
diseased.
Time magazine also reported
on the CDC data. Studies have shown that behavioral therapy can be very
effective in treating ADHD, and this means changing more than just the child’s
behavior: “Playing and engaging more directly with children on a regular
basis, for example, tends to calm them down, and setting limits and educating
children about the consequences of their actions can also help.”
How many of the problems that
children have today can be traced to the pressures and stresses on modern
parents? When both parents work, and their jobs require constant connection via
cell phone and email, children are going to suffer.
Of course, writing a
prescription is far easier than reassessing our behavior—that of individual
parents and that of society as a whole.
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