Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Struggling School-Aged Boys

For years I've been saying that school as defined by the public system is not designed for little boys. Rather than being made to sit quietly in desks, punished if they wiggle, little boys need to be running, jumping and creating in their own way - no matter how messy that may be. This is what little boys were made to do; this is how they learn. When are they allowed to be kids? When are they allowed the freedom to explore an idea or a passion? Instead, they are made to conform to a system that cares mostly for standardized test scores rather than the individual success of a child.

Finally, a mainstream media news article that agrees with me. Check it out in Newsweek's article,
Struggling School-Aged Boys. Rather than admit they may have been doing things backwards, the "experts" are now blaming our school problems on an "epidemic" of ADHD. Seriously? That's your answer? Blame it on the child and then medicate him in order to make your failing system look better? No, it is instead an epidemic of over-medicated, over-scheduled children and parents who do not have time to properly parent their kids.

Now I realize there are some children who need the help of medication in order to stay on task. I am in no way minimizing this. Having been a teacher in the classroom, I can say that of my students who were on medication, about 1 out of 10 truly needed it. Many of the others needed a serious lesson in self-control and some parents who gave them the love and attention they were craving.

It's time parents stopped listening to these so-called experts and start listening to their children.


4 comments:

  1. AMEN! I couldn't have said it better myself! Overscheduled children and proper parenting...I experienced that this week when I took Jed to an activity he really wanted to be a part of...I was shocked that the kids were bouncing off the walls,and so disrespectful to their leader and parents, and I am pretty sure my jaw hit the floor when a parent screamed at her child...I was sad, and we will not be adding this activity to our schedule. :)

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  2. In effort to explain myself better: this was an admirable activity, but it was obvious that the boys could not sit for another hour and do something exactly as they were told--as they had already been doing just that for the last 6 hours at school...it seemed it was just another activity for the child and something the parent felt was important for them to be a part of...

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  3. My fifth grade son has a teacher this year who describes herself as "severely ADD." The classroom this year will be much hands-on activity and very energetic. My son couldn't be happier! And I am quite pleased, too.
    As for the ones who really need the medication - as the mother of one of those (not my fifth grader, BTW) - I know there is an epidemic of over-diagnosis, etc. But I am so thankful my son is getting the help he needs with medication.

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